Of course, since me and Pandora were both using our life detection spells, we got a look at the horde well before we closed in on it. Several hundred of them, at least, a number so large and so spread out that it made more sense to sneak right through them, rather than walk around them.
Layla looked at them with a pitiful eye as we crept through their center mass. “These poor creatures didn’t ask for this,” she said, just a dozen of them began to fight viciously over a severed deer leg.
“Once I kill the Fairy Mother, will they become normal?” I asked. I kept my voice low, even though my camouflage spell meant none of them could hear us. Simply being in the middle of so many vicious elves made me uneasy.
Layla shrugged. “I’m not sure, Earthman,” she responded sadly. “Wood elves live for a very long time. Perhaps not as long as a high elf, but long enough to spend centuries under the sway of the Fairy Mother and the Spirit Stone. They might be too far gone, but I can only pray that they’re not.”
We did have one distinct advantage. It didn’t seem as though the Fairy Mother wanted to coalesce these sad creatures into one cohesive fighting force. I remembered how the Spriggan King had brought them together, only to see the creatures turn against one another once he was dead. The Fairy Mother wasn’t doing that.
Instead, she seemed content to merely pervert the creatures within the woods, rather than control them completely. Then again, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t control them. This meant when I eventually faced off with the Fairy Mother, I’d have to try to kill her quickly, unless I wanted to risk her calling on all the forest denizens to come after us at once.
Given the constant darkness, I had no idea if it was night or day, but after a long, long walk, all three of us were exhausted.
We threw our bedrolls down. Me and Pandora put together a small fire pit while Layla examined the perimeter, making sure we didn’t miss anything with our life detection spells.
“I’ll be happy if I never have to come to these woods again,” I told Pandora as I used a small-effect fire spell to light the kindling.
She nodded in agreement then set up a pot full of cooked venison, so she could warm it up for us. “I feel the same way,” she said. “The Fairy Mother has truly perverted these woods. I can feel it in my stomach.”
As the venison began to heat up, I looked around the darkness surrounding us. I squinted, using my life detection spell, and tried to find Layla’s aura. She’d been gone long enough that I was beginning to get concerned.
It was then I saw a ring of auras around us, several dozen shimmering forms out in the distance.
“Pandora, we’re not alone,” I said, drawing my amber longsword.
Pandora drew her daggers, taking notice of the encroaching beings closing in on us. “What are these creatures?” Pandora asked.
We stood back to back as the creatures slowly closed in on us. I realized they weren’t walking, but floating, hovering just a few feet off the ground. Their lithe forms were thin and elegant, a far cry from the vicious elves or insane goblins.
Just then, Pandora screamed, dropped her daggers, and clawed at her temples. “AHHH!” she shouted.
“Pandora!” I cried out just as she fell to the ground, wincing in pain, suddenly struck with a powerful –
“FUCK!” I shouted, because now I felt what she was feeling, like someone was driving a rusted nail through my mind.
I grit my teeth, shut my eyes, and reached out to the Soulguard, hoping the enchanted gauntlet could provide me protection. Sure enough, as I closed my fist tight, I could feel that psychic nail being pushed back out.
Pandora was trying her best to fight it, as well. She was up on her feet now, and she seemed to be fighting it off.
“Earthman, what is this magic?” she growled.
The glowing ring of floating creatures was getting closer…but there was someone walking ahead of them, leading them toward us.
It was Layla, but something was wrong.
Her amber-golden eyes had gone black. Her face was expressionless, yet somehow hateful.
As Layla drew her bow and pulled an arrow back, one of the glowing beings hit me with a blinding blast of magic that knocked me clear across the forest floor. Layla shot her arrow and I screamed as it struck Pandora in the shoulder.
“PANDORA, NO!” I shouted as I scrambled to my feet.
But before I could get to her, the fairies had already closed in on me.
Now that my life detection spell had worn off, I saw that I’d had little need for it in the first place to see them.
The fairies were shining like their skin was made of sunlight. They were all females, or at least appeared to be, and their skin shone like liquid gold. They wore skimpy gowns made of vines and leaves and their smiles were hypnotizing, seductive in a wicked way, and as they closed in around me I saw Pandora rising to her feet.
I called out to her, but she didn’t answer. Now, her eyes, which had already been dark naturally, were like little black holes, darker than dark itself, just like Layla’s eyes. It was like Pandora didn’t even notice she had an arrow in her shoulder. She walked, zombie-like, toward Layla, then the two of them began lumbering off into the dark.
I drew back my amber longsword then charged the Soulguard with an ice storm spell. “You assholes made a big mistake just now,” I said.
One fairy in particular suddenly levitated toward me. Her golden gaze grew brighter and her seductive smile widened. She put her hands up, as if she meant me no harm.
“Champion, we apologize for the rude welcome,” she said. “But we had to make sure it was you.”
I grit my teeth, eyes shooting from side to side. None of the other fairies made any effort to move in to strike.
“What’s going on, then?” I asked. “What the hell did you do to Pandora and Layla?”
The fairy didn’t answer. Instead, she floated just a few feet closer, and I saw that her eyes were trained on the Soulguard.
“Such a magnificent weapon,” the fairy said. She shifted her golden eyes back to mine. “Our mother would very much like to meet you.”
I scowled at the glowing horde. “And I’d very much like to meet your mother,” I said. “But first, bring the Mananymphs back.”
The fairy responded with a smug smile. “Our mother has no intention of harming them…as long as you behave in an agreeable fashion.”
“I’m not feeling all that agreeable at the moment,” I said.
“Then perhaps you’ll get their corpses back,” the fairy said, grinning. “Our mother is fair, provided that you don’t raise her ire.”
“Fine, fuck it,” I said, then slipped my amber longsword back into the sheath. “Let’s go see your goddamn mother then.”
*****
At that, the Fairy Mother revealed her castle to me.
It appeared through the gloom, like a golden star burning in the wooded dark. The fairies led me inside, through the long, golden hallways lit with actual torches. The fire burned warmly and comfortingly, but I couldn’t help but feel as though there was something off about the place.
The main fairy that had spoken with me remained at my side while the others dispersed, each of them falling to their knees in worship at various points before we arrived at the Fairy Mother’s throne room.
The room was huge and resplendent, decorated with intricate forest artwork that was hard for me to describe, as if the forest itself had come alive and twisted itself into various paintings and living statues. The Fairy Mother herself was quite a sight, I had to admit. She sat lazily in her throne, completely naked, and her supple body was alive with alternating shades of sunlight-gold and moonlight-silver.
She slowly stood up to greet me, her every movement dripping with sex. Her close-cropped hair gave her an elfin look, but there was something otherworldly about her unblinking gaze.
Slowly, she descended the steps that led up to her throne, and I had to admit that she was stunningly beautiful.
&nbs
p; However, I noted movement off to her left and right.
Coming once more, still zombie-like, were Pandora and Layla. Both had been stripped out of their clothes, replaced now with rags, making them look like whorehouse concubines. Their dead eyes were still shining black.
“Greetings Champion,” the Fairy Mother said in a voice that was both flirtatiously girlish yet, somehow, rang out with eternal darkness, as if she were speaking with the living heart of the Darkwood Forest.
Though small, slight, and beautiful, I remembered that the Fairy Mother was a being of immense power. Plus, somewhere in this castle, she was keeping the Spirit Stone hidden. She’d been in possession of the stone for a very long time. Even if she didn’t have the power to wield it directly, I couldn’t help but worry that she must have absorbed some of its powers by simply being so close to it for all these years.
I gestured to Pandora and Layla. “Release them,” I demanded.
She smiled. “In due time,” she responded. She looked at each of them, as if drinking in the sight of their slender, skimpily-clad bodies. “Besides, I quite like them like this. Don’t you?”
I scowled. “No.”
“Liar,” she said. “Look at them. They’re beautiful.”
“And under your control,” I answered. “Release them now, before this gets ugly.”
She was small, hardly taller than a Mananymph, yet as she walked up to me and reached up to touch my cheek, I took a reflexive step back, gripping the hilt of the amber longsword tight.
She laughed. “Surely, you’re not afraid of me, Champion,” she said with an alluring, yet wicked smile. Her eyes drifted slowly and sensually down to the Soulguard. When she leveled her gaze on it, she licked her lips. “Oh my, it’s so much bigger than I dreamt it would be.”
When she reached out to touch the Soulguard, I didn’t back away, but I did draw my amber longsword. She smiled and pulled her hand back.
I glanced at Layla and Pandora again. Whatever spell they’d been put under was a powerful one. I thought that if I spent a few minutes charging up a dispel spell, I just might be able to free them from the Fairy Mother’s influence. However, in doing so, I’d leave myself open for attack.
I’d have to do this carefully.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, mostly as a distraction as I began to charge the dispel magic into the Soulguard.
She grinned that sensual grin. I realized now that the other fairy was gone, leaving us alone in this chamber, save for Pandora and Layla.
“Why, I think the answer would be rather obvious,” the Fairy Mother said. “I want you, Champion. Together, you and I can use the Spirit Stone to conquer this realm.”
“I’m no conqueror,” I said.
Once again, I could feel that Fairy Mother trying to drive her will into my thoughts. Unlike last time, when it felt like a rusted nail, her influence now felt like a gentle, pleasant touch.
She was trying another angle. I wouldn’t let her in.
She leaned closer to me, her lips an undulating shade of golden-silver, nearly close enough to kiss. With her influence knocking against my willpower, I was almost tempted to kiss her.
Again, I backed away.
“The Spirit Stone has twisted you,” I said, as gently as I could. “The Gaia Stones and Gaia Gems aren’t meant to be wielded. Trust me, I know. I’ve wielded the Storm Gem and it almost killed me.”
“But only almost,” the Fairy Mother answered. “I felt your presence as you wielded the gem,” she went on. “Indeed, anyone with an intimate relationship with the stones and gems must have felt it.” She licked her lips again, slowly running her golden-silver tongue across them. “You slayed the Necromancer, Champion. You’re one of the most powerful beings in this realm…or you could be. Join me. I know what you seek. You seek to slay the Emperor. Imagine how easily we could achieve this if we just worked together.”
She might have made a solid argument, if it weren’t so goddamn obvious that she intended to bend me to her will.
“I won’t let you in my head,” I answered. I held up the Soulguard. “This does more than just shield my body. It also shields my soul. So you might as well just give up this little game of yours, Fairy Mother.”
The Fairy Mother turned away from me, scowling. She strode sensually back to her throne. “Very well then,” she said. “If you won’t give yourself to me, I’ll take the Soulguard by force.”
As she said this, I realized that the resplendent decorations around her chamber were shimmering and changing.
The smooth floors underfoot were becoming moist, writhing like a living thing.
As the Fairy Mother sat down on her throne, she turned back to me, and I saw that her lithe, seductive body was rippling…as if something under her skin was trying to force its way out.
She grinned, showing a mouthful of jagged teeth. She raised her right hand to snap her fingers, and as she did, I saw that her arm had become a long, insectoid claw.
I made a quick save point, just to be safe.
She revealed herself, the monstrous insect queen that she truly was, and when she snapped her chitinous fingers, Layla and Pandora launched themselves at me, teeth bared, thirsty for blood.
Chapter Eight
Whatever the Fairy Mother had done to them using the Spirit Stone, it unleashed a viciousness in Pandora that I hadn’t seen yet.
Though the arrow had been removed, she was still bleeding profusely from the wound in her shoulder, yet didn’t seem to mind. She came barreling at me, her daggers in hand, slashing and pirouetting so fast that I just barely blocked her slashes.
BLOCK SKILL INCREASED +1
Meanwhile, behind her, Layla’s artificially dark eyes flashed green and monstrous tree roots shot up from the floor and whipped at me. I growled and slashed them in half with the amber longsword, but that just opened me up for Pandora’s attack, and she snarled as she caught me in the side with one of her daggers.
“Fuck!” I shouted.
Up on her throne, the Fairy Mother cackled in a gravelly tone as she shed her sensual artifice, continuing to reveal herself with each passing second. Now I saw her massive insectoid form, and realized that this entire structure was covered in her pulsating insect slime. She wasn’t so much sitting on her throne as she was nesting upon it, with her plump spider’s belly writhing with offspring eager to come out.
Pandora launched a savagely powerful TK force bomb at me. The force rocked me back, off my feet, and I slammed against a wall covered in fleshy pulp that made me gag. Finally, I’d charged the Soulguard with the dispel effect, and I prayed that the spell worked.
I clenched my fist and cast the spell and immediately severed the mind control aspects of the Spirit Stone. Suddenly, both Pandora and Layla collapsed to the floor, disoriented and barely conscious.
MYSTICISM SKILL INCREASED +1
This was a gamble and I knew it. I’d drained my mana down to zero and it would take several precious minutes to fully recharge it, meaning I’d have no magic at my disposal.
Well, I’d have to make the best of it. Just because I’d become a war mage didn’t mean I gave up entirely on my melee skills.
I drew my enchanted orcish war axe in one hand, gripped the amber longsword in the other, and charged the Fairy Mother just as she pounced toward me.
Her sickening, bulbous form rocked the floor as she made impact, nearly knocking me off my feet. She swung one chitinous claw down at me but I responded with a wild slash from the war axe, with the ice enchantment giving her a wicked, instantaneous bout of freezer burn.
She roared in pain, drew back, then, overhead, I saw a pulsing golden glow.
It was the Spirit Stone, hanging right overtop of her. She bared her long, black teeth and laughed as she drew power from the stone. She launched a blinding blast of energy from it, and I just barely raised the Soulguard in time to absorb the energy.
“Shit!” I shouted as the raw power from the Spirit Stone drove me backward, no m
atter how hard I fought.
Still, I lowered my head and grit my teeth, absorbing all the energy I could into the enchanted gauntlet.
“I’ll take the Soulguard off your corpse, Earthman!” the Fairy Mother roared as she sent another, stronger blast toward me.
SPELL ABSORPTION SKILL INCREASED +5
WAR MAGE LEVEL 15 REACHED!
Absorbing the raw power from the Spirit Stone had sent my spell absorption skills through the roof. The Fairy Mother scowled in disbelief as she watched the Soulguard absorb the energy, turning a sunlight-shade of bright gold, with that golden energy rippling throughout it.
“Impossible!” the Fairy Mother shouted.
“Not quite,” I growled back at her.
In response my recent level-up along with the mana absorption, my overall mana suddenly shot up to levels I’d only felt when actually wielding the Storm Gem. The rush of power was so overwhelming that I almost screamed out in pain as the mana stormed through me, threatening to make me explode.
I held on for just another moment, waited until the Fairy Mother took a vulnerable step away from me, and launched all that sizzling energy right back at her.
Her roar was deafening, almost rupturing my ear drums as the magic struck her. Above, the Spirit Stone glowed wildly and crackled as the magic broke through her chitinous form, all those long years of corruption and insanity from keeping the stone so close.
The Fairy Queen came apart, bit by bit, as I used the magic to blow her insectoid form to pieces. She was like a Russian doll, because as I blew away the outer layer, I saw a small, frail thing had been hiding inside of it.
ENCHANTMENT SKILL INCREASED +1
I dispersed the rest of the energy. Before her throne, the Fairy Mother wept and cried, but now I saw her for what she’d truly been.
She was far smaller than a Mananymph with ears like a pixie, with matching fairy wings. Gone was her manipulative seduction, but she was still pretty, in an almost innocent sort of way. Her curly blonde hair fell to her shoulders as she staggered to her feet.
Monstergirl Quest Book Three Page 6
