Chapter 15   Welcome to the Labyrinth   author: Veyanne - yellow , Overlord - red , Blackguard - violet , Temptress - orange  

When the overlord returned in the thopter, his men were already engaging the thermal lance to penetrate the earth. The ground boiled and rose, then it fell apart and a large hole appeared. The thopters dove right in until they reached the underground corridor. The soldiers leapt out and prepared the hover-platforms. The overlord stepped on and they took off, shooting through the hallways towards the homing beacon ahead.

In the back of his mind the overlord heard a faint voice. It was the sorceress.

"You see, he still believes."

Was she talking to him? He didn't know. Then he heard a second voice. It was that obnoxious satyr.

"He said 'mind', not 'soul'."

"Oh please, you know what he meant.", the sorceress' voice replied. "The mind is flesh and blood, and mine is dead. He believes differently."

"That doesn't make him a theist you silly girl.", sneered the satyr.

"No. It doesn't.", she continued. "But I feel he is. Some believe in God because they need to love him. Some believe in God because they need to hate him."

The overlord got angry. "What a bunch of crap.", he thought.

"So the leader of the EAC is really a theist?", the satyr asked mockingly.

"In a sense.", the sorceress replied.

"Get out of my head you bitch!", the overlord screamed in his mind.

"Hah!", the satyr snapped at the sorceress, "You're crazy."

"So are you going to let me have him?", the sorceress' asked sweetly.

"Sure. You're better at torturing him than we are."

The overlord slapped himself in the head hard. The dream went away.

"Are you alright sir?", asked the man riding with him.

The overlord just stared back at him.

They stopped. The overlord got off and walked toward the clothes in the dark. Two coats and shirts. He took them and sniffed. He distinguished several chemicals and dna-traces. He quickly compared them to his own. Then he nodded and looked around for more traces. He noticed another fragrance as well. He could quite clearly recognize the sorceress and Kendra now, but the other one... it was very familiar. It lead down the hall. He hadn't smelled that fragrant in a long time and it brought a smile to his face. The temptress was still tempting. Now where did she take the kids?  He signaled his soldiers and as swift as before they hovered further down the hallways, following the faint trail...

The hover-platforms were almost silent, but Kendra could hear them. She easily hid in the darkness. Her dark body blended in with the shadows. She looked down the passage and saw the men moving past. She counted five platforms and ten men. She tip-toed down the hall after they had passed.

"Metal machines...", she thought to herself, "...so vulnerable."

The Witch Queen began a spell. Her magic probed the hover-platforms. Inside them there were chemicals and explosives. They were so volatile. They were ready to explode. All they needed was a spark.

And that's what Kendra was.

The Witch Queen stepped out into the main passage. She held out her hands. Flames began to burn inside the platforms. Moments later the silence was shattered.

Kendra stood still in the hallway. A hot wind came rushing past her. She spread her arms, leaned her head back, and let the air blow through her hair. She relished the destruction.

The temptress and children had just reached the top of the staircase when it happened...the door splintered and crumbled to pieces.. smoke billowed up the
stairwell...

She grabbed each child around the waist, picked them up and ran...  not waiting around to see what had happened.

The door looked easy enough to kick in.. with 3 swift blows it was down. Once on the other side, she let the children down and they ran again.. her holding their hands in case they tripped.  One hallway after another.. they ran..  There seemed to be no way out.

Thenna urged her mother to stop... she needed time to concentrate.  Somehow, she knew a way out.. the feeling had come to her just before Kendra showed up.  Now was the time to show what she knew.  She turned to her mother...

"I know the way out." 

The overlord came to in comfort. He was sitting on a soft couch. He opened his eyes and saw the sorceress. She was kneeling beside him.

"Not another dream.", he thought to himself. "This has to be a spell. She's worked her way inside my mind."

The sorceress didn't say a word. She reached her hand toward his face. She touched the metal plate covering the right half of his head. Gently she began to pull it off. The overlord winced. Underneath he felt something strange. Underneath there was flesh. That wasn't right. It should have been metal and wires. It wasn't. The sorceress gently ran her fingers across his new skin. It was so tender. It felt like that of a newborn child. The overlord breathed in gently. Words couldn't describe how good it felt to feel another's hand across his face. It was something he thought he would never feel again.

The sorceress caressed him softly. The overlord closed his eyes. This time his dream was wonderful. He relaxed and let it run its course. Lightly she moved her fingers over his cheek, chin, and forehead. He felt her thumb press against his new lips. He kissed it. He felt her trace his lips. They were so sensitive. They trembled at her touch. He let out a sigh of pleasure.

He felt the sorceress' weight shift toward him. He felt her breath on his face. Her hand slowly lifted his head upward towards hers. He waited for her kiss.
 
Instead he woke up.

static....

click.....

"energy-source connected"

"status: orange"

Pain shot through what was left of his body. His machine half was injured but it still worked. He did a system check. He was at 65%. His human eye opened. His machine eye glowed. He was lying on the ground.

<He quickly rerouted some of his systems and increased capacity to 95%...>

"status: green"

Wreckage of the hover-platforms lay strewn about the corridor. The air was hot and smoky.

'Damn,' he thought, 'I've been careless. Should have them fase-shifted.'

<He quickly checked his systems and started to shift himself a nanosecond to the future.>

Blackguard drifted through the shadows until he reached the area of the explosion. The children and the Temptress were safe for the time being, so he decided to find out what was going on between the two adversaires.

The bodies didn't surprise him. After all, they were just cannon fodder in the grand scheme of things. He hid there in the shadows and watched the drama unfold.

Through the haze the overlord saw a woman walking slowly towards him. Her hips swayed back and forth seductively. He started thinking that this was all a dream too. It wasn't.

'Damned dreams! As soon as this is over, we must get them out, no matter what.'

He looked around. All his men were dead. They didn't have the benefit of being cyborgs like he was.

Well, never mind. There were already thirty new soldiers crawling out of the tanks this second. And he could manage well enough without them for now.

He slowly rose to his feet. The dark woman still walked toward him. He instinctively reached for a weapon.

"Don't come here uninvited.", the Witch Queen warned. She stared right into his eyes.

The overlord drew his gun. The dark woman kept walking. He aimed at her and shouted.

"Stop! Who are you?"

The Witch Queen completely ignored his words. She walked past him. Her eyes bore into his and then she turned away.

"But now that you're here, you're welcome to stay...", the dark woman's voice echoed down the hall, "for as long as you last."