Yin blanched and hid her head.
“Damn it, Val, that’s not how we operate!” Dirk snapped. “Val! Val?”
“He’s gone, sir.” Chris whistled. “Did you see his horse? Blended into the gloom right along with him.”
“Val! Don’t cut me out! We’re a team!” Julia. Too deep a connection they shared for her plea not to reach his heart. But only the soft shadows between the rustling tree limbs heard, their response as silent as the brooding clouds gathering overhead.
Precursors for the storm soon to come.
Time flowed strangely as Val made his way to the ruined village, doing his best to lose himself in the moment, horse and man almost as ephemeral as the rustling leaves, shadows racing across forest and field.
But the scream he heard had pierced his soul.
Dying off to a soft sob before being renewed with such intensity it tore at Val’s heart.
Shadow bleeding tears of wrath.
For Val had been blessed or cursed with perfect pitch, and recognized the odd pitch and treble of those desperate screams.
There could be only one source for those agonized howls.
Throats were being ripped raw with savage desperation utterly alien to beings of such dignity, such brilliance and poise. To inflict such was just as vile as demons of hell tormenting the flesh of the innocent, profaning the serenity of the profound and sacred.
He tried desperately to bury his heart in icy shadow as chill as the cold depths of space.
He failed.
You have embraced your wrath! 60% bonus to all damage and saving throws! Shadowmind holds! - Barely, Val.
An eyeblink of time he did not recall, and his mount was no more.
Gazing upon the makeshift gate leading to the town once filled with picturesque homes and faerie villagers, had now been relegated to soldier’s barracks. The once picturesque gardens had been trampled under armored feet, formerly beautiful homes now stained grey with ash and soot, as if the buildings had aged years since Val’s last visit, not mere days. And by the crude front gate that had not existed even days before, Val spotted a pair of guards off-handedly waving through a convoy of men.
“Damn place is filthy,” one grumbled to another, taking off his regulation helm, rubbing his sweaty face with a rag.
“Yeah, that’s what you get when you tear open an entire mountain and melt processing gear for scrap. The inquisitor’s going to make a fortune, though, and we’re getting hazard pay bonuses. Sweet setup all around, if you ask me.”
“Except for the freaks we found in the cave. Dwarves? Hell those things are ugly, especially their women. Eyes too large, shoulders too damn wide, skin the color of dirt.”
The other snorted. “With brows like primitives. No wonder the masters tried to wipe them out a thousand years ago.”
“Won’t be too long till good ol’ Illgirni wipes em out for good! “
Boosted Psiblade Activated! 200 Psion reserved.
Both chuckled at that, the closest flashing a cruel smile. “I’d love to be in the inquisitor’s shoes for the day. Their women might be ugly, but I wouldn't mind one of them screaming for me, that’s for damned sure.”
His cruel smirk turned to a look of sudden confusion as the ground came tumbling up to meet him, his body collapsing in a geyser of blood a second later.
His partner’s eyes widened in sudden horror. “What the—"
—words turning to an awful gurgle as his throat was torn out in a spray of blood, desperate hands unable to stop the flow as he collapsed to the ground, eyes gazing wide at whatever horror awaited his soul as he slowly crumpled to ash, blowing away seconds later in the quickening breeze, brooding clouds overhead rumbling with the storm to come.
Death’s Kiss activated!
Song of Battle activated!
Sharp and raw came the sudden screams of a girl in torment, cutting through the stifling air as pieces of discarded armor were piled and hidden in the rustling grass just feet away from the hard-packed road thick with shadows bleeding for the screams echoing through the air.
Desperate cries of innocence shattered, lives and homes destroyed by raw greed and darkest avarice, a callous disregard reflected in the jaded ennui of hundreds of soldiers slogging through the former town that was now little more than a military outpost in the middle of nowhere with a mine promising hazard pay for bored soldiers with nothing to do but drink and look sharp for their officers, waiting for their bonuses to come in.
And all they had to do was ignore desperate cries pouring out of inhuman throats. Sub-humans unworthy of a single glance of regret.
So the whispers and murmurs slipping through the gloomy afternoon told, and shadow found all echoes of the idealist once known as Valor freezing to a dark, icy fury squeezing tight to the hilt of his blade, burning into his memory the face of every jaded soldier and guard to scowl at the shadows, none of them realizing they gazed upon their doom.
Death’s Kiss activated! Shadowmind holds! Yet more ashes in the darkness. Right, Val? Carry on!
Slipping past the remnants of armor and ashes blowing away in the breeze, Val found himself before the entrance to what had once been the largest of the clockwork refineries that had given the picturesque town a steampunk air. Only now the magnificent cogs of Elementium-laced bronze had been stripped away, all traces of elegance and wealth brutally torn free.
The building was just a cold bitter shell of what it once had been.
And the sobs Val heard beyond were muffled no longer by storm or distance as shadow slipped inside, Val quickly spotting the entirety of the Skogur tribe in chains. The dozen eldest members of that ancient tribe had been brutally strapped spread-eagled upon metal gurneys fastened to the walls.
Faces once wise and serene had been twisted by terror, fury, desperation, and despair.
Desperately pleading with sneering Dominion soldiers who understood not a word.
Magesight check successful! Greater Artifice skillcheck successful!
A jolt of horror even through the cold depths of the void. Those cold iron chains biting into the limbs of the twelve ancient greenmages were enchanted with eldritch runes. And the ancient wizards who had brought Val back from fatal injuries, joining with him to heal their underground grove together, were reduced to pleading for mercy.
Desperately imploring the Dominion invaders to not violate yet another daughter of their tribe.
No less than half a dozen hard-jawed guards sneered down at the broken tribe, eyes alight with cruel glee they didn’t even try to hide as a man dressed in the skintight battlemesh of an inquisitor gazed down at a desperately begging dwarf chained to an ancient chair of cold iron that radiated magics even more vile than those crackling through the chains binding the entire tribe.
“Your garbled words and pointless grunting is utterly incomprehensible to fully evolved humans, and it seems even simple hand gestures are beyond your primitive intellect!” the inquisitor snarled, glaring his hate into the furious desperate gaze of the dwarf before him, eyes alighting at last with a twisted smile.
“Ah… at last! I begin to see! Your twisted brain is incompatible with one as highly evolved as a true son of Jordia. Only through pain, only through despair, do I begin to break through. You understand me now, yes?”
He gave a satisfied nod, standing upright once more, nodding to one of the armored guards nearby who brought forward an Elementium box with odd reverence as the inquisitor deftly plucked free an orb as dark as the void. Yet it shimmered and sparkled in its depths, as if showcasing all the stars of the galaxy.
“I will speak slowly, so your primitive mind can understand. This orb. You recognize it, yes? Oh, I can tell by the widening of your eyes under that thick brow of yours that you do!” His mocking grin turned to a cold sneer. The inquisitor bent down on his knees, grabbing the elder dwarf by his skull and dragging him close. “Don’t think I am unaware of the bitterness you must feel as I destroy a home you are powerless to protect!” He
spat in the dwarf’s eyes, his victim trembling with inconceivable rage, yet his powerful limbs had been carefully bound by iron and foul magics both, leaving him helpless before the inquisitor.
The inquisitor flashed a mocking smile. “I can only imagine your helpless fury. And how it fills me with glee. You’ve lost, worm. Whatever pathetically droll dreams you had once harbored in your heart, they are nothing that I haven’t taken from you! And unless you want me to take the lives of every single one of the pathetic wretches you call kin, you will open your mind and reveal to me where I can find more of these orbs!”
He smacked the dwarf’s head as he stood up fully, quickly striding to a nearby girl trembling in the chains binding her, eyes wide with horror and despair. “Do you value this wench, you pathetic excuse for an ape? Well, if you don’t want me to do what I did to the last, you will cease your futile resistance!”
The inquisitor roughly jerked the now shrieking girl to her feet, snarling with cruel satisfaction as he punched her in the gut with furious force. She crumpled in pain. He nodded to a pair of the grinning guardsmen, roughly dragging the insensate girl towards a steel gurney.
The stunned girl gave a sudden shriek, desperately struggling to avoid approaching once she realized what they were going to do.
The inquisitor smiled as the pair of troopers ruthlessly beat her into submission, locking gazes with the desperate leader of the dwarven tribe. “I see she understands the fate that awaits her. So I know you must as well.”
An old bronze bar, covered with dust in a corner of the massive gutted chamber that perhaps once had been used religiously to seal the ancient refinery, slipped into its old role once more. The sound of the bar slipping into place, and the soft click a small bronze cube suddenly bearing witness to it all, was nothing compared to the desperate cries only feet away. No guard thought to glance at the entrance, too entranced by the screams of their latest victim as a burly giant of a man brutally shoved a prod into the girl’s side, eliciting a desperate wail before she collapsed, the guardsmen quickly strapping the stunned dwarven girl to the gurney.
“We’re ready, Inquisitor Illgirni.”
Illgirni nodded, pleased by what he saw in the older dwarf’s gaze, fazed not at all by the furious roars and desperate promises the older dwarf implored the Psionicist to accept.
Once more, Illgirni placed before the panicked dwarf an item of incalculable value.
So significant, so terrible, even shadow paused for a single heartbeat before allowing his rage to consume him utterly.
Held in the inquisitor’s hands was a perfect orb of Valorium, sparkling like obsidian with a million flashes of light like fire blazing from its depths.
Absolutely priceless, capable of propelling even dreadnoughts through the dark reaches of space.
A dwarven-made starship core.
Insight check made! You have failed to contain your wrath!
There was nothing more prized in the entire universe, Val had been given to understand.
Realizing he was looking at the power source that had enabled this ancient clan to hide in a time bubble for a thousand years, until their resources had begun to die off, their doom all but assured. Until Val and his friends had intervened, rescuing them as best they could.
Only to find them now in the hands of monsters, more than willing to utterly destroy a clan once innocent of Dominion depredations. Tearing down and pillaging their ancient home even as they locked the survivors in chains, committing unspeakable acts upon desperate victims even now begging for mercy.
The girls terrified screams were too much for Val to bear.
Dominion Soldier Critically hit! Death’s Kiss in effect!
Dominion Soldier Critically hit! Death’s Kiss in effect!
Song of Battle activated!
Your fury has pulled you from cover!
Boosted Mentem-reinforced Synergized Ward activated for 50 mana!
Shadowsplit activated! Critical success!
Inquisitor Illgirni spun around in a heartbeat, blood-red eyes and snarling countenance filled with sudden fury. “Who dares enter the interrogation chamber without my...”
He blinked wide eyes as the last of his men collapsed in a spray of blood, head windmilling a crimson patina across the panicked inquisitor’s face as he desperately pulled free Psiblade and forceshield just in time to meet the storm of death suddenly upon him.
“Dauda!” he hissed. “How dare you interfere. Your defenses cannot hide you from me! I will boil your brain and delight in your screams. Oh, how I eagerly await the day we purge you all from Dominion space!” he roared, lashing out with his mind even as he stumbled back on well-trained feet as fast as he could toward the entrance. “We are under attack! All men report to the interrogation chamber!” he hollered, his voice drowned out by the roars and screams of all the dwarves now struggling against their chains with renewed fury.
Adept Ego Crush has struck for 150 Health and 150 Stamina! Your Tier 4 Synergized Ward reduces 40 points of damage and fatigue! You have successfully saved against paralysis! Stun effects successfully countered by Shadowsplit! - Mentem portion of Synergized Ward is at 50% integrity! There is a reason why Highlords came so close to expunging Mentem mages from existence!
Tier 2 Song of Battle in effect! Greater Regeneration Potion in effect! PRM Regeneration in effect! You are now regenerating 17.56 Health, 16.68 Psion, 18.9 Stamina and 18.9 Mana per second!
Howling with monstrous fury, Val unleashed a flurry of cleaving crosscuts and Oberhau blows, a furious barrage powered by four and a half feet of crackling death, seeking to overwhelm his foe with the raw savagery of his assault.
A barrage the inquisitor before him read perfectly, much as Elise once had, lips locked in a tight rictus of a grin as he lashed out with his mind. He was forced back by sheer savage fury alone, delighting as his foe stumbled for a heartbeat as he slammed Val with Ego Whip, destroying the last of the paltry mental shields surprising to find in a Dauda, but still no match for a true Highlord.
And no matter how powerful the Dauda’s frenzied blows, it could not rupture his forceshield, boosted and angled at the precise instant his foe’s terrible weapon crashed against it, Illgirni steadily retreating, using his blade only to defend, even as he lashed out with his mind against the deliciously vulnerable Dauda, smile widening whenever his foe would grunt or sob as inquisitorial discipline tore apart his opponent’s body and mind.
Illigirni chuckled cruelly, tasting the damage he had already inflicted, his foe a single perfect Ego Crush away from a cerebral hemorrhage that would see his end. But he was forced to hold off with a snarl as the Dauda attacked with renewed frenzy, his massive Psiblade demanding every ounce of the inquisitor’s focus, lest they both die in the same heartbeat.
But no matter, Illgirni could read this vile assassin like a book. He was equally happy to kill with Psiblade as Psionic attack, now that his foe’s guard was suddenly open and the worm could do nothing to counter it! He sensed the Dauda’s attempts to master the bind, knowing his intention was to lever his archaic weapon over Illgirni’s expertly braced Psiblade and shield, leaving his exposed abdomen open to a deliciously vicious disembowelment.
Illgirni flashed a furious grin of victory as he jerked up with forceshield against Psiblade no longer there in the same heartbeat he lunged forward, eager to savor his foe’s dying screams echoing in delicious counterpoint to all the primitive mongrels he would kill!
Blinking in disbelief as inconceivable pain tore through him, stumbling to the ground and shaking in confusion, eyes widening to see his own entrails spooling upon the ground, sobbing with agony as he was abruptly flipped him over.
“How?” he whispered, horrified by a face covered in twisting midnight runes that seemed to damn his very soul. Feeling the last of his Psions drain away, Illgirni screamed in shocked surprise as inhumanly strong hands snapped his fingers like dry kindling. “I read you perfectly! You were going to strike for my head! This is impos
sible. I felt your brain reeling at my blows! Even now, your ears bleed from my Ego Crushes! You should be dead before me!”
Death smiled, silently promising the worst horror Illgirni could possibly imagine. This was Valor Hunter! The Terran gamer who dared the throne! How was he here? How could he possibly defeat an inquisitor reading his blows? No matter his reputation, it was impossible!
Valor did not break his gaze, allowing the inquisitor read his mind, newly discovered Mentem magics now allowing him to do the same. As long as he held their gaze, leaving his Dauda mind utterly exposed to any Highlord who caught his stare.
But he knew the depleted, broken inquisitor would not dare attack.
Within Val’s pitiless gaze, the desperate Illgirni found only despair.
“You split your mind… shadow aiming high, while the boy you once were struck low. No… that makes no sense. There is no such skill! And you are Dauda, yet I feel your thoughts echoing through my own. There is no way you should be able to peer into my mind. Blasphemy. Pure blasphemy!”
Illgirni’s eyes widened as he dared to peer deeper into Val’s mind. “Please,” he whispered. “Not that. Anything but that!” He desperately turned to the shimmering orb that had rolled some distance away, of such stable construction it was all but indestructible, save by shooting one into the sun. “There. Take that. It’s a dwarven starship core. It is priceless. Absolutely priceless!”
Shaking hands clawed at Val’s arms. “That ancient relic could net you near a billion credits, if properly auctioned! Overlords would give you title, land, immunity for all past crimes committed anywhere!” He flashed a desperate smile. “I can taste the healing potion flowing through your veins. But give me one and walk out, and I won’t tell a soul. You can read my sincerity! I will take an oath upon it! But let me live, and no one will even know! I killed the fools who unearthed it, and the men in here are already dead! My master doesn’t even know about the Valorium core I found. It is priceless and untraceable!”
All arrogance and pride melted to pleading desperation as the specter of death just stared. Illgirni blinked away tears of pain and fear. “Please, great and terrible Overlord Hunter. Let me live.” He licked nervous lips as his dying heart pounded, absolutely terrified of what was to come. “I can still read your mind, so I know your power! You can bind me, can’t you? Bind me to serve you, to protect you! You will see I can be of value to you. Great value!”
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