by Ren Ryder
The imperial palace was a shining landmark overlooking the city. Composed of many buildings and sporting domed architecture painted in liquid golds, the sprawling grounds covered the entirety of the plateau it was seated upon. The roofs and eaves were decorated with floral designs, and sported carved stone figurines of thick-maned lions.
An open-air garden of flowering trees, bushes, and other greenery dominated the central square that most of the buildings butted up against. Numerous alternate residences, outbuildings, courtyards and temples were scattered across the grounds.
Fifty-foot high, ten-meter thick walls and a moat surrounded the palace’s exterior. Eight towers built inside the walls clawed at the sky, providing an unobstructed view of New London. None of the palace’s state-of-the-art defenses did anything to hinder the Duke’s horde of monsters.
“There,” I pointed.
A hole had been blasted into one of the gold-painted domes. Golden rubble riddled the building’s interior. It was tough to make out from above, but I glimpsed the remains of whatever poor guards had been on duty inside the chamber when the roof caved in.
I used my pointer finger to spin my ring of shadows around my thumb. “Take us down.”
The thick shadows curled around my left arm tensed, then the djinn’s wings curled up and we dove straight down. Bell was torn off my shoulder during the high-speed maneuver, lost in the sky above. The djinn spread its wings out to slow our descent at the last moment, dropping us inside the dome and gliding into a smooth landing atop the rubble.
I skittered to a stop, hopping from one hunk of rubble to the next. The shadowy wings retracted into themselves to be absorbed by a hungry mouth that sprouted from my ring, but the djinn left its dark tendrils wrapped up and around my left forearm and bicep. I shook out my aching arm, feeling my shoulder move back into place with an audible pop.
“Thank you,” I said to the djinn.
The shadows wrapped tighter around my skin in response, and my thumb ring hummed.
Bell dive-bombed into the chamber and flitted over to my side. “Hold up flyboy, wait for me!”
Bits and pieces of the defending force lay strewn about the chamber, lit in the eery warm glow of lamplight. The rich purple carpets and finishes adorning the interior were splattered with fresh blood stains. Moving my attention across the room, my eyes locked on a massive throne that dominated the back of the chamber.
Bell sneezed. “This place is a mess. So much for ordinance shield.”
I hopped down off the pile of rubble, kicking rocks out of my path on my way to stand before the New London’s seat of power. Armored guards bearing the lion-headed imperial insignia had the chest pieces of their armors ripped open and their innards eaten out. Severed heads had rolled across the carpeted floor, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. I crouched down to close the eyes of a fallen soldier with shriveled skin and a desiccated body drained of blood.
“Are we too late?” Bell asked, her eyes glowing in the dim light.
I cocked my head, listening to the echoing silence. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
The throne itself was fashioned from a single block of bright white granite with sparkling purple veins interlaced throughout. It stretched twenty feet up into the air and was big enough to make a dwarf of whoever sat upon it. The throne was devoid of creature comforts like pillows or a cushioned seat-back, and its only embellishments lay in twin purple eight-pointed stars carved into the face of each arm.
I reached up to rub my palm against the emblem of the enforcers. A shock ran through my hand up my arm as the symbol glowed bright purple in reaction to my touch. With the sound of grinding gears, a square wedge of the wall beyond the throne spun off central hinges fitted onto the wall, revealing a dark hideaway.
Bell buzzed over to the entrance. “A hidden room! So cool~”
I walked over to get a better look. “It’s a safe room.”
“You think they had a chance to use it?” Bell asked.
“I doubt it.”
I walked inside the safe room. The walls were bare unfinished concrete. An old sofa was positioned in the far corner atop a dusty, dirty rug. A big box of matches and a jug of kerosene lay in waiting for the unlit torches deposited in wall sconces about the room.
I scrutinized the only splash of color, a landscape painting of the twinkling city of nighttime New London, viewed from the palace. A thundering sound echoed through the small chamber, shaking the painting in its mounting brackets and sending dust flying. I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face.
“Where’d that come from?” Bell asked.
“Let’s find out,” I said.
I drew my sword and slashed the painting in two diagonal arcs, forming an “X” in the thin canvas. I poked my hand through and pulled apart the canvas to reveal a hidden passage. Whether the tunnel led deeper into the imperial palace or served as an escape route, I was certain there was fighting on the other end.
Since the space was so tight, I sheathed my sword before stepping inside the tunnel. I took a few cautious steps forward, alert for any traps. My eyes adjusted to the dim quickly, and I stepped up my pace as hoarse cries and rumbling explosions echoed down the tunnel.
I rushed through the claustrophobic space, following its twists and turns while hardly slowing my headlong rush. I went down a flight of stairs only to climb back up a few flights later on. Rounding another corner, I found the near pitch-black space pierced by a warm ray of light. Tamping down on the eager part of me that wanted to burst out of the tunnel straight into a confrontation, I approached with caution.
A thundering boom shook the walls of the secret tunnel. To hold myself upright I pushed against the walls with both of my hands, shaking my ringing head to clear it. Bell zoomed past me to put her face against a small hole hidden in the wall.
My sylph familiar turned around and shook her little head side-to-side, her eyes wide.
“What is it?” I asked in an urgent whisper. “What did you see?”
I shouldered into the confined space at the tunnel’s terminus and put my eye up to the peephole. What I saw made me sick. I wanted to shrink away and hide in the dark for eternity, but my eye was glued on the scene transpiring on the other side.
The emperor’s living quarters. A set of interconnected rooms with high, vaulted ceilings and wide open spaces that could fit a ballroom full of guests several times over. There were lounge spaces packed with plush furniture and the area was decorated with priceless artifacts. In a separate space beyond, a glittering translucent curtain separated the entertaining room from the imperial bedchambers.
“We might be best served walking away from this one,” Bell murmured.
A huge force had assembled in the emperor’s quarters to make their last stand— and been decimated. Hundreds of bodies lay prone or supine on the floor, ripped apart by tooth and claw. Vamps crouched over bodies, slaking their thirst on the fallen. Patchwork chimeras roamed the space, clawing up the walls and furniture, tearing down banners and shattering decorative pieces.
Several humanoid monsters were doing unspeakable acts, desecrating the corpses.
What looked like the last dregs of the defending force rallied at the chokepoint separating the emperor’s bedchambers from the main entertaining room. As I watched, the griffin snaked its claws through the curtain and snatched up a screaming enforcer before biting his head off. The manticore shook the walls with its howls.
Duke Maddox lorded over the space as if he had already claimed what he saw as his birthright, his naked black form standing tall amongst his monstrous horde. The glittering winged chimera pendant he wore around his neck glinted as he paced back and forth.
“Emperor, I suggest you make the rational choice. Abdicate the throne in my favor and I’ll suffer you to live in exile,” the Duke said.
“I—” a voice cracked.
Captain Reid stepped out from behind the curtain. “Regulus. I will not see you installed as emperor while I’m al
ive. I won’t allow it.”
“So you finally show yourself, yellow-bellied Reid. Allow me to provide a simple remedy for your concerns,” The Duke flipped four thumbs down at the enforcer captain. “Tear him to pieces.”
Captain Reid stepped up alone to confront the monstrous Duke. The commander of the enforcers shone with translucent power. He possessed such a brilliant strength that I felt my hopes rising. Moving like quicksilver, the captain went toe to toe with the manticore, dodging its stinger and navigating its claws like it was his plaything.
Then the Duke stepped up, and, casual as can be, flicked the captain across the room. The captain hit a wall and burst through it to sail through the air and crash to the ground outside the palace.
Just like that, my hopes were dashed.
Duke Maddox wiped off his fingers on a fallen soldier. “Well, now that the trash has been taken out— it’s past time you made your choice, emperor. Die here, or submit to me.”
A long, pregnant silence filled the room.
I ran my hands up against the wall, feeling for anything out of place. There had to be a lever, a button, something… my questing fingers felt an abnormality, a raised section of the interior wall that felt off. I put some silent pressure against it, and the button depressed.
Bell alighted on my shoulder. “Kal, are you really planning on going in there?”
I gripped the rolling door with my fingers and slid it open a crack. “What do you think?”
“There’s too many of them! And the Duke is a monster without peer! Don’t you get it? You’ll die. You’re going to die!”
“Maybe so.” I sighed. “What do you want me to do, Bell?” I asked.
Bell grabbed onto my ear with both hands and spoke into it. “The human world can burn to ash for all I care! Don’t throw your life away for some royal dingbat you’ve never met. That emperor is as good as dead.”
I shook my head and growled under my breath. I opened my mouth wide and looked over to say some harsh words to see Bell had tears streaming down her face. Clacking my jaws shut, I swallowed the hurtful words that I knew I’d regret saying if the worst were to happen.
“I’m sorry, but you have to understand, Bell— this is something I have to do. I have to end this. I have to end him— that monster.”
“Kal…” Bell trailed off in despair.
I patted Bell on the head. “Don’t worry, this isn’t a suicide mission.”
I drew my sword in a whisper of steel, holding it close to my body in the tight space. Closing my eyes, I focused inward, letting my source pull me in. I went deeper, submersing myself in the deep well of mana dwelling inside me. Then, like opening a floodgate, I unleashed every last drop of my power, letting it crash into my body like a tidal wave.
Wrangling the massive influx of energies, I guided the mana into my mana channels. My bones creaked under the strain and my skin turned paper-thin as I strained to put the power to use. Hyperventilating, I relieved some of the pressure by filling Bell’s sigil and my sword to the brim. A whirlwind picked up around me and a massive unpolished wind cyclone grew out of the blade.
“Kal…” Bell trailed off, sounding worried.
“I— I’ve got this,” I stuttered.
There was still too much power crashing through my body. I felt like I’d lit a fuse and my body was the gunpowder. Sweating buckets, I cycled the mana around and around my body then pushed some of the out of control energies into my aura.
It wasn’t enough. I had to release some of it, or I was going to blow.
I rammed open the sliding door to the hidden tunnel with my shoulder, knocking it off its hinges and sending the door flying into the room beyond. The door flipped on end and skittered across the floor until it hit something. An unlucky vamp exploded in a cloud of entrails and blood mist.
Stepping into the room, I gripped my sword-hilt in two hands, my blade pointed behind me. Filling my sword with overflowing power, I formed a three-meter blade of wind and struck amongst the massing chimeras. I bisected three beasts with one blow, and then I was amongst the horde.
“For the record, I’m against this!” Bell summoned a mass of wind spears and shot them off one by one, dispatching an enemy each time.
My vision swam as I tore apart the ranks of monsters with my flashing sword. As patchwork humanoids clambered over their dead to get at me, I released a shockwave of wind that sent furniture flying and chimeras tumbling backwards. As my wind blade shrunk and the whirlwind surrounding me waned, I pooled more power into my sigil and sword to finally feel a sense of relief.
I had the power under my control now. Breathing heavy, I held my sword at the ready, dropped myself in a stance, then focused my eyes on my true target: Duke Regulus Maddox. My vision narrowed in on the monster.
Seeing me, the Duke didn’t bat an eye. “Specter. You should be dead.”
Sending out a blast of wind behind me, I catapulted myself through the air. Screaming, I poured all my feelings into my sword and swung my blade straight at the monster’s head.
In the moments it took me to fly across the space, the Duke ripped out one of his bone spines and grew it into a sword. Our blades crashed midair, and both of us were blasted backwards.
Regulus yawned. “This is all rather pointless, don’t you think? I’ve already beaten you once tonight, what’s once more?”
I hit the ground in a backwards slide. As soon as I came to a skidding stop, I leapt back into the fray, ignoring two nearby vamps reaching out for me. Rushing the Duke’s position, I refined my wind blade to be thin as a sheet of paper.
“Die!” I yelled.
The Duke laughed in my face. “I’m quite sure that’s impossible.”
I set my teeth. “We’ll see about that.”
Rushing into range, I slashed at the Duke’s face, aiming to remove his head from his body. Regulus met my attack with his bone sword. My wind blade sliced through the bone sword without slowing, and Maddox bent back out of the way of my arcing blade. I cut into the monster’s beefy neck.
Too shallow.
An object pinged off the ground, bounced, then clattered to the floor. Both Maddox and I followed the sound to its source: the winged chimera pendant with its glowing yellow eyes. The two of us looked at each other, both coming to the same realization simultaneously.
“Bell! The pendant!”
Bell swooped down to scoop up the pendant while the Duke raced to beat her to it.
I lowered myself into a stance and lashed out with my sword, cleaving through the trunks of the monster’s legs. The Duke crashed to the ground, his four arms flailing for the pendant, but it was just out of reach. Bell zoomed an inch above the ground, grabbing the pendant in both arms and carrying it out of range.
The Duke reached for his dismembered legs, screaming in rage.
“Bell, it’s a command device!” I told her.
“Oh, so that’s what this thingy does?” Bell fondled the pendant. “Eat your monster daddy up!” my familiar commanded.
I leapt back out of the way as the horde of vamps and chimeras dog-piled the monster that created them. I watched in horrid fascination as the patchwork humanoids, winged hounds, and vamps tore the Duke apart. The manticore swished its scorpion tail and struck into the mass of bodies with its tail, burying its stinger in Maddox over and over.
The Duke leveraged his djinn’s powers in his defense to create a blanket of black miasma that spread out across the room. The monster horde stopped in its tracks, stalled by the psychic attack.
“Your turn,” I thumbed my ring of shadows.
A hungry mouth formed, ballooning in size until it was almost my size. A black tendril of energy grew of the ring and it took its heading like a dog on a leash, devouring the blanket of miasma faster than it could form. When the miasma cleared, the monsters returned to their feast in a renewed frenzy.
Bell’s tinkling laughter filled the air. “Now each other,” she commanded.
At Bell’s command, t
he chimeras and vamps turned on each other. The manticore was brought down by a pack of winged hounds. Vamps tore the throats out of patchwork humanoids, only to be pulled by many hands into the embrace of other horribly deformed chimeras. The monster horde ate itself alive.
Silence reigned.
“Did we do it?” Bell asked.
I looked around, then nodded. “It’s over.”
Bell dropped the winged chimera pendant and squealed. “We did it~”
All that was left of the Duke was a head connected to a brutalized torso showing bone and sinew and covered in black ichor. Black tentacles writhed out of the limbless torso, reaching for some impossibility.
“Specter,” The Duke spat. “You think this is over? This isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning.”
The Duke’s pupil-less black eyes were full of bottomless hate as I moved to stand over the monster. Our eyes remained locked together as I slashed my wind blade through the monster’s meaty neck. Its head rolled past the glittering curtain into the emperor’s bedchambers, leaving a trail of black sludge in its wake.
Bell winged to my side and landed in my shirtfront pocket, looking spent. I smiled as she curled up and started snoring up a storm.
I pushed aside the curtain and put a boot on the monster’s skull, spinning it so I could see its eyes. “You’ve lost, Maddox.”
The Duke spat black blood onto my boot. “You can’t kill me. I am immortal, endless— Ouroboros. Neither man’s machinations nor the passage of time can constrain me. I will haunt your eternity with my life, and bring death to all that you care for.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said.
“You think you’ve freed Samantha, don’t you?”
“I have freed her. From you,” I said.
“Oh, you’re so, so wrong. Samantha is already a monster. I needn’t be around to assure myself she will embrace her darkness. Mark my words, Specter.”
I unbuckled my cloak and threw the living fabric over the Duke’s head just to shut the monster up. My cloak wrapped itself tight around the monster, effectively muzzling it.
I started to look up when I heard the sound of someone shuffling about inside the bedroom.