“Oh, I didn’t know that!” The empress said in surprise.
“So how is the queen fairing without her husband? I hear she took Jalara, but it cost her close to ten thousand fools. You’re here so I guess you were part of that mission eh? Shame really, the king leaving his kingdom in the hands of someone who allows emotion to guide their plans.”
Lieutenant Moro spat a wad of blood at Mennalin in response, but it hit a barrier harmlessly. “Bastard. I should have killed you back at the Blazing Trail Inn while your tongue wagged one time too many.”
“Oh, I so enjoy a little show before they scream.” The empress clapped.
“Forgive me, My Empress.” Mennalin bowed. “But I have little left to taunt without boring you. Do you have something specific you wish to learn or…”
“I want to know where they plan on Rex Nattan destroying my Raliea. I want to set a trap and I know enough that this man clearly knows where he plans to do it. But he is quite stubborn and I do not have months or the winter to plan or unravel the spells preventing me from forcing him magically to tell me all I want to know. I must do it soon. He is a tight lipped man and I authorize the use of the same methods you showed me before. I really wish to see him tearing his own muscles. I’ve never heard a sound quite like it and I loved it. I want to hear it again.” She then lifted her hand and held out an uncut ruby. “When he spills what he knows, trap his soul in this for me.”
“By your will.” He said, took the gem and went to the nearest bucket of water.
In a few moments the water was magically altered into the concentrated chemical which made one feel as if time sped up. He could see the empress keeping her eyes on Moro, but he could see she concentrated on the water. Internally he hoped all would work well, but with someone as twisted as Vika, plans could change and no matter what one assumed, she was one not to be underestimated.
“Empress, I see you are quite happy, but I wonder if you would prefer to inflict the pain personally?” Cage said as he returned between the throne and the prisoner. “I believe if you truly wish to experience your desire, you must be the one to do it.”
“Hmmm…” she hummed through her nose while keeping her violet gaze on the lieutenant. “What do you propose, My Subject?”
Yes, play along you psychotic bitch. He thought way off to the side. “Well I can see you love this room. For once I can see you at ease here, not like our first encounter. You are much more beautiful when you do not force a smile for others and I know from experience that joy done vicariously isn’t as memorable as doing it personally. I would hate to have any part of your beauty marred, but if you wish to be fully satisfied I would like to see how you look when you personally get information.”
“How dare you suggest her Grace to touch a heathen!” The largest guard said and appeared almost instantly between Cage and the empress while half drawling his blade while conjuring an angry red flame in the other hand.
“Calm yourself, Guard General. It’s been centuries since I got my hands a little dirty and Mennalin does have a point. I do love torturing fools, but I’ve never used the drug he made. I would like to hear more of how he wishes to teach me his craft. Just look at the prisoner. He’s trembling at the thought of me being the one to gain what he knows.” The guard looked at Moro and could tell the man was outright terrified. Still, he gave a hateful look to Mennalin and stepped aside and returned to his position by her throne. The empress gave a calm signal to approach. “Mennalin, what would you teach first if I was your newest apprentice?”
“Terror and sleep deprivation are the best tools to get information.” He said while standing and looking at the lieutenant without any sign of emotion. “Just the threat of pain makes grown men piss themselves when they cannot think straight. Magic has its uses, but to interrogate ones must be physical and brutal. If all you want is to cause pain, go ahead and use the pain transfer spell that takes the worst pain you’ve ever experienced and gives it to another. You won’t get any information if their pain goes away so quickly. It is an art to gain information. Careful manipulation and knowledge of the human body is by far the most effective. But when time is against us we must employ special tactics. My Empress, what is the most sensitive cluster of nerves?”
She gracefully stood and gave an evil grin, still not looking away from the dangling man. “The optical nerve. I’m done playing, Mennalin.” She licked her luscious lips as if she were hungry. “Give him the drug now.” Her patience was shorter than expected of a four thousand year old woman. She was more a spoiled brat with more power than she deserved.
“As you command.” Like before, Cage opened the vein in the man’s neck and infused the chemical concentration.
Quick as a snake, Empress Vika levitated herself up to eyelevel with Moro and could see the fast acting drug dimming the light in his eyes. She stiffened her index, thumb and middle finger and pushed them forward. She knew that time was rapidly slowing in the man’s mind, taking hours, days and weeks for her perfectly done nails to come ever closer. But he could not blink or breathe as he had become detached from his own body, but could feel everything. Then her fingers reached his eyeball and plunged deep into the eye socket. With a tug along with a slurping sound of suction, the eye was yanked out. She giggled with glee as she floated back, not letting go of her hazel prize. “Ohhh! What a lovely sound.” She truly giggled as she watched Moro’s body suddenly tense and in his agony started ripping his own superhuman muscles, tearing himself out of the chains and falling to the ground. The guards drew swords, but didn’t move right away as they saw that with each ripped muscle, he could move less and less because without muscles, the body cannot move. Moro writhed on the floor for almost a full minute till Mennalin cleared his throat and gestured to the empress as he began to breathe again.
Taking the initiative, Empress Vika landed on her heels and bent low, exposing her ample cleavage to everyone who watched, which was the entire room when they realized the empress was there and laughing merrily. But now her long brown hair hung down the side of her neck as she saw a man who had lost his mind to pain long ago as he lay crumpled, moaning much like a ghost. One good eye moved wildly while the other gushed blood. Her soft voice asked “Tell me where Rex Nattan is planning to destroy my world. He has been quite naughty, trying to take what belongs all to me. Your suffering is going to end just as soon as you tell me where.”
“Deep… Deep down. Core. Close and safe already. Boom! Make crazy whore go bye bye. Take all fools with him. End tyranny by going deep, deep down where none can touch him. No touch. No find. You lose. No more pain?” he mumbled, bloody drool spilling out of the corner of his mouth.
For once since she got in this room, she no longer smiled, she changed instantly into a fit of rage. She screamed, aimed her hand at his and a blast of power completely vaporized Lieutenant Moro, but he wasn’t the only one to be subjected to her tantrum. The blast’s shockwave hit Cage as he was the closest as well as her guards, the dungeon master, the interrogators, prisoners and every piece of equipment. Cage’s staff glowed bright as it tried to block the awesome power, but it was too much. His mind knew he would die as he saw her own royal guard get shredded, their own wards were unable to stop her power or the madness of her snap decision.
His staff broke, but it gave just the millisecond he needed for his mind to connect to his diamonds and turn them on. They came to his call just as he was about to hit the dungeon wall. Blackness cradled him safely right before impact and as it dissipated everyone he saw in the room was dead except for a woman who glowed bright as the sun, but it didn’t hurt to look straight at her. She glared at the crater, her hand still swirling with energy.
But even in her enraged state she felt an awesome power flare to life. It was only for a moment, but to defend against such raw energy, more was needed to hold it off. Her guards, marble throne and every vestige of life was lay still forever more.
And just as quickly as she snapped, she changed again, standing w
arily, as if uncertain and intellectually curious at the same time. “How… How are you still alive. Who are you? What are you? You are not a third class sorcerer are you?”
“Cat’s out of the bag huh?” Cage grinned as he fixed his posture and the part of his mind keeping his Mennalin appearance let go.
Before her very eyes, the empress watched the man in black robes grow more than six inches. His bulky muscles she once thought were magically made for intimidation purposes eased and rested like a sleek cat. He was not overly muscled, more like an athlete’s body that was designed for the very peak of speed, strength and endurance. All awkwardness vanished into a lithe predator and not a groveling idiot. A simple thought shaved his jaw as it reformed into a handsome square one that made a woman’s knees go weak. The empress was no exception. His braided hair shifted from blonde to a thick brown. But it was his blue eyes that pinned her. They changed to black, with no way for her or anyone o see where the iris began or where the pupil stopped. His eyes were of a man who was completely confident of himself and his abilities. A man who never backed down or surrendered. And then her eyes noticed his gray colored magic shift to the opposite of hers. It filled the room with darkness, of death to any who was enemy. Because of the room’s confined space she could not determine his power, but she felt nothing from him. He was like a man who had no power, but her eyes didn’t lie. With his immense power she knew he had to glow, but he used no spell to disguise the power like she did. Once the transformation was complete she reacted instinctively by taking a single step back. “No… it cannot be… you’re… no… how?”
Cage grinned and she knew fear. This grin promised a fight he would not take a no for. “I must say, Vika, you sure are a temperamental woman.” Even his voice smoothed out, but she then sensed a tremendous force explode faster than any sudden spell she ever created. A black dot at his side expanded from the floor to his hip level, rippled till it changed into an image of the white griffin. “Sadly, I’m done playing this game. I originally planned to kill you after you led me to your lair where you keep the Tiaxm, which is what you would have done after you killed a good man.” The look she gave said that was exactly her plan, to show him a little gift for his impeccable behavior. Her frightened gaze watched the summoning circle grow over seven feet as two extra armored figures stood beside the white king. “But since I had no other choice than to save my own ass, you’re, I’m so not sad to say, going to lose.”
Daku walked through the summoning portal while being followed by two men, one carrying an ancient pair of large hammers and a blademaster aiming the Vlaran kingdom’s royal sword passed from heir to heir. The three came into the room, bypassing the city’s wards by using a Familiar’s unique form of summoning. Only a warlock’s unique summoning of his griffin could allow others to climb through and not be stopped by a city’s extensive wards.
“No! You’re both supposed to be dead! Guards!” She at last managed to call while again stepping back.
Both kings in their battle armor readied as King Skylar said “Finally we meet you vindictive harlot. I hereby sentence you to death for the billions of lives you taken, the tens of thousands of my people in slavery, every assassination and cruelty to life on this world.”
The king of Emroc brought both hammers down as he said “Rip and destroy, Havannalan!” the magic inside the hammers slammed down into the inner building, loosening its foundation.
King Tate of Vlara gave a mighty war cry as he put every drop of power into a lunge to behead the tyrant of the world.
She smirked and stepped back into a teleportation sphere. Just an inch from beheading her she disappeared. “NOOO!” he screamed.
“Daku! Scream now!” Cage ordered his partner as he saw the empress’s royal guards running into the room with swords drawn and magic firing at King Tate as they came in, just as he attacked by lunging across the room too.
By the immense power of a white griffin, Daku took in a deep breath and loosed a shrill roar which filled the entire palace, shredding all active magic. In the next breath, after all felt every last vestige of magic vanish, he said “Attack!”
Rex Nattan, connected to his partner the entire time, called his entire militia to action and while the city’s primary defenses were down, thanks only to the white king’s ability to sever all nearby spells temporarily, tens of thousands of dragons and their waiting partners teleported inside the boundary.
Several dragons began destroying every building while their humans leapt to the ground to attack any on the street. So desensitized to the barrage of constant battle to the city they were so startled that so many fighters appeared inside their defenses that legitimate resistance took minutes to gather, but extremely fast and powerful men turned enemy soldiers into halves without stopping while large groups of women condensed their energies with more powerful mages who were born gifted, blew up battle hardened mages.
Before the city defenses came back up Moril, on the back of Xamii, sent the signal and the Utala dove into the thicker danger nearest the palace.
Brooke, on the back of Ulon, engaged a large male. While Ulon used his greater size to pin him down Brooke sent a heart piece to break the gem and followed the attack instantly with a javelin of green energy that bore it way through the extremely thick skull. Poli, Tohka and Meeka acted as support, giving them information by the more efficient heart Brooke grew and put in the core of her tomahawks. A man appeared with a magical spear, intending to stab Ulon, but found instead a hatchet buried to the shaft in his face by a throw enhanced by magic and it returned to her.
But before Rex Shakka could summon her warriors to kill the invaders, after her master arrived in her throne room screaming, Rex Shrral landed right at the top of the palace and hovered while activating a wooden heart more than twenty feet tall. The immense power already stored was used to make a barrier a mile wider than the city’s original. No reinforcements in the first thirty seconds of the attack would be able to get in.
“Hold them off for a few seconds!” Cage shouted after punching the throat of the sorcerer. The guard couldn’t breathe as the pain made him unable to focus. King Tate jumped between Cage and another sorcerer, his wards negating the attack while engaging sword to sword. In two moves the king cut off both hands.
Cage opened his mouth as wide as it could go and his fingers entered a space altered pocket so he could pull out his forest green robe. As he finished he canceled the power to the tiny pocket. He made it so he could keep his gear close, but not have it found so long as he never opened his mouth so wide so the magic wouldn’t be seen. That was the reason for the full beard. It hid his mouth well.
The warlock burned of Adair’s black robe and put his own on. “Battle Mode. Ghosts Bane. Four Kunai.” He said as he finished tying the sash and stuck his hands down either pocket. The robe tightened to his form like a glove. In his right hand came out the pale blade while hanging from each finger were wedged throwing knives. Each throwing knife was sharpened to four microns to give deeper penetration for the heavy front to dig in.
A bubbling laugh made the guards pause, but it was too late as he ran at them, mist coating Ghosts Bane as well as the kunai. They all turned their attacks to him, but not till after he cut down four more men and raced outside the dungeon. At his heels ran three kings who each took out one more guard till their escape was cleared. Just outside, laying in a pool of blood were two more guards at the feet of Zafri who held a bloody knife in each hand. She clutched her abdomen and Lolon was trying to staunch the bleeding.
“Not bad ladies.” And an instant after Zafri’s wound glowed blue and sealed. He looked over his shoulder. “Guys, this is Lolon and Zafri. Lolon, where is…?”
“Your guard, Master?” Lolon thumbed over the stair railing. “I threw him off when he stabbed the woman I love. Master, thank you for healing her.”
“No problem.” He looked up as every mage in the palace was heading to the outer palace wall to fire off defenses. “Vika is still
here… up in her penthouse.”
“How can you tell?” King Skylar said.
“I planted a tracker in her hair just before killing Moro and screwing my plans up. Neither she nor anyone else saw my move. I have to get her and put an end to this now, once and for all.”
“Go!” Daku said and Cage flew up, killing four powerful first class sorcerer’s with the kunai and coating them in black mist to beat their barrier. Skilled throws always penetrated the skull. “King Skylar, protect these two. King Tate, you and I must destroy the city gem. We must be quick and only you can keep up with me.” The two of them dropped over the edge.
“Ladies, remain close to me. We must leave immediately. I’ve set this palace to be destroyed in ten minutes. Your drudgery is now at an end. For your efforts at aiding my friend Cage, you will be rewarded properly. Watch my back and alert me to any attackers. We leave now.” The two women nodded, but then Zafri tore off her dress. As a tribal priestess ready to kill, she would be seen in nothing else before sending he enemies to their deaths. King Skylar approved of the fire fueling the fierce woman. He knew there was no better ally than a tribal warrior and no worse enemy.
Daku and Tate landed on the ground and their arrival within the palace made them pause, but the pair were already on the move. Daku’s eyes followed the city’s power and it was just as Cage had described it. They ran, killing all in their way, around the pillar till his large blue eyes shone after lowering his protective inner eyelid. “There!” Daku pointed to a slab of stone that weighed roughly a ton and a half without any natural means of lifting. Only magic could raise it out, as well as having access, but that wasn’t an issue for a white king. Another deep breath released a louder shrill roar which stopped all active magic within a half mile radius. Those flying magically fell to their deaths. Many dropped like flies at a picnic.
Empress's Endgame (Book 5 and final of the Death Incanate Saga) Page 48