“Can we talk about what happened back there?” Verk
incredulously questioned.
“Business as usual,” Gaster replied. “We simply solved the
problem presented to us and got one step closer to reclaiming the facility.
These things happen at SkullTech. As you know all too well, it’s not exactly a
safe working environment.”
“That’s not what I meant, William!” the goblin retorted in a
hushed tone. “I meant how can Mirauth handle a hydra like that? You’re a lich
and your scientific genius is likely only second to Wendellor. I get how you
can fight the way you do. But Mirauth? She’s the head of Finance and
Accounting, and to all appearances, a human or similar. And you don’t even seem
surprised by any of this. What are you not telling me?”
“Ah, that. First off, why would I be surprised by something
I already know. And secondly, if she wants you to have the answer to what she
is, she will tell you herself. Besides, you should realize that you don’t get
to be a VP at this company without being able to handle yourself in a fight
with horrible beasts.”
Ì
The squad of security guards stood apprehensively in place
as Gaster held up one hand to signal a halt. All was quiet and still, save for
one of the scientist’s floating hands advancing towards a control panel. With
the press of a button, the heavy steel door slid back into the ceiling. The
team continued forward, soon coming upon an intersection. Before them massed
dozens of cultists, laying siege to a barricade set up within one of the
corridors. A cloud of dark mist appeared a short distance in front of Gaster,
the blue-robed form of Perin emerging as it dispersed.
“So, you continue to interfere in my designs?” The cult
leader’s voice was low and threatening as he spoke. “You are a fool to think
you can stop me. With Nihil’s guidance, I shall bring about a new world order
in the aftermath of the coming war.”
“You and what army?” Gaster laughed. “A handful of fanatics
and a few reanimated builders is hardly enough to conquer the world.”
“You’d have been wise
not to provoke Wendellor’s ire,” Mirauth added. “He has actually has an
army.”
“Enough of your blasphemous prattle! If you will not concede
to my glorious plan, then you will be destroyed! But if we must fight, then
let’s take this somewhere with a bit more . . . room.” The masked fanatic
vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared at the end of the hall, next to an
open door, which he promptly entered.
Gaster motioned for the guards to assault the cultists. As
the guards charged, the executives exchanged a glance of silent agreement and
sprinted towards the door Perin had entered. The trio dashed through the
threshold and into a tremendous room. The chamber’s every surface was made from
durable metal, and it was entirely devoid of furnishings. The mutant testing
chamber, Gaster surmised.
Across the room stood Perin, but this time a second figure
stood at his side. She was a slender woman, with the pale lavender skin and
pointed ears of a dark elf. Her long white hair was pulled back into a braid,
and she was garbed in dark leather armor and a black cloak. Black, jagged
tattoos adorned the sides of her face.
“So, you are the ones who dared to stand against the
master,” Vadania hissed. She laughed as blades of red light appeared in her
hands.
Mirauth leapt to one side as Vadania lunged forward. The
head of finance twirled her stun spear, deftly parrying the other woman’s
initial flurry. Mirauth caught her foe’s two weapons on her spear, and the duo
were locked in a contest of strength. With a mighty shove, the executive sent
her opponent reeling. She then conjured an amethyst in her hand and hurled it.
Vadania answered by flinging one of her red blades, which collided with the
jewel midair. The two projectiles combusted in a flash of blinding light and
piercing shards.
Vadania stumbled back as the shards grazed her through her
armor. The blade of light reformed in her hand as she whirled around to block
Mirauth’s spear. The cultist slashed at the accountant’s stomach. Vadania
stared incredulously down at her weapon as it was somehow deflected by
Mirauth’s nails. The executive swung her spear down at her assailant’s head,
but the dark elf dodged to one side and retreated a few steps.
“I will have that research. Nihil’s will be done!” Perin
shouted.
“Must we go through this again?” Gaster replied with a sigh
of boredom.
“Nihil! Grant me the strength to crush the heretics!” the
lunatic entreated. There was a sound like a crack of thunder, and an eerie
white light began to pour from the eye holes of his mask and form a weapon in
his hand. He cackled madly as he levitated into the air and was surrounded by a
dark aura.
Gaster took a startled step stumbled back as he surrounded
himself with his two adamantine skulls and three pairs of floating hands.
Multiple bolts of energy shot from behind the scientist. Perin blocked the
blasts with a magically-conjured barrier and disappeared in a brief cloud of
mist. Gaster turned to see Verk holding an arcane pistol. The goblin spun
around and deflected the cultist’s luminescent blade with his mithril arm just
before being struck in the chest by a torrent of green flames and falling to
the ground.
Perin raised his weapon into the air and brought it down for
a killing blow. His blade was suddenly halted as a skeletal hand clamped onto
it. He summoned an invisible barrier as twin beams of light shot from the
floating skulls. A thunderous boom echoed across the chamber. A trio of shadowy
demons dashed from within the smoke. The first of them leapt into the air but
was struck down by flying fists. Gaster spat a short necromantic chant, raising
one arm into the air as a cascade of bone spikes shot up from the ground and
impaled his assailants.
Perin strode from within the dispersing smoke, stepping
coldly over the prone and injured form of Verk.
“Where’s Kothar when we need her?” Gaster muttered.
A dark wallet slid across the floor, passing beneath
Vadania’s feet, and causing her to slip and fall. She rolled to her feet just
fast enough for Kothar’s energy rapier to nick her arm rather than impaling
her.
“Speak of the devil,” Dr. Gaster mused under his breath.
Perin pulled an archaic scroll from within his robe and
began chanting in a forgotten tongue. Particles of brilliant light started
appearing around the room, slowly being drawn towards the center, where they
coalesced into a physical form. The scroll was abruptly consumed by darkness
and disintegrated as the incantation was finished. Hovering in the chamber’s
center was a massive floating eye, which gazed balefully down upon the
battlefield.
The combatants were momentarily distracted by a mechanical
sound as a sheet of metal slid away to reveal a large window of reinforced
glass imbedded in one wall. Standing behind the glass was a tall and gaunt man,
his hands formally clasped behind his back. He wore an elegant brown suit and
had a calculating glint in his snakelike, yellow eyes. He stood, watching the
proceedings with cold interest.
Soakosh. I’ll deal with you later, Gaster seethed to
himself.
Kothar lunged forward, her weapon a blur of motion. Vadania
masterfully parried the blows with her dual weapons and swept one blade towards
her foe’s leg. The marketing executive effortlessly stepped to one side and
struck the weapon from Vadania’s hand. The dark elf’s psychic dagger vanished
as it left her grasp, and she resummoned it just in time to deflect Kothar’s
stab. The two women dueled in a blur of glowing weapons and whirling movements.
The rogues lunged in unison, flying past each other in a flash of blades.
Each now bore a small wound upon her side, but while a small
stream of blood ran from Vadania’s injury, Kothar’s rapidly closed itself. The
dark elf stepped back and hurled her twin blades at the executive. The glowing
daggers whistled through the air straight toward their target. At the last
second, Kothar’s form wavered and dispersed into a cloud of mist. The blades of
energy collided with the wall and dissipated, while the mist wafted across the
room and reconstituted into Kothar, rapier in hand.
The massive eye’s pupil dilated as it conjured a bolt of
magical energy. Mirauth struck the blast from the air with her spear and leapt
into the air, flying rapidly towards the ocular menace. She struck the beast
twice in succession with her stun spear, jolting it with electricity. The orb
glared as it rushed forwards, slamming into Mirauth and driving her across the
room, where it bashed her against the reinforced wall.
The eye hovered back as its foe suddenly began to glow and
transform. Mirauth’s body began to change and grow, and before long, the being
that stood facing the eye was no human, but a dragon. In her true form, Mirauth
towered over the massive eye. Her lavender scales gleamed as if they were
formed from amethyst, and her eyes were deep purple orbs. She opened her
terrific maw, and a spinning dark orb like a miniature black hole appeared
within. The orb burst, unleashing a wave of crushing gravitational force.
Perin stretched out his arm as Gaster’s floating hands flew
towards him. A beam of lightning shot through the first of the boney fists. The
electricity arced and split, piercing each of the hands and destroying them
all. The cult leader dashed forward, his luminescent blade flashing through the
air. Perin’s glowing weapon collided against an adamantine skull as it
intercepted his blow. With a series of swift strikes, the fanatic knocked the
device aside and marked its surface with multiple thin scratches. Laughter
echoed from within the robed man’s mask as he struck with his shimmering blade.
Gaster stumbled back and grunted in pain as the sword sliced
through the sleeve of his enchanted coat and left a small gash upon his
skeletal arm. The hooded zealot enveloped himself in an arcane barrier, warding
off a tide of sharpened bones. Perin turned too late to see one of the hovering
blasters charging up an attack. The beam of light pierced through the warlock’s
weakened defenses as a cry of pain echoed through the chamber. A large, jagged
section of Perin’s mask had broken off, revealing his pale, elven features.
Kothar flipped gracefully through the air, landing behind
Vadania as the dark elf’s twin daggers struck the wall. The changeling
mercilessly sliced the back of the other woman’s leg. The cult enforcer
resummoned her knives and parried the next blow, retaliating with a flurry of
strikes. Kothar retreated a few steps, expertly fending off the assault with
her own blade. The executive continued to give ground as the three weapons
clashed, but she showed no signs of fatigue.
Vadania seized her chance and struck at a perceived opening
in her opponent’s defense. Kothar slid under the attack, then kicked the dark
elf’s legs out from under her. The head of marketing’s rapier pierced the
floor. She turned to watch the cultist spring to her feet. In one fluid motion,
Kothar yanked her weapon from the floor and swung it up in a vicious arc.
Vadania clutched at her face, streaks of crimson running between her fingers.
The huge eyeball was caught off guard and blasted with a
terrific wave of gravity that violently hurled it backwards. Mirauth unfurled
her great wings and took to the air, swooping towards the beast. The eye
swerved away from a clawed swipe and charged forward. The dragon caught the
orb’s advance with another sweep of claws that raked across its front. Rather
than bleeding, small chunks of the creature crumbled into dust as it was
struck. With great force, Mirauth grasped hold of the eye and carried it to the
far wall.
The dragon bashed the aberrant creature against the metal
wall and gnashed down on it with her dagger-like teeth. A flash of otherworldly
light momentarily blinded Mirauth. As her vision returned, the head of finance
beheld that the eye’s front had transformed into a gaping maw, filled with rows
of teeth like that of a shark. She took a deep breath and exhaled another
gravity wave to finish off this monstrosity. The great eye roared as it
unleashed a jet of green flames from within its gullet. The flames met the
gravitational shockwave in a blast that rocked the arena and sent stinging
embers careening in all directions.
“I’ll sacrifice you to Nihil for tha-!” Perin’s shout was
cut off as gravity suddenly shifted, sending him tumbling down onto the
chamber’s front wall. Gaster glared down at the fanatic as six floating hands
flew down to attack. The first pair of fists were sliced in twain with a
calculated slash, but Perin was not fast enough to stop the next fist from
delivering a blow to his gut. The robed man was thrown from his feet and
pummeled by skeletal hands. As he was struck again and again, Perin found the strength
to spit out a series of arcane syllables.
Gaster stumbled back and became dizzy as his mind was
assaulted by otherworldly psychic whispers. The hands flew erratically, losing
their directive as their summoner found himself unable to focus. The lich
steeled his resolve and fought back against the mental attack. With a final
terrific exertion of his will, Gaster managed to push the whispers from his
mind. But his foe was nowhere to be seen.
Vadania desperately fended off Kothar’s attacks with one
hand while clutching her bleeding face with the other. The changeling parried
an attack and rammed her elbow into the dark elf’s abdomen. The executive
slipped behind her opponent and grabbed both of her wrists. In a swift and
brutal motion, Kothar violently twisted both of Vadania’s wrists with a pair of
sickening crunches. Glowing daggers appeared in the dark elf’s hands, dangling
limply for a moment before falling and vanishing.
The changeling vampire sunk her fangs into the cultist’s
neck. Vadania struggled desperately as she felt her life begin to fade. Kothar
was hurled to the ground as she was struck in the side by a burst of unholy
flames.
“Your service to Nihil is not yet at its end.” Perin placed
his hand upon Vadania’s shoulder, and the dark elf vanished in a puff of smoke.
The cultist was flung from his feet as he was grazed by a bone spike from the
floor. The lunatic vanished as Kothar’s rapier plunged into the ground where he
had been moments before. The heads of R&D and Marketing stood scanning the
room. All that could be seen within the chamber was a dragon wrestling with a
gargantuan eye while Soakosh watched from an observation room and scribbled
notes on a clipboard.
“Looks like we ran them off,” Gaster remarked, fatigue
evident in his voice. “Now then, let’s help Mirauth.”
The eye recoiled as it was blasted by twin beams of light.
It turned to face its attacker, its gaze met by lasers from Kothar’s rifle.
Mirauth took advantage of the beast’s moment of distraction and slammed herself
against the orb with all her might. The two monsters collided with the wall
with such force that they left a huge dent in the metal. The eye raged and
writhed, but it could not avoid the gravity wave. The aberrant creature’s form
was wrenched apart by the gravitational forces, its flesh crumbling. With a
final roar, the eye was gone, reduced to a cloud of slowly settling dust.
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