Chapter 18 Out of the Frying Pan...
author: Veyanne - yellow , Overlord - red , Blackguard - violet , Temptress - orange
Well, it certainly looked like the Temptress was home and so were the kids. But it also showed quite clearly on the instruments, they wouldn't be alone for long. The huge castle of the line of temptresses through the ages was ready to be stormed by a large number of hosts.
The overlord watched from his high position in the thopter. The figures were barely distinguishable in the dark night, but his night vision and infra-red scanners showed them quite clear. He counted about a hundred robed soldiers taking positions all around the castle.
Strange. The descendants of the Cruciator had enough weaponry left to simply blow this castle sky-high. Why sneak in like a bunch of old-fashioned ninja-killers? Perhaps a simple kill wasn't their plan after all.
The overlord chuckled.
A mere hundred foot soldiers... hardly a match for the vixens of the Temptress. Could they be that stupid?
The computers quickly went over several possible strategies and came up with an answer. This was only a diversion of course. These hundred were just enough to keep the vixens busy, while the main force would enter the castle elsewhere. And the best possible entrance would be from below.
The scanners extended their search into the ground and it didn't take long before several targets showed.
The temptress felt it before she heard it... the balcony shook violently and then moaned from the stress. It was going to collap...
Then all hell broke loose. The heavy walls shuddered with heavy explosions as the ground troops charged with rocket-fire. The response was almost immediate and the landscape around the castle exploded with large balls of fire. Smoke billowed into the night sky, the scene colored red with fire.
... she turned and lunged for the doorway as the balcony fell away from her feet.
Her body smacked against the jagged remains of the balcony and the castle wall. She almost lost what little grip she had on the threshold of the doorway. The children ran to their mother... eyes filled with fear over the thought of losing her so soon after reuniting. There was no way she could survive the 5 story fall and landing on top of the broken pieces of the balcony below.
Three vixens broke through the door to her lair. One guarded the children while the other two pulled the temptress up to safety. The children ran to her.. clutching on her as if they were permanently attached.
More vixens came and escorted them to the great hall where they all surrounded the temptress and the children. They had to find a safe passage out of the castle.
The overlord ordered the thopter in closer. The pilot started to object but thought better of it.
The overlord heard a whisper in his ear. It was Kendra's voice. The dark message she had sent him hours ago was now unfolding in his mind.
"Join me and I'll show you more pleasure than you can know."
His eyes widened. Then a burning sensation began to grow in lungs. It spread slowly through what was left of his human side. It felt like his body was on fire. He tried fase-shifting. It didn't help. The fire was growing hotter. The pain was growing stronger. He clenched his fists. He tried to block out the burning. He could only slow it down. It kept growing.
"Close enough?", the pilot looked over at the overlord. He saw the cyborg desperately trying to control his pain. "Have you been shot?"
The overlord turned to look at the pilot. It broke his concentration. The pain doubled in an instant. He let out a growl. He tried to tell the pilot what to do next.
"Get....go.....wall.....hurry....aaaarghhhh!", he stammered.
The pilot thought the overlord was mad at him. He quickly moved dangerously close to the wall. Explosions were going off all around them. Sweat poured off his brow.
The overlord was overcome with agony. It was all he could do to fight the pain. He wished he could shut off his human half as easily as he could shut off his machine half. Thoughts of suicide entered his mind. He could end the pain so easily. He lifted his arm up toward the human part of his head...
Then he felt a coolness begin to form on his cheek. It felt like ice. It quenched the fire around it. The hellish pain turned to heavenly pleasure. It felt so good. The overlord let out a quiet whine. A tear formed in his human eye. The coolness spread through his face. His body trembled with anticipation. The fire still burned hot elsewhere but the coolness was slowly spreading through him. It was pure bliss. The overlord's breathing became short. His human eye was wide open. Oh, the pleasure. He could think of nothing else. The coolness filled his mind with visions of beauty. He let it wash over him. He was in ecstasy.
He forgot where he was. He almost forgot who he was.
"Sir? Is this close enough sir?", the pilot asked in nervous desparation.
The overlord came out of the spell. The pleasure faded. He looked at the castle wall looming large in the windshield.
"What the f**k are you doing?!", he screamed. "Get us out of here before we get killed!!!!"
The thopter once more hung over the unfolding scenery and the overlord blinked. It had only lasted a nanosecond but he was still disoriented for at least a full second. A dream? The thopter never moved! Then he realized it wasn't a dream at all. Somebody had been trying to force a negative timeline on him and his defense systems only kicked in at the last possible instant to prevent it all from really happening.
At least that's what he thought. Hypatia's program was busy erasing any memories he wasn't comfortable with. It replaced them with convenient explanations. It kept him sane.
He immediately recognized the source of the temporal assault and a worried frown crossed his face. This Kendra-bitch had more power than he gave her credit for and most certainly more ambition than was healthy for all involved. He suddenly regretted not having dealt with her when he had the chance. But that was only a moment. He had always known that serving Chaos had it's difficulties and don't forget, he smiled to himself, difficulties is what this is all about. Wouldn't be fun without it. Let's see if Kendra is made of the same stuff....
Meanwhile in the catacombs...
"Kendra, you never cease to amaze me, " Blackguard said avoiding the question. "I remember a time in which you wouldn't have been able to see me, or phase shift. Not for lack of knowledge, but you just weren't ready. Can I assume your meeting with the Sorceress had something to do with it?"
Kendra was about to say, "Where I grew up you learn fast or you die.", but Blackguard just kept talking.
"Whatever the reason it doesn't matter, but to answer your question, I never informed him about Chaos. That would have been too risky."
"Then how is it he knows?" Kendra asked.
Blackguard shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe he had a visitation. Maybe part of his defection from the AOR was because of that. I know that Chaos sometimes manipulates people for it's own end, maybe this is an example of that. But I'm going to have to keep tabs on the man, if Chaos is actually using him as a pawn, I want to know about it. My... father... would actually demand it of me. After all my father is one of the Chosen, and as a favoured one of Chaos is instrumental in the coming Apocalypse."
Kendra nodded at this. After all both she and Blackguard were instruments of Chaos. Blackguard due to his lineage, and she because of the deal she made with the Devil. She looked closer at Blackguard, noticing something new about him, the man radiated darkness as he always did, but there was something else. Something that seemed to flicker about his edges but you were unable to focus on properly. She rubbed at her eyes and when she opened them, the flickering had gone away, maybe it had been a trick of the light but she didn't think so. She filed it away for future reference. "So what do we do now?" Kendra asked.
"WE don't do anything, I'm going after the Overlord. I need to watch the man. If he knows more than I think he does we're in trouble, I need to find out the limits of his knowledge. At this moment, you can't do anything about it. But if you're needed, you'll be informed."
"Yeah, right.", she thought. "I do what I want."
The overlord took a few minutes to adjust his defenses to the new threat and sent a temporal bomb back along the track of the assault which almost did him in.
A flash of irritation crossed her face at that point, she turned on her heel and suddenly vanished. Blackguard knew she didn't like this, but that was no reason for her to leave in such a huff, little did he know she had been transported away by the Overlord at this point. Blackguard just thought she had phase shifted away to her fortress to break a few things, or people, in irritation. He turned to the darkness beside him and said, "I'm on my way". He nodded as if having heard an answer and melted away leaving the catacombs empty.
At that moment, Kendra was talking to Blackguard and when the temporal rift hit her, she was completely unprepared for it. Before she could grab on to the temporal fabric of her time, she was slung back along the plains of possibilities towards a time where the catacombs were still non-existent. When the probability became reality, it hit her full force and her body was almost smashed as it was squeezed within the stone ground itself. There was no possible movement, not even the blinking of an eye. Only the tormenting pain. She tried to cry out in anger and frustration, but there was no air, nothing.
The overlord grinned. That should keep her busy long enough, he thought.
She let the rock squeeze her for a while. The pain was intense but boring.
"I'll have to teach him how to play this game better.", she mused.
She fase-shifted and found her way to safety. After a while she realized how far away she was from where, or rather when, she used to be.
"Wow.", she thought. "I must have really got to him with my offer."
The Witch Queen smiled evilly. Now that her hatred toward the overlord had been washed away she was beginning to like him. He had a youthful charm to him. They could have so much fun together. Well, until she got bored with him and killed him that is.
She swiftly made her way back to the present.