Chapter 19 Reunion author: Overlord - red , Blackguard - violet , Temptress - orange , Veyanne - yellow , Thenna - blue The overlord ordered the thopter in along the backside of the castle. The machine was lost in all the turmoil and reached the tower unspotted. With a swift leap, the overlord transferred himself to the chamber within. The room was empty, the door was locked. He pressed his fingers into the wood like it was foam and tore the door out of it's hinges. With long paces he went down the stairs.
Blackguard melted into the castle by using the shadows there. He always loved the Temptress' castle. The shadows there just seemed to beckon to him, and ever since she had invited him there so long ago he came and went as he wished. He spotted the Overlord coming down the stairs, and saw a couple of vixens at the bottom waiting for him. He followed a few steps behind the Overlord and just observed.
As soon as he came at the bottom of the staircase, he was spotted by a couple of vixens. The overlord didn't even blink his eyes while he grabbed the head of the first woman and tore it off. The second girl launched several shells at him, tried to leap away as he approached unharmed by bullets and explosions and she screamed as he ripped her torso open. Then the machine-man stepped into the courtyard to encounter a host of twenty little cruciator-imitations. Screams filled the air as he walked through the theist-party, beheading, ripping off arms and legs, bashing in skulls and receiving an enormous load of shells and rounds which of course didn't effect him at all. He left the yard covered with twitching corpses and dying humans and entered the main building.
The temptress glanced up for a moment... her heart skipping a few beats.. she could hardly believe her eyes. What had they done to him!?!
In the great hall he suddenly faced at least fifty vixens, armed to the teeth. Beyond them he saw the Temptress and two children that clung to her.
Their eyes meet...
"Is this how you welcome me?" he smiled.
She was amused by his notorius sense of humor.
"Stop being so self-centered, dear. You know damn well who this reception is for."
She threw back a smile at him... her eyes never leaving him.
Kendra had finally made it back to the time and place that she was so rudely torn away from. No one was around. She closed her eyes and listened for Thenna's heartbeat. It was so feint. It was far away. Kendra listened closer. Thenna's heart was beating fast. She was terrified. Kendra began to cast a spell.
Henos and Thenna clung to thier mother as the Overlord came into the hall, with a cloaked Blackguard in tow. Thenna seemed to see him for a moment, but he retreated further into the shadows and she lost sight of him.
"The girl has possibilities, " he thought. "Properly trained she could be a valuable asset."
Kendra opened her inner eye and now saw through Thenna's eyes. She watched the drama unfold.
Behind him, a great number of cross-soldiers of the Army of Righteous plunged into the hall. Two armies faced each other. The overlord was in the middle and smiled in both directions. Then he once more addressed the Temptress on the other side of the hall.
"Hi! How have you been doing?"
Her smile widened...
"Well, my lord, it seems as though I'm in a bit of a situation here. If you wouldn't mind too much, could you possible get us out of here and then I'll tell you all about it..."
The overlord smiled and shrugged.
Henos turned away from his mother for a moment and looked directly at the overlord.
Blackguard stared at the Army of Righteous and almost went after them single handedly. He actually had to restrain himself from launching a full out attack on the fundies. There was something more important to do at the moment, the Overlord demanded his attention and he would have to keep it there for the time being. Now if there was a fight, he would have to help crush the fundies now wouldn't he? But at the moment he just had to observe.
The man glanced back at the boy and seemed to address him directly.
"If anyone is in a bit of a situation here, it would be me. Look, I'm all surrounded!"
He laughed his bellowing laugh and looked at both sides.
"You people ready to do some damage here? Let me see it then!"
He raised his hand and counted:
"1.... 2..... 3.... GO!"
Immediately a barrage of lasers and rockets came from both sides, but the overlord didn't even step aside. He just laughed and watched as the carnage took place. And whenever someone would come too close to him, whether it be fundie or vixen, he killed them like someone would kill a fly. And he kept the score. Both hands raised in the air, he counted with his fingers the casualties on both sides, his laughter getting more exalted all the time.
The Witch Queen looked on with interest. She concentrated on the way he fought. She saw some weaknesses. He compensated for them with brute force. He wasn't very elegant but he got the job done. Kendra knew there may come a time when they would fight again. She thought out her strategy to take advantage of his weaknesses.
When all but two of the vixens had been mutilated or dead, he went down on one knee, took hold of the body of a fundie, opened his chest and took out the still beating heart. A few paces away, he stopped at the corpse of a beautiful damsel and tore her open as well, ripping the heart out of it's casing.
With a heart in each hand he got up, closed his eyes and smelled the blood as if it was a wonderful aroma. Then he turned and grinned at the shadows.
"Here!" he shouted, "Take this to the master! The time is near!"
He threw both bloody organs to the black figure hiding in the shadows. The overlord smiled broadly to Blackguard as the demon-man caught the hearts even when he was stunned of being spotted by the overlord so casually.
"How can this be?" Blackguard wondered as he held the two quivering hearts in his hands. "He shouldn't have been able to see me, unless..." Blackguard peered closer at the Overlord, his eyes going red as he used senses beyond those of ordinary men. And the answer revealed itself to him, the darkness of Chaos surrounded the man as well, but there was something different about it.
He turned to the darkness next to him and was silent for a moment, again as if listening to something that nobody else could hear. The two hearts in his hands seemed to grow darker and finally vanished in the same way he himself did when moving through the shadows.
Thenna watched as the overlord threw the hearts to the shadow man... almost disappointed that he had been spotted. There was something about him that comforted her.
Blackguard strode out of the shadows, unsheathed his dagger and pointed it at the machine-man. "Overlord!" he called. "I don't know what your part in this is, but I intend to find out." He turned to Thenna and allowed himself a smile, "keep practicing. You have great potential, " he said and with a swipe of his dagger ripped a hole into the very fabric of reality itself. He stepped through and with a zipping sound, the rift closed.
Thenna turned to her mother and said, "that was the voice that told me how to get out of the catacombs." Her mother said nothing, suddenly unsure of what exactly had been going on around her.
Then the overlord turned again and walked to the woman with her two children. She threw him an angry look, clearly annoyed with his present brutal behavior towards her own subjects. But he ignored the looks and knelt in front of the little boy.
Thenna sensed her mothers anger... her own began to build as well. How could this thing/man kill her mommy's ladies? It wasn't right! They were on the good side.
"Hi son. It's Pa. Wanna have some fun?"
She was horrified at the thought of this thing being their father. Her fear and anger grew to a crescendo... adrenalin surged through her body... rage set in..
Kendra felt the rage inside Thenna.
"Good.", she thought to herself, "Her fear is turning to anger. My teachings weren't a total loss."
The boy looked at the man with eyes like dishes and he shuddered as the man laid his blood-stained hand on his little shoulder. The overlord smiled.
.... couldn't take it any longer...
Thenna let go of her mother and stepped between Henos and the overlord. She pushed his hand off of her brother's shoulder and glared up at the thing and spoke in a low vicious voice...
"Keep your bloody hands off my brother!"