by Josh Powell
She stopped whistling and reverently placed Apocalypse in the hole, covering him with a layer of dirt. She stuck the seed inside, covered it up, and patted the shovel on top of the mound. Then, she waited.
“Who would have thought a magical shovel would come in handy?” she said. A sprout pushed through the ground.
“Apocalypse,” said Ohm. “Where’s Apocalypse? I heard he might be alive?”
“He was,” Pellonia said. “He died fighting the Phage queen.” Ohm’s face fell.
“How tragic,” Arthur said. “And sad.” He looked at Melody and motioned for her to speed things along.
Pellonia held one hand over her mouth and murmured to Gurken, “How long do you think Maximina is going to take?”
Maximina watched as the plant grew from sprout to seedling, pushing dirt out of the way, a spiral unfurling. It grew from a seedling to a young plant; leaves grew and the trunk widened. Roots snaked out, searching out sustenance.
Maximina shoved the frozen Pellonias into her magic sack while she waited.
Arthur and Pellonia stared into each other’s eyes across the ten foot distance between them, searching for the other’s motivation.
“I perceive that you are not attacking,” Arthur said, stroking his chin.
“I perceive the same thing,” Pellonia retorted.
They stared at each other some more.
The plant matured into an adult, growing considerably over a minute’s time. Its trunk solidified and grew to be a foot across, considerably larger than Maximina remembered the ones on the ship. Dozens of branches burgeoned out of the trunk, hundreds of buds developed, blossoming into beautiful vibrant blood-red flowers.
Arthur said, “You’re stalling, aren’t you? Why?”
“You’re the one that’s stalling,” Pellonia accused.
“True, but I’m stalling so that Melody can open the portal. Why would you be stalling? That would only help us.”
Pellonia said nothing.
Arthur smiled. “Your companions aren’t dead, are they? Only delayed, and you’re expecting them soon. Well, we can’t have that. Rufus, kill them.”
“Sire,” Rufus said. “It would be simpler if you would loan, on a provisional basis, of course, the other orbs to me so that I may attach them to Hinenuitepo.”
“To whom?” Arthur asked. Rufus gestured to the beholder.
“Very well,” Arthur said, plucking the orbs from the air and handing them to Rufus, keeping the orb of light for himself. “Just make sure they’re dead this time. Really dead. Dead dead.”
Rufus smiled, “Of course, sire.”
“I don’t want them to come back. I hope I’m being clear.”
“Yes, sire.”
Green fruits emerged from the flowers, and petals fluttered through the air, saturating the cavern in a red blanket, covering everything in a crimson snow. The fruits grew to the size of a dwarven helmet. One of the fruits split open, making a wet splutting sound. Yellowish-orange goo sprayed to the floor and something small but solid fell to the ground. A tiny dragon, no bigger than a hummingbird, fell out. “Rrrrrooooowwwwwwh,” the dragon roared in a cute little voice.
Maximina walked over and picked it up. “Apocalypse! Thank goodness, you’re all right!” She pet his tiny head and fed him one of the scales that had fallen off of his body. Apocalypse took the scale in his mouth and forced it down his throat. It made a small indention as it slid from his mouth into his stomach. He shimmered as tiny scales no bigger than the head of a pin grew out of his skin.
Splut.
Maximina looked over at the sound. Another tiny Apocalypse looked back up at her, covered in the same yellowish-orange goo. Maximina looked up at the tree and saw another fruit had burst. A limb high up rustled, and another fruit erupted.
Splut.
Maximina surveyed the tree in horror as hundreds of fruit shook.
Splut splut. Splut.
The little dragons lunged toward the pile of elven steel scales, swallowing what they could. “Rooowh. Roooar. Rrrrrar.” A chattering cacophony of infant dragons filled the room.
“Hoo boy!” Maximina said, looking at the magic shovel. “This may have been overkill.”
The tiny dragons converged on the pile of scales, devouring it like a pack of starved wolves on a fresh kill. They grew to the size of a hand by the time the pile was finished, then turned to Maximina, yelping for more.
Rufus took the orbs and walked over to the beholder. Gurken raised the axe above his head. “Dwarfen runes, don’t fail me now. I need you more than ever,” he muttered under his breath. He risked a peak at Othala, the dwarfen rune of independence through the release of ideas and things that keep one ‘stuck.’ Nothing.
“Raaaaaaaargghhhh!” Gurken charged Arthur.
“Clem,” Pellonia said. “Attack!”
Pellonia followed Gurken towards Arthur.
Arthur looked disdainfully at Gurken and said, “Lux.” At the intonation of that word, bright flashes of light strobed off of the orb, blinding Gurken. Gurken swung his axe around at random, but unable to see, struck nothing. “Still trying to use the dwarfen runes, are you? I’d have thought you’d have figured it out by now.” Arthur chuckled. “You always were daft.”
“Melody,” Arthur sing-songed. “Are you about finished?”
“You won’t be able to do it,” Pellonia said, continuing to advance while looking entirely unthreatening. “We’ll stop you. Good always triumphs!”
“Of course, you’re correct,” Arthur said. “Good always triumphs. Good, however, is defined by the winners. In this case, I think it fair to say that the Phage are good, and you are evil.”
A burst of purple energy exploded from the Orb of Skzd, a large black disc appearing in front of it. Violet streams of light wafted from the edges of the portal as a light mist drifted out.
“I did it,” Melody said, standing up. “I actually did it!”
“Excellent timing,” Arthur said.
A gargantuan tentacle plunged into this world from the world beyond the portal. Flopping around blindly, it wrapped around Melody and yanked her through. Melody’s high-pitched and frantic scream faded as she disappeared into the portal.
“Melody!” Pellonia shouted, hand extending out toward the portal in a vain attempt to hold onto her.
Two more tentacles wedged their way into the world through the portal, stretching and slipping around, fighting with each other for every inch.
Arthur stepped back a few feet. “I suppose we should have made the portal a touch bigger,” he said.
Everyone scrambled out of the path of the tentacles as the tentacles searched for more prey. One of them struck the Sphere of Annihilation, and the tentacle pulled taut as it was jerked into the sphere. The giant Phage’s brain compressed, squeezing through the opening as its tentacles clutched anything in its reach. It latched onto the other tentacle. Both creatures were ripped through the portal and absorbed into the Sphere.
“You were saying something about the Phage being the good guys because you’re going to win?” Pellonia asked.
“Just give it a minute,” Arthur snapped. Smaller tentacles appeared around the edges of the portal, as smaller Phage climbed through. The creatures fell to the ground. Splut. Splut, splut.
Arthur turned to Pellonia and Gurken, a grin nearly splitting his face in two. “And now,” said Arthur, “it really is time for you to die. Rufus, if you please.”
“I’m afraid not, sire. I simply cannot allow it.” Rufus set the last of the three orbs into the tentacle stalks on top of the beholder. They twitched and dilated. The creature peered at Arthur through the orbs.
Arthur looked at Rufus in shock. “No? What do you mean, no? Never mind, I’m busy right now and will deal with you later.” Arthur turned to the mysterious man in the silken robes. “Kill them,” he said.
The mysterious man in the silken robes reached up and slowly pulled open his hood. A heavy leather cord stitched together his face. O
n the top right, Arthur recognized a hazel eye and the pointed nose of the former head of the wizarding council, a woman he’d killed. Her features were joined on the left side and bottom by other former wizards who had held the seats of power until Arthur killed them as well.
Arthur gulped. “What is the meaning of this treachery?” he demanded.
Rufus closed his eyes and his face melted and stretched.
Arthur sneered. “Intentoque Lux Trabem!” A burning white line shot through Rufus’s head. His face continued to stretch, the beam passing through without effect. Clem strode over to Arthur, ripped the orb from his grasp, and struck Arthur on the head with a meaty fist. Arthur’s head snapped back and he fell to the ground. The lights blinding Gurken vanished and he blinked, trying to regain his sight.
Rufus’s head solidified into that of a large cat. It was Risabh, the man from the house with the picket fence and Clem’s creator. Pellonia’s eyes shot open; her mouth gaped. She looked from Clem, to the beholder, to the not-so-mysterious man in the silken robes. They were all stitched together from corpses.
“I assume you’re not here to help us,” Pellonia said.
“That depends on your point of view. You’re free to go.”
“And the portal?” she asked.
“That,” said Risabh, “must remain open for the time being.” The Phage, which had been so tentative before, now climbed into the world at a furious pace. Splut-splut-splutsplut-splut.
“I don’t understand,” Pellonia said.
Risabh rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’m happy to explain it to you. I would have thought you’d manage to piece it — so to speak — together by now. The more deaths, the more souls for me to collect, the stronger and the more varied I can build my golems. I’m perfectly happy having you fight it out with the Phage, but in order for that to happen, the Phage have to get here first. And here they come.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Berserker and the Orbs
“YOU CAN’T STOP the Phage,” Risabh said. “Don’t worry, I’ll close the portal after a reasonable number make their way through. Can’t have them killing off everyone in this world; what purpose would that serve?”
“We’re going to stop you,” Pellonia said.
Risabh laughed. “Oh, I doubt that very much. On my side are the flesh golem wizard and Clem, plus you’ll have to deal wit—” A short blast of flame from the beholder singed Risabh’s whiskers. “Yes, sorry. Almost forgot Hinenuitepo. She hates that.” The beast glared at Risabh.
Risabh continued, “As I was saying, you also must deal with all these pesky Phage entering your world, and let’s not forget Arthur. You’ve got, let me see, a little girl, an impotent dwarf, and an ineffectual, off-key bard. If you’re ready to die, by all means try and stop me.”
Flames ripped through the air, engulfing Risabh, his golems, and a sizable portion of the Phage. The Phage incinerated, and the golems caught fire. “Hinenuitepo! Please control yourself, I—” Risabh said.
They turned to see a human-sized dragon disgorging a blast of fire where Ohm used to be. It had a leathery hide, but no scales.
“I AM OMUMBOROMBONGA,” the dragon bellowed, her roar echoing through the valley. “APOCALYPSE SHALL BE AVENGED.”
Pellonia smiled. “A bard, you say? I’m afraid we don’t have a bard. Completely bardless. All we’ve got is this here dragon.”
Everyone scattered as the dragon’s flames rippled along the ground, engulfing every surface in a bath of crippling flame. Gurken and Pellonia ducked under the blast and rolled behind Omumborombonga.
“Why’s she so small?” Gurken asked. “She was much bigger before.”
“Maximina has her treasure hoard in her magic sack. When she gets here, we’ll feed it to her and Omumborombonga can reach her full size and strength. There’s no way we can lose after that,” Pellonia whispered, pressing a fist into her other hand.
Maximina dumped the last of Omumborombonga’s treasure hoard out of her magic sack as she backed into the tunnel. Tiny to mid-sized dragons gorged themselves on a golden feast, swallowing gold, gems, and magical artifacts of various enchantments.
Maximina frowned as she reached into the sack and felt around, pulling out the levitation boots, shielding tiara, and wands of light from the elven ship. “Unless I get back on board that elven ship, these are useless,” she said tossing them back into the sack. “I’m out of dragon food. At least we’ve got an army of dragons to aid us.” Maximina evaluated the ravenous dragon horde.
A shimmering metallic dragon the size of a small horse gulped down a pile of amethysts, turning a beautiful shade of metallic periwinkle. Maximina smiled as the dragon sniffed around some more, then looked up at her, eyes burrowing into her. She flashed her teeth at him in a grin. The dragon bared his teeth at her in a sneer, and a tentacle flicked through his teeth.
“Oh, boy,” Maximina gulped, a sinking feeling overwhelming her. She smacked herself in the head. “Oh, no. Apocalypse had been taken by the Phage before he died.” Her face drooped. “The resurrection plant seems to have resurrected the Phage, too.” She scratched nervously at her chest and neck.
She looked beyond the periwinkle Apocalypse, and saw a swarming mass of Apocalypses… Apocalypsii… dragons. They squirmed and fought for every last scrap of the dragon’s treasure hoard and when they were finished devouring it, their heads poked up and turned toward Maximina.
She waved at them, gave a nervous smile, and fled.
Risabh hid behind the beholder, as it formed a wall of ice using a sustained blast from its orb… uh, eye… err, ball thing. Clem stood behind the flesh golem wizard as it enchanted a mystical barrier in front of them using a bony wand. Dragon fire spewed around them, the barriers sparing them from the worst of the flames.
“It’s like that, is it?” Risabh said, exhaling in a reluctant sigh. “Fine, we’ll have to kill you. A pity. Death follows you like a kobold stalks intruders in its lair.”
Risabh waved Clem and the beholder onward toward Gurken and Pellonia, while Risabh and the flesh golem wizard turned to face Omumborombonga.
Clem followed the beholder as it used its magic to protect them from the dragon and floated toward Pellonia and Gurken.
“Clem gonna smash little dwarf,” he growled. Then, more politely, “I do apologize, Gurken, but I am about the business of Risabh and I must kill you. Please understand and try not to hold it against me.”
Gurken stepped to the side several feet so that Clem followed him away from Pellonia. He tapped on Algiz, the dwarfen rune of channeling appropriate energies and the protective urge to shelter others, but the etching on his axe remained fallow. He heaved the axe overhead and swung at Clem in a devastating overhead strike, leveraging the axe’s great mass. Clem caught the handle of the axe with one hand, ripped it away from Gurken, and tossed it to the ground.
Clem cracked his knuckles, picked Gurken up by the beard and slammed his face repeatedly to the ground.
The beholder drifted toward Pellonia, a beam of ice maintaining the frozen wall between it and the dragon. The beholder focused in on her while lightning crackled and fire seethed around the creature’s eye-orb-balls.
Pellonia looked around and backed away, slowly circling around to the portal on the other side of the beholder. She tossed some more salted cod into the beholder’s mouth, which it chewed and swallowed with great relish as it followed her.
Omumborombonga pressed the flesh golem wizard, spewing gouts of flame as it struggled to keep up its defensive shield. The dragon backed them against the portal as Phage poured out, hit the ground, and fried from the dragon’s flame, unable to adapt quickly enough or warn other Phage that had yet to pass through the portal of their impending demise.
Risabh caught one of the Phage as it emerged from the portal, hoisted it into the air, and flung it back through. “That should let them know what’s going on,” he said. Risabh ducked, pulling the flesh golem wizard to the ground as another enormous tentacle pr
essed through the portal, plugging it with its girth, and shot forward, latching onto Omumborombonga, slithering around her neck and body.
The dragon lurched back, tugging on the purple, rubbery flesh. The tentacle stretched taut and yanked, slamming the dragon into the ground. The dragon twisted and shook, trying to displace the creature, but the tentacle held tight, suckers greedily latching onto the dragon’s leathery skin.
The tentacle extended further through the portal, wrapping the dragon in a giant serpentine sphere and squeezing.
“And now that your dragon is all tied up, my dear Pellonia,” said Risadh, looming suddenly over her. “You and your friends are far too destructive to the Phage. I will not allow you to foil my plans.”
Pellonia tried to tumble out of the way, but Risadh caught her by the hair.
Risadh said, “Clem! Put the dwarf down. He’s done for; come and help.”
Clem dropped Gurken to the ground in a bloody, bruised heap. Gurken landed next to Arthur’s unconscious body. Clem walked over, grabbed ahold of Pellonia and, at Risadh’s urging, flung her through the portal.
Well, he attempted to fling her through the portal, anyway. The giant tentacle was taking up quite a bit of room. She bounced off the tentacle and Clem caught her on the return. Next he tried shoving her between the portal and the tentacle, but there was not enough space. Clem pushed on the tentacle with one arm in a vain attempt to create a gap small enough to squeeze a little girl through with the other.
Pellonia squirmed, beat her fists on Clem, and even chewed on his ear. Clem didn’t seem to notice, or to care if he did notice. In any event, he simply did not react.