God Conqueror 3

by Logan Jacobs

  “Hey, thanks,” I said.

  “For what?” the gray-eyed huntress asked in confusion.

  “For acknowledging that there’s a trend of me consistently succeeding,” I replied with a grin.

  Elodette stuck her tongue out at me, in an uncharacteristically playful and very characteristically disrespectful gesture.

  “In all seriousness,” I continued, “it was finding that outpost in Kanminar that gave me hope. We really didn’t find out that much information about Thorvinius’ operations from the evidence left there, but just the fact alone that he apparently depends upon a nerisbane-based drug for transfiguration purposes makes it clear that he’s not as all-powerful as he seems. I mean, it’s the same drug that a fucking local gnomish mountebank uses. Thorvinius’ divine powers might enhance its effect, sure, but it still comes down to a cheap trick. And if we could figure out some way to interrupt his supply? If all his fighters, instead of being those super-powered half-beast mutants, were just ordinary humans? Imagine how much less of a threat he would be.”

  “That’s a good point,” Elodette conceded. “I’d like to see his main laboratory. Based on what you and Lizzy and Willobee said, that one in Kanminar was pretty rudimentary. There must be a bigger one somewhere, to enable him to produce enough of that nerisbane based drug to sustain his entire host of thousands in those altered forms.”

  “I’m hoping it’s here,” I said. “This isn’t his main base. His main base is farther west, closer to back where my old temple is. It’s possible the laboratory is there. But, if he wanted to keep it somewhere more remote, where his chemical secrets would be less likely to be discovered? The Cliffs of Nadirizi might not be a bad bet.”

  “Wonder what became of that stone gnome back at The Cartwheeling Djinn,” Lizzy said thoughtfully. “You think he ever got unstuck once the traffinger-- transmigger-- transjiggeration wore off?”

  Then I shushed her and motioned to both the she-wolf and the centaur to fall silent.

  There it was, through the trees I could see it loom up in front of us in all its red marbled glory, and it towered about two or maybe three hundred feet tall. The ancient cave city carved into the Cliffs of Nadirizi.

  Chapter Fourteen

  They didn’t have any big formations of troops drilling outside like when I had seen this place through the mirror that I found in the fireplace, but there were sentries posted in front of the ground level entrances.

  “I count sixteen,” Lizzy said. “That’s barely bite size.”

  “Okay, but how many doorways and windows do you count in the cliffside?” I asked.

  Lizzy scrunched up her freckled little nose, squinted her bright green eyes, and visibly struggled to count. Finally she said, “I dunno.”

  “Well, that’s how many could actually be watching,” I said. “The sentries aren’t there to stop intruders from entering. They’re just there to sound the alarm for everyone inside. It’s like a beehive the way they have this fortress set up. If we poke it the whole swarm will rush out.”

  “Then what do we do?” Lizzy asked.

  “Let’s go get a closer look,” I said as I pointed through the trees to a cluster of large boulders. “If we circle around counterclockwise and stay under the tree cover, I think we can get to that point there without being seen.”

  We proceeded to do just that. Lizzy made me the most nervous, because she was more of a crash-through-the-brush type than you’d really want to have next to you for this type of thing, but she did tolerably well. At least she was in her human form. If she had been barging around as a giant wolf, we never would have stood a chance. Elodette, of course, had the seemingly supernatural ability to transform herself into an inconspicuous shadow despite her tremendous mass.

  We had barely reached the boulders when I heard agonized screaming and angry shouts erupt about twenty yards from our position. Lizzy, Elodette, and I exchanged glances. We slid our way around a few boulders and trees in the direction of the noises until we could peek our heads out and see the source.

  There was a chained crew of about thirty prisoners, guarded by about a dozen Thorvinians. With a start, I realized that I recognized a few of their faces. They were from the drugged-up village presided over by the god Ukalion.

  The source of the screaming was the scrawny red-haired guy that had been the first person we encountered there when he came up to warn us about the impending approach of the sinister fey folk, who turned out to be a delusion, unless of course he had somehow been referring to the Thorvinians. In which case, he had clearly been more prescient than we had given him credit for.

  It looked as though he had attempted to make a break for it through the trees, and now three of the guards were standing over him, and one of them was applying some sort of rod that seemed to have an electric charge in it to his neck while he thrashed on the ground.

  “What do you think they’re doing with them?” Elodette asked me. “I didn’t think the Thorvinians took any prisoners. I thought they slaughtered everyone.”

  “So did I,” I said. “But maybe it depends on the current needs of their organization? They look like they intend to make some kind of slaves out of them.”

  “I didn’t think the Thorvinians kept any human slaves,” Elodette said.

  “…Maybe they don’t keep them human,” Lizzy replied. That was my thought exactly.

  “This is my way in,” I said. “While they’re distracted by that red-haired Eukalonian.”

  “But the sentries by the doors aren’t distracted,” Elodette said.

  “But the sentries will let the guards pass of course,” I said. “So all I need to do is--”

  “Oh no, that’s a dumb idea, Vander,” Lizzy interrupted. “You’re just gonna get zapped with that zappy thing-- and then probably dismembered-- and then probably brought back from the dead as some kinda slave-beast--”

  “First of all,” I said, “I think you’re underestimating me. Second of all, whenever the situation hits a real crisis point, I can just reassimilate this self, no problem. This is a perfect chance to see the inside of the fortress before I commit my forces to any kind of battle plan.”

  “Hmm, I don’t like it,” Lizzy said. “Want me to go with ya?”

  “Nope,” I said. “You’d just get zapped with that zappy thing, dismembered, and then resurrected as some kind of mutant slave. No way. But I can just reassimilate. So once I’ve seen what I need to see, I’ll meet you both back at the camp. For now, head back there to reconvene with the others and my other selves can keep you updated.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Elodette said.

  “Of course it does,” I said. “I thought of it.”

  “Don’t get cocky, human,” Elodette warned. “It’ll be the end of you.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe it’ll be the end of this body, but I have four more. Just be careful getting back, okay? Don’t get caught. Keep Lizzy quiet.”

  The she-wolf narrowed her green eyes and made some kind of sarcastic retort, but I never heard exactly what it was because at that moment the unfortunate red-haired Eukalonian burst into ear-splitting screams again as the guards applied their torture device.

  While they were doing that, I quickly scrambled through the rocks and darted from tree to tree and managed to dive into the middle of the miserable, trembling crew of captives without the guards seeing where I had come from.

  The Eukalonians stared at me wide-eyed in bewilderment and fear. I had seen a couple of them in the streets of their village, but I didn’t think they recognized me. Besides, they had other matters on their mind at the moment. I put a finger to my lips to motion to them to be quiet. They seemed to decide that if I wasn’t a Thorvinian, then I had to be better than the Thorvinians, and they weren’t going to interfere with whatever the hell I thought I was doing by jumping into the chain gang with them.

  Soon after that, the guards finished working over the red-haired attempted escapee and hauled him back over as a gibbering
, tear-streaked mess to chain him back up with the rest of us. I, of course, was not chained. I just slumped over and stared straight ahead with a glazed over expression in the hope that they wouldn’t notice me. It seemed to work.

  “Okay, fun time’s over, move it, slugs,” commanded a diabolically horned Thorvinian who seemed to be in charge of the rest of the guards. His voice was actually quite melodic and pleasant and completely at odds with the tenor of his comments.

  The prisoners obediently started trudging again and clanking as they moved, while the guards strolled alongside the huddled knot of Eukalonians, with me in the very middle.

  We were only about a quarter mile from the fortress. I thought my plan was going off without a hitch so far, except for when I accidentally trod on my neighbor’s foot and whispered, “Sorry!” He seemed so miserable that he didn’t even notice having his foot stepped on, though, much less acknowledge my apology.

  Then, a Thorvinian guard who mostly just looked like an exceptionally muscular human man except that his eyes were like a panther’s focused in on me, pointed at me, and asked the other guards, “What the fuck is this one?”

  “What do you mean?” another Thorvinian responded. “Human, unchanged, just like the rest of ‘em.”

  “Eukalonian?” the panther-eyed guard asked.

  “That’s where we got ‘em from, ain’t it?” asked the same Thorvinian.

  “You sure?” the panther-eyed one asked. “How come he’s not chained then? How did that happen?”

  A troll-looking Thorvinian started pointing at each of us in turn as he laboriously counted out loud. He kept getting the numbers mixed up and having to start over though. “Thirty-three,” he announced finally. “We got thirty-three. No wait, thirty-four with the new one.”

  “What the hell do you mean, the new one?” the panther-eyed guard snarled. “We’re not supposed to have a new one! When did we get a new one?”

  The troll-looking one pointed at me. “That one, the unchained one, he’s new ain’t he?”

  The panther-eyed one grabbed me and yanked me out of the crew by the scruff of the neck. The rest of the guards stopped to let him interrogate me. “You, who are you?” he demanded.

  “Bill,” I said.

  “When did you get here?” he asked.

  “When you captured me,” I said.

  “We captured you?” he asked. “But we didn’t chain you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said as I tried my hardest to look extremely stupid. “Can I go home, please?”

  “No.” He slapped me across the face. “You’re lying. We didn’t capture you. I don’t remember you. When did you get here?”

  “I don’t know… but can I go home please?” It occurred to me that a lot of the Eukalonians didn’t seem to have full brain function anymore due to their chronic drug use. “The fey folk are coming. If I don’t go home soon, they’ll get me. Who are you? Aren’t you afraid of the fey folk?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about, you brain-dead moron?” he yelled. “How the hell did you get here?”

  “I think we probably just nabbed him with the others and forgot to chain him?” the troll-looking guard suggested. He seemed to be getting nervous about his fellow guard’s rising level of agitation. “I wouldn’t worry about it if I was you, they’re all gonna get changed anyway and then it won’t matter none where he came from.”

  The panther-eyed guard was still staring at me and didn’t seem content at all with that reassurance. He began to ask, “But what if he--”

  “They’re right there!” I whimpered as I pointed into empty air. “I see them. They’re eating my soul, they’re eating it with a spoon, I can see them but I can’t make them stop!”

  The troll guard started to giggle uncontrollably.

  The panther-eyed one gave him a dirty look, and he shut up, but all the guards seemed reassured by my performance. I stuffed my hands in my mouth and started shaking my head back and forth and generally tried my best to look like a drug-addled lunatic.

  “Yeah, let’s just get ‘em inside,” the panther-eyed guard sighed, and the whole crew started moving again.

  I could tell that the suspicious guard was still watching me, so I kept muttering things like, “The yellow boot first. I promise.” and, “But if it were your mother’s apple pudding, then what, eh?”

  They led us over to one of the doors and exchanged waves with the sentries as we passed by. Inside the fortress of Nadirizi, the passageways were extremely narrow and snaked through the rock in the most circuitous and dizzying ways. The other prisoners’ feet were chained, which made it even harder for them, but the guards led us up and down stairways anyway, and sometimes we even had to crawl on our hands and knees. The troll guard and a couple of the other larger ones, I had noticed, left us through side doors early on. I guess there were probably multiple ways to get to any given location within the fortress, but only some were accessible to creatures past a certain girth.

  I could see the defensive advantages to occupying a labyrinthine fortress like this, though. No stranger would be able to figure out where he was going, and there were a million points at which you could easily cut off access. There were even giant round stone doors just waiting to be rolled into place and block off passageways. I tried to memorize the way we had come in through the outside, but after a while I lost track of the countless turns despite my best efforts. If not for my ability to reassimilate my selves, I doubted I ever could have found my way out again on my own.

  I wondered, however, about ventilation. This far into the rock, with no direct access to outside, surely you’d run out of air, eventually. So there had to be shafts cut in somewhere. I wondered where, and if it might be possible to drop some kind of explosives or poison gas or something down those shafts.

  Then I was jolted out of my speculations when we arrived at a chamber of unprecedented size. I couldn’t imagine how long it must have taken to carve something of such vast dimensions out of solid rock. It was just as large as the great hall in my temple.

  All along both sides of this hall, there were rows of shackles bolted into the wall. At the far end, there was a low door with a grate set into it. It was the first wooden door I had seen inside this fortress, all the other doors had just been open doorways. The guards led, or in some cases dragged, me and the Eukalonians over to the shackles and clamped us in. I didn’t resist, because I wanted to learn more about whatever process was about to take place.

  I was near the middle of the crew, so I ended up being placed third from the far end of the hall on the second side. Then, it was the guy in front of me that they dragged through the wooden door first, so I realized that I was third in line. The chamber beyond was dimly lit, so I didn’t get a good look at what it contained before the door slammed shut behind the Thorvinians and their first victim.

  What I was expecting to hear afterward was the agonized screams of the poor guy getting zapped or worse, but the sounds that issued through the wooden door turned out to be something completely different.

  It was an eerie sort of chanting in some foreign language that maybe Willobee would have recognized or been able to decipher, but that was absolutely incomprehensible to me. It went on for probably about two minutes. Then I heard a high-pitched yelp, whether of pain or just surprise I wasn’t really sure, and a flash of sickly green light flooded the hall where we were all shackled through the grate in the door. It subsided just as fast as it had appeared, but it got all the captive Eukalonians even more agitated than before.

  Then I distinctly heard a voice intone in the common tongue, “You now serve the lord Thorvinius. Bone and blood, sinew and spirit, he empowers thee and thou art beholden to him.”

  Well, that didn’t sound good. I guess it would explain why we’d never noticed any human captives getting dragged around by the Thorvinians before, if they had just been turned into more mutant slaves indistinguishable from the rest of The Devourer’s host. I wondered how many voluntary followe
rs Thorvinius had, if any.

  Then, and only then, did I hear the kind of screaming that I had expected in the first place start. I wondered why the guy was getting tortured now, if he had already been declared a servant of Thorvinius and was no longer an enemy prisoner.

  Then after a minute the screaming ceased, the door opened, and a horrifying answer to that question walked out.

  Scuttled out, to be more precise.

  The Eukalonian prisoner had been transformed into a giant, hairy black spider from the waist down. From the waist up he was mostly physically unchanged, except that his eyes had been blue, and now they were a glaring red.

  The other shackled prisoners started screaming and sobbing when they laid eyes on their companion.

  “Eukalion defend us,” some of them begged, even though their god clearly wasn’t doing shit for them.

  Others addressed the newly transformed spider man directly.

  “Alan!” a woman shrieked. “Alan, it’s so horrible, how could they do this?”

  “Alan, we’ll find a way to reverse the process,” an old man shouted at him. To me that seemed optimistic to the point of delusional, but I appreciated that at least the old man’s spirit hadn’t been broken by the depravities wrought by the Thorvinians.

  Alan, however, did not respond to the distraught Eukalonians in kind. Instead, at the bidding of his former guards and now, I supposed, fellow worshippers of The Devourer, he proceeded to unshackle the next captive right before me as the man fought him with all his might, to no avail. I noticed that even though the human portions of Alan’s physique hadn’t visibly changed drastically, and he didn’t look any more muscular than the man he was fighting, he seemed to control him with an ease that suggested a deceptive and disproportionate level of strength.

  “Alan, please don’t do this,” the man choked out. “It’s me, it’s your cousin, Max. You know me. We grew up together. Don’t let these monsters do-- what they did to you-- to me too. You’re strong now, they made you strong. Use your strength to help us! Fight for us, your fellow Eukalonians!”