Queen Killer

by M. H. Johnson

  “John.”

  He did his best to ignore the sad whisper in his mind, just as he did Elowin’s keening wails, crumpling to the ground with the brutal second death of the man she had loved.

  “John!”

  Strike, parry, weave and dodge! He desperately fought just to keep himself from being pinned as he and Lilith embraced their deadly dance around steel cages and Frankensteinian experiments. Slime-covered tiles proved to be no hindrance to Lilith but served as another variable John's desperately struggling mind had to keep in focus, lashing out with strikes just to buy himself time.

  Congratulations! For surviving this long against a Greater Horror for the endless potential represented by the twin destinies both you and your nemesis struggle to master, your mind has grown in ways striking and profound. Good luck surviving what comes next! (You’ll need it.)

  Psi-Sense is now fully quantized at Rank 1 (Hunter’s Sense dependent).

  Mindreading is now Rank 2!

  Psi-Tactics is now Rank 2!

  Psion pool has grown 10 points!

  Ego Crush still fails to penetrate your foe’s wards (no growth there, Johnny-boy!)

  John gasped, feeling absolutely no joy in the sudden surge of comprehension flooding through him, his doom now all the clearer in his mind’s eye. It would only be a few more seconds before the inevitability of their fight played out to final, brutal effect, Lilith’s chilling smile making it clear she sensed the flow of this dark tale they were trapped in just as well as he.

  “That’s right, Johnny-boy. Use your gifts. Peer into my mind. Taste the nightmare my father made of my life, and pray the agony is worth a few more precious seconds, which is all your senses will buy you!”

  Lilith’s bitter smile made it clear she knew John was tasting her intentions, intuitive flashes allowing him to react just a bit quicker to her attacks than he otherwise would. Allowing him to realize, much to his horror, that she was just toying with him. Prolonging the fight and setting him up, much as one would a boss in a video game, to assure the most brutal fatality possible. He could taste it in her mind. Taste even that she wanted him to know. She wanted him to sense her tactics, to taste the inevitability of his fate, even as he was forced to endure her pain.

  The pain of a desperately screaming 12-year-old forced into a vat of caustic serum, enduring agony and deformity almost beyond John's ability to fathom. Until horror, self-loathing, and seething hatred were all that was left. Now her only desire was to destroy this world, as she herself had been so utterly destroyed.

  Trapped in a nightmare game she would do anything to escape.

  “John. Please. Do it.”

  John’s shudder almost cost him his life.

  “Please, John. For the memory of all we could have been… end it!”

  John sobbed, sensing those fading whispers of Agneta’s psyche, desperate utterances within a soul consumed by horrific darkness, begging him for one final mercy, sensing just as well as he how close he was to transcendence once more.

  And he howled with bitter fury, lashing out with blade and mind alike.

  Despite his earlier successful use of Psi-Tactics, Lilith had laughed at his multiple attempts at Ego Crush, and only now in his desperate fight for survival did he think to use the one mental attack specialized for piercing all defenses.

  Lilith hissed and blinked at the unexpected pain, and that moment of surprise was all John needed, spinning off his back foot, his tungsten blade whipping through the air as branch and thorn instantly wilted to desiccated husks. For the barest instant, John gazed upon Agenta's beautiful smiling face before it exploded in a shower of brain and gore.

  Mindblade pierces Horror’s defenses! 60 Health / 30 Psion / 30 Fatigue taken! Lilith is momentarily stunned!

  You have Fatally Wounded your crush! Lesser Horror expired! Experience Earned. Congratulations! You have leveled up!

  2 Lesser Horrors defeated. Your status as a Plague Queen Killer devours all infernal curses and taints.

  Two souls aligned with Faerie have been freed from eternal torment.

  Horror Harvester in effect! Two Potency points earned. The Arcadian seed encompassing your Warped magic is ready to blossom once more!

  Elowin’s agonized shriek rang through the chamber. A sound that seemed to echo and reverberate endlessly. A voice made by no human throat.

  John felt a sickening sense of dread in his gut as Lilith’s hideous smile grew.

  “That’s right, bitch. Everything and everyone you knew and loved is gone! Burned to ashes! Your husband and sister butchered by the man before you! Before us both!” Her gaze turned hard. “Quit hiding behind that mask you wear and embrace your own darkness, child of Fae. Nothing holds you to this realm any longer, and these bastards deserve only your hate!”

  An eerie note reverberated through that awful wail, and John knew that if he didn't act now, there would be no escape from the nightmare to ensue.

  Lilith’s laughter taunted him. “Oh, whatcha gonna do, Johnny-boy? You ready to butcher the sweet town mayor as well as her husband and sister?”

  And her twisted smile said it all. Schemes within schemes, plans within plans. So that even should John manage to survive this long, he could only do it by destroying the people, or at least the undead shells of the people that Elowin had once loved. Once cherished. Their final blood on his hands. So his very survival would be used to further damn him, and this town, just as Lilith had intended all along.

  “Game over, asshole!” Lilith hissed.

  John sprung back, narrowly avoiding a vicious swipe as he desperately locked gazes with Elowin, already radiating a cracklingFfae energy that was as far from human as could be.

  “Mary Aurelia lives!” he screamed.

  Sudden dead silence. Gone were the eyes of an eldritch Fae, ready to sunder the world in her grief. Gazing back at John as he desperately weaved and dodged Lilith’s furious blows was a devastated yet very human looking Elowin who nonetheless showed the slightest flicker of hope in eyes that had been gazing upon oblivion’s promise just heartbeats before.

  “My daughter lives?”

  "Yes!" John frantically cried as his shoulder was lanced by a fearsomely sharp pincer. "Twenty-five children live! And the horror that was tormenting them died by my blade! They are with your grandfather, my word on it!”

  “Lies!” Lilith screamed, redoubling her blistering frenzy as John desperately dodged away. “This monster merely seeks to allay his doom. He butchered your sister and husband! The quest is complete. You have to transform. You have to!”

  And for that single odd chilling moment, John saw the confused girl superimposed over the horror he fought.

  As much a player in this strange, deadly world as he was. John was horrified to think that she too followed quest chains, and was as much a PC as he was, even if she had transformed into a monster and worked towards far darker ends.

  “You know my daughter’s hidden name,” Elowin whispered.

  “Yes!” Barely said before being rocked back by the force of the kick slamming against his shin after he had just managed to avoid getting cleaved in twain by Lilith’s vicious pincer.

  And everything seemed to change in that instant, Elowin's face now lit by an almost ethereal glow. "Thank you," she said, and the entire chamber filled with golden light.

  Lilith screamed. Then her outraged gaze turned wide with wonder.

  With hideous delight.

  Her smile stretched and widened, and John swore he could hear the pop of crackling bone, widening like a shark's grin with rows of shiny teeth.

  “Fool! The quest is still complete, Johnny-boy. And best of all, I just leveled up!”

  John’s heart lurched.

  He had been so close to death just fighting her as she was now. To find she could level on the instant, just like he had after slipping into a momentary doze back in their vile lair, underscored just how perilous his situation had become.

  Congratulations, you have l
eveled up!

  Yet Lilith was not alone in achieving that milestone. John’s experience meter had also tipped past full. And the horror of it was, he knew he could easily best Lilith if he embraced his darkest self.

  If he transformed into an abomination just as dark and twisted as Lilith herself was.

  He sensed Lilith's intent before her newly boosted Indomitable Will skill completely shut him out. His nemesis had brought multiple layers of Durability to ward herself against him, fully resistant against all attacks, as she obviously didn’t give a flying fuck about looking human. She was stacking her absurd point pool in ways his inner gamer had to admire, if it weren’t for the fact that it would probably spell his death.

  There was no way in hell even his specialized tungsten blade was cracking through those chitinous plates now.

  In that moment he caught Elowin's gaze. She had been transformed into a vision of glory who, save for the shimmering gossamer wings sprouting from her back, looked both exactly like her former self and utterly different. Features once blunted with the warm imperfections of mortal flesh had been replaced by an ethereal beauty as intimidating as it was captivating.

  She regarded him not with the eyes of a humble town mayor, but rather with the regal gaze of a queen.

  A queen who had been captured by the hideous horror John now faced, forced to back away as ropes of inky black flesh erupted from Lilith’s form.

  And Lilith’s dark grin, filled with her new and improved set of shark teeth, made John chillingly aware that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “That’s right, Johnny-boy. Sweet as her ebony form would have been, having a pristine Faerie Queen to sacrifice will give me power like you wouldn’t believe!”

  John’s eyes widened as whipping tendrils suddenly parted from the right side of her thorax, and he saw an odd disc-shaped protrusion of pink, strangely human-looking flesh. “And once I take your goddamned head, I’ll mount you in my flesh and let you watch for all time. My plaything to torture and torment and whisper all my delicious plans to until I grow bored and tear you off. Better keep me entertained, Johnny-boy. But don’t worry. I think your screams will keep me happy for a very, very long time!” Tendrils opened the protrusion further. It was all John could do not to puke at the sight of pink flesh that seemed to pulsate and throb. “See? I even made an extra pair of lungs for you. So scream all you want. I’ll give you all the air you need.”

  John stumbled back as the laughing horror approached.

  Before the words Elowin uttered next changed everything. Melodious words that echoed like a lingering song through the massive domed chamber.

  "Thank you, Johnathan Farreach, for saving the life of my daughter. For saving twenty-five of our children from death's grim embrace. What boon would you ask of me?"

  John blinked in awe as his eyes darted around.

  No villagers remained.

  Of exhausted, frightened men and women, none were left.

  Only two dozen winged faerie lords and ladies gazing intently at John from the other side of their metal cages.

  “The power to stop this bitch!” John shouted as Lilith, shrieking with delight, spun around, looking positively ecstatic with her sudden collection of pristine faerie lords to violate.

  Elowin, or the ancient faerie queen trapped in a cage of cold iron that had once entertained the fleeting fantasy of being a mortal woman named Elowin, flashed John the strangest smile. “That power you already have. The potential roars within you. Embrace it. Let yourself grow.”

  John's eyes widened as an image of an ancient oak tree flooded his mind, knowing precisely what he needed to do.

  It was obvious that the rules followed by most adventurers according to Readit didn’t exactly apply to horrors. No logging off or good night’s sleep needed to level up. They could morph themselves on the spot. At least, Lilith could.

  And was he any different? That last level-up, he had closed his eyes for what he was now certain had been only seconds, allowing his points to blossom where they would, and it had worked. He had surrendered control for survival, and was more than happy with the trade.

  But now, in this desperate time and place, he thought he could do more. Needed to do more. So much more.

  After locking gazes with Elowin’s piercing blue eyes, he charged his nemesis in a mad gamble that might see him cleaved in twain as rolled the dice, visualizing a massive oak with rich loamy soil before him.

  He imagined placing the two seeds of power and potency that were the essences of two Lesser Horrors defeated, two trapped Faerie souls freed. And one sweet path of possibility that might have one day blossomed to love, forever cleaved from the story of his life.

  Their seeds he planted within the loamy soil beside that ancient oak, the bedrock of so much Faerie power. And upon those seeds, he squeezed out five drops of blood, five points surrendered, allowing them to fall into the rich loamy soil.

  You have purchased the Faerie Power Synergized Link for 2 Points! You have linked the paths of Forest and Blood.

  He felt a momentary frisson of dread as the tree trembled and shook, wondering what price there would be to pay for daring to mesh the sap of the woodlands with the blood of man, focusing with every iota of his will to force the fusion, filled with a desperate terror that if he failed… it was the end for all of them.

  Willpower increased to 15 for 1 point.

  Willpower check made! Insight check made!

  You have successfully saved against catastrophe! For what are blood and sap but the twin fluids that give life to all things? You have sensed the key similarity, embracing its bulwark against the cacophony of dichotomy unleashed! Blood transcends human flesh. Sap transcends arboreal flesh. Those liquids controlling the ebb and flow of life have been fully quantized!

  Congratulations! Spells and Spell enhancements synergizing both disciplines are now open to you! Warped spells heretofore unknown are open to you!

  Bloodlink & Greenbinding have been synergized!

  John felt a single moment’s furious exultation as he closed on Lilith, who could now sense him just as well as he sensed her, a scything limb lashing out for where his head would have been, Lilith’s devilish smile making it clear she had been waiting for his desperate final charge.

  Finesse increased to 13 for 1 point!

  Lilith’s eyes widened with surprise when her deadly strike earned her only his ear and a shaved-off sliver of his scalp. She snarled with furious hate as he smacked into her, his weapon clanging futilely against her impossibly tough carapace.

  Lilith chuckled cruelly, delighting in the opportunity to rip his blade right out of his hand as her limbs jerked him off his feet. She glared into his eyes, in perfect position to snap off his face, if she wanted.

  A disarmed fool who was obviously no match for Lilith was worthy only of a contemptuous smirk. And John already knew she wanted him alive, at least long enough to tear off his head.

  She gazed into his heaving, wild-eyed features with a look that was almost one of pity.

  “Fool! You could barely score me with your tungsten blade. You think this joke of a sword will do you any good?”

  John shrugged. “It was worth a shot,” he said, feeling a vindictive surge of glee when he managed to knock out several of her shark teeth with his clenched fist, holding tight to prickly pain as he did so.

  Lilith snarled and snapped her mouth shut, biting off John’s hand in a shower of blood.

  18

  You have taken 50 damage from bite! You have suffered a Crippling Wound! You are losing 4 health a second due to blood loss. You have taken 40 damage and are suffering 2 cracked ribs from being flung across the room!

  John wheezed. The pain was overwhelming, no matter that he had expected it.

  Two health lost due to blood loss. Greater Regeneration halts all further blood loss! You are now regenerating lost tissue!

  Lilith gulped and smiled. “A final act of defiance, how fitting. And how sweet yo
ur flesh tastes!”

  “Glad you like it,” John snarled. “I hope it grows on you. Vinea Sanguine! Vinea Sanguine! Vinea Sanguine!” he roared, quickly scurrying back.

  Lilith’s eyes bulged with surprise. Her massive torso began to distend.

  John’s gaze hardened even as Lilith glared at him with hate-filled eyes, suddenly blazing like hellish vents as she raced forward, stumbling over the vines suddenly erupting from her mouth, from the ugly pink rupture she had planned to put his head in, and from the cracks in her carapace as well.

  Yet much to his horror, she was barely slowing down. Any normal human would have already died, all organs no doubt ruptured. But Lilith was the farthest thing from a normal person as one could possibly be. He caught sight of only the barest trickle of fluid oozing from where the vines spilled out of Lilith’s massive frame, the sharp thorns completely stripped away.

  If he was really lucky, the furious looking monstrosity stumbling forward would eventually suffocate, assuming she even needed to use lungs for breathing, assuming she didn’t still have points to warp herself further and survive even this nightmare.

  As vicious as his plan had been, easily stripped thorns were no match against the supernaturally toughened flesh of a metamorphosized Greater Horror that could level up.

  John visualized that oak tree in his mind’s eye once more, imagining it as resilient and hard as one would only find in dreams or legend, each leaf so tough and sharp as to cut through flesh as easily as those bronze leaf-shaped blades once so popular in Grecian times. Weapons legend and rumors would have one believe the Fae favored still. And he imagined the seed of potency growing on the tree of his power doubling in size, like a fruit ripening to exquisite sweetness, even as his mana crashed to near nothing. For his fist had clenched not just one of those seedpods, but a handful, and he had roared his curse threefold, spitting into the face of his enemy.