A final desperate lurch, and Lucy moved no more.
“Mitch! Why? Why are you doing this? Oh God, the pain!”
Mitch chuckled cruelly, not even bothering to answer John’s question.
Carl was gazing at Mitch with wide-eyed horror, somehow having freed his muffle of his own accord, having lost only a couple teeth in doing so. “Mitch, why, man, why! Lucy was in love with you. She wasn’t even on the pill! Please man, come on, please, don't do this. You don't have to do this! Hey, we were friends just yesterday, right? You were spending all that time teaching me how to use that sweet poleaxe! Shit, come on, Mitch, I’m your man, you know I am! We were drinking and laughing together, having a good time just last night! Why do you want to do this? You don’t want to—”
His desperate pleas choked off in a gurgle as Mitch began to throttle a wild-eyed Carl.
Dark red veins pulsed on his forehead as Mitch reveled in tormenting the Terrans necessity had demanded he pretend to care about for far, far too long. But in these sweet moments, he was able at last to vent his utter disdain for these disgusting apes. As he had so many times before, intentionally projecting his fury, pelting everyone in the lab with it as he throttled John's friends, one by one.
Every other part of Mitch's psyche was carefully warded and locked by barriers fierce and terrible, and John was in far, far too much pain to even think about breaking through.
And with a final choking gurgle, a struggling Carl collapsed in death, just as Lucy had, minutes before.
John shrieked in pain only exceeded by despair as Mitch at last approached a desperate Emily, keening like an animal, tearing at her now bloody restraints with mindless panic.
He chuckled coldly, flashing John the cruelest of smiles. “I think you know what comes next, Johnny-boy. And do you know what the best part is? The look in her eyes when I kill her!”
And the hideous pain John felt was nothing compared to the terror in Emily's eyes as Mitch plucked a razor-sharp scalpel from a nearby operating table, savoring Emily's muffled cry as he tore off her clothes, and began to flay her alive.
“Mitch! For the love of God, stop this!” John screamed with every last iota of his tormented soul.
His horrid brother’s eyes widened, as if shocked by the intensity of John’s desperate cry. Then he smirked. “Your mind’s strong, this time around, brother. Too strong. I’ll bet you’d attack me right now if you could, but that’s alright. You’re in too much pain right now to even form coherent sentences, let alone focus your mind for Psionic attacks.” His eyes widened with mock surprise. “Oh look, your beautiful fuck-toy just lost her nose. What a shame. Don’t you wish you could stop me?”
John silently shrieked and wailed at the tragedy that had become Emily’s once beautiful features, ragged strips of flesh sheared off, a bloody stump where her nose had once been as she screamed mindlessly into the void. Yet John sensed no pain from her, only desperate terror, perhaps because his own nerves blazed like fire. Only her beautiful violet eyes did Mitch leave untouched as he violated every other part of her body with his terrible instrument, until at last he cracked open her chest.
Forcing Emily to gaze at her own beating heart as he tore it free.
Laughing at her dying gaze, laughing as John screamed like a mindless animal seething with unending rage, at last embraced every dark secret he had desperately pushed aside for so many lifetimes, Emily's dying cries rupturing so many psychic wards his family had carefully implanted over countless incarnations as Mitch and their father tormented him like never before.
Mitch twisted his furious gaze around to peer intently into John’s wildly gyrating orbs. “How does it feel, Johnny-boy? You’ve lost everything. Everything! Because you were too fucking stupid to listen. Too fucking mule-headed to do what you’re told. Too stubborn to obey. Do you hear that, John 272? 273? All you fucks to come after? Your lives mean nothing! Your pain means nothing! You have one duty. To listen and obey! Always and forever to obey! Never forget! Never ever forget, or we’ll cause you such pain and suffering that this will seem but a passing fantasy, a dream of the torments Father and I have planned, the next time you dare fuck with us!”
He snarled in John’s dying face. “You got that, you pain-vat bitch? You got that loud and clear?”
Cruel fingers yanked John free of the pain vat. All John’s former agony was suddenly replaced by a desperate, unending need to breathe, as if he was trapped underneath a frozen river bank, futilely banging on the ice, screaming in his mind for the sweet taste of air upon lungs he no longer had.
Mitch turned to the cyborg once more. “Tell me the good news!”
The doctor bowed. “Subject’s neuromatrix has been successfully imprinted. You may terminate his remains at your leisure, my lord.”
Mitch smirked, peering into John’s agonized gaze. “Rejoice, Johnny-boy. With all the psionically catalyzed Elementium your neck stump sucked up, you have at least an hour to enjoy the sensation of suffocating to death.” He sneered, glancing back at the doctor. “On second thought, leave the sensors on. Every moment longer he suffers is another gift I can give to the next goddamned clone that Father forces me to work with!”
The doctor bowed. “The memtapes are still recording, my lord.”
Mitch then turned to the pile of bodies being callously dumped into a bio vat conveniently build into the floor of the laboratory. “I’ll let the fuck rot with his bitch and the others. May his final dying thoughts be with their necrotic flesh pressed against his own.”
And with that, John’s decapitated head was tossed in with the remains of his friends.
25
John screamed, gazing into Emily’s milky eyes, her corpse floating along with his remains in a hot caustic sea of slime that would slowly dissolve them over a period of days.
He screamed for the agony he endured, the desperate breath he ached to inhale even now. The horror of gazing into the ravaged face of a girl he had embraced just hours ago. But most of all, he screamed in horror and outrage at the unspeakable betrayal he had endured.
Mitch. A brother who he had thought loved him, had been using him. Using him over 270 incarnations. A controller who, in fact, despised his tool, so vindictively spiteful as to butcher John’s girl before his very eyes as a final act of caustic hate before tossing John’s cleaved head like so much garbage.
The hideous rage that had been seething through him became a howling vortex of frustrated wrath, clawing at the dying walls of his mind, willing at last to embrace all the dark secrets just a heartbeat away from shredding reality forever more in darkness and flame.
Congratulations! You have suffered Absolute Betrayal! No living potentate upon the face of Jordia can match what you have just endured! With your final flickering thoughts, you have broken free of morality’s chains!
Do what thou whilst! +2 Darkpoints earned!
And somehow John was able to feed upon even his own pain, stretching out the lingering last seconds of his hideous life. The nightmare of swimming in a vat of slime filled with the bodies of his lover and friends faded to the cool caress of a woodland breeze, the awful stench of burnt Elementium and caustic slime transformed to honeysuckle and pine.
The ancient forest lord was before him once more, green sap dripping from his hand. “Will you clasp my hand once more, Johnathan Everwood, eternal victim and enemy of the Farreach clan? For none can deny our claim and precedence over these lands within realms of Midnight and Dream.”
The potent eyes of what John’s last flickers of awareness assumed to be a living god peered into his own with gentlest sympathy, from a deity long inured to the horrors of man.
John flashed a bloody smile, knowing he was naught but a helpless head doomed to suffer in hideous agony as his brain slowly died. Powerless and pathetic before the bastards who had brought him down.
At that moment, there was nothing more that he wanted to do than shake the forest lord's hand. Hating so fiercely, so deeply, his only thoug
ht was sticking it to the bastards who had ruined his life in every conceivable way before treating him as worthless trash, to torture and dispose of without a second thought.
Even in death, he would make them pay.
Forest Diety wishes to claim your Dominion Matrix sheet! Do you wish to surrender all claims of sovereignty in both the waking realms and those of Dream? (Yes/No)
Warning, this choice cannot be revoked!
You have chosen Yes!
Elder Greenwood flashed John a strangely sympathetic smile. “Of your own free will, as you endure the torments of cursed Elementium and the lingering taste of Death, eager for your soul. And still you surrender the final flickers of your prize, with nothing promised in return.”
John flashed a hideous grin as he sensed a tendril of caustic slime and bubbling blood wrap around the Faerie Lord’s palm in the physical world mirroring this dream, the being not hesitating at all in clasping his grip.
Divine eyes locked upon his own. John screamed as pain beyond even what he had suffered so far blazed through his soul.
“Then accept my gift, freely given! For I find you worthy, and I care naught that you are little more than your father’s broken weapon. Even in your final moments, you, Child of Arcadia, will die a Champion of the Fae!”
Forest Deity is offering you access to prestige class: Paladin of Arcadia. Do you accept? (Y/N) – Warning! Character Conflicts Detected!
John’s eyes widened with awe and wonder, fierce joy blazing through his agony.
Even at his most hideously ruined, nothing more than a decapitated head thrown away like refuse, someone out there would revere his memory. It filled him with a terrible bittersweet joy. Though he had been consigned to the abyss, he had been forgiven by one pure soul, allowed to rise from purgatory, to know his torment would one day end.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a major milestone no player has before! You have acted in ways utterly outside your class paradigm! Your souls have undergone Major Transformation. Abomination has suffered Major Warping!
Abomination infects every cell of your being. Abomination has completely incorporated your physiology! You are the Abomination! You have suffered Major Warping.
John choked back a scream that transcended mere words as his torments only grew, the Elementium still in his neck stump forcing him to survive this hideous torment without the mercy of final death at last claiming him.
Saving throw versus oblivion made! You have successfully fused conflicting paradigms! You can now use Potency Points to boost and augment Symbiote powers!
Paladin of Arcadia prestige class unlocked! Prestige class has been Warped to Blood Knight! As a Tier 1 Blood Knight, you have earned 5 Potency Points to boost all Arcadian powers! You will never walk the Path of Kings, but you can still serve as Arcadia’s Champion! Every territory you claim in Arcadia’s honor will earn you additional prestige class points!
You have undergone Major Metamorphosis! The forced fusion of Faerie and Abomination magics has revealed your True Form!
Modifications Possible: Free with Class Metamorphosis! (You must choose one.)
Greater Horror – Maximize your darkest potential! Who says Arcadian magics must dominate? Embrace the nightmare! All Arcadian points and powers become Symbiote powers. Every significant Abomination, Faerie, or psionically gifted Highlord you defeat will earn you 1 additional point to spend on Abomination powers! Humanoid form is forever lost! (What good did it ever do you anyway?) Transform forevermore into a horror that will send all of Jordia quaking in fear! Cost: 0 points to become a Greater Horror (but the first step on the path to dark mastery. The Keeper would be proud, if you even knew who that was! And you will soon...)
Midnight Mantis form – A Blood Knight willing to embrace the darkest of Faerie magics to achieve your righteous ends, you have claimed the darkest dreams of your enemies, and made their nightmares your own. All Symbiote powers become Arcadian Powers. Every significant Abomination or psionically gifted Highlord you defeat will earn you 1 additional point to spend on Arcadian powers! Humanoid form is preserved! You may shift forms at will into a Fae version of that which your foes most fear! Cost per use: 100 Mana. Abomination status lost. Less powerful, but more versatile! Only wards and bindings that repulse the Fae will have any effect on you!
Congratulations! You now have access to new Arcadian Powers! (You have 4 Character and 5 Potency Points left to invest in your build!)
Arcadian Power options.
Blink Step (Woodland Step Dependent Power) This power will allow you to teleport short distances in any direction at will! Range doubles with each rank of Blink purchased. Cost per rank: 2 points. Cost to use: 10 Mana.
Advanced Regeneration Rank II: Each additional rank of regeneration will double health and stamina regenerated per second, with added perks for each additional rank! - Cost per rank: 1 point.
Dream Shift: This power will allow you to shift through walls and past your opponent’s blows! Bonus to all stealth and combat skill checks at a cost of 10 Mana per second. Cost halves and benefits increase with each rank. - Cost per rank: 3 points.
Deadly Sap: Shoot out razor-sharp spikes made of hardened sap. Strikes will cause Moderate to Fatal wounds depending upon enemy armor worn and location struck. Every Rank doubles the number of Sap Spikes summoned! - Cost per rank: 1 Point. Cost to cast: 10 Mana.
(Synergism detected! Rank 1 Rigidity will make said sap as hard as bronze for added penetration power! Rank 1 Domain will double the size of each sap spike for 1 additional tier of damage! Bloodmagic will allow Bloodsap Variant! Drink deep of the blood of your foes!)
With the final dying flickers of awareness at last slipping into the mercy of death, John made his choices, and experienced pain even more horrific than what he had endured before.
Rank II Greater Regeneration achieved! 2 Health & Stamina regenerated per second. You have achieved further mastery over all vascular & regenerative systems! Health per second lost due to blood loss or poisoning will cease after 2 seconds! You are now utterly immune to all biological contaminants. Even magical plagues like the Red Death will have no effect upon you! Your body is effectively no longer mortal (if it ever was). Age and decrepitude will no longer affect you!
Rank III Greater Regeneration achieved! 4 Health & Stamina regenerated per second. Health per second lost due to blood loss or poisoning will completely cease after 1 second!
Rank IV Greater Regeneration achieved! 8 Health & Stamina regenerated per second. Aerobic respiration is optional at this point, and health lost due to blood loss or poisoning is zero! Sentient Tardigrades would be envious of how well you can now survive in the most extreme environments, including the deeps of the sea or the depths of space!
Rank V Greater Regeneration achieved! You have achieved Adept status and regenerate 16 Health and Stamina per second. Your Adept potency puts you on par with Lesser Immortals! Tier 5 Adept status will allow you regenerate from any injury, so long as organic matter of any type lies beneath your feet, or within range of the tendrils you can now shoot out from the stump of your neck! Even a decapitated head might grow back a body before neuromatrix degenerates, especially with Elementium coursing through your blood! Note: No further advancement is possible at this time.
Tier 1 Blink Step achieved! You can already teleport vast distances between groves. Now you can instantly teleport 10 meters in any direction at will! Cost to use: 10 Mana. Faerie Magic skill check and dedicated practice will allow you to use this skill in all sorts of interesting ways! Increased levels of this skill will double the distance you can Blink Step and add 2 to all Faerie Magic skill checks involving this power!
Tier 1 Dream Shift achieved! Your connection to Faerie allows you to jump between layers of reality! At a cost of 10 mana per second, you can dodge and strike at right angles to all known points! (¼ cost on Earth. This ‘flat' realm is particularly easy to step free of at will!) Step past a bank vault, slip past a sword blow! Successful use of this skill (
Perception/Quickness based) will give you +5 to all combat rolls and stealth checks, allowing you to weave past enemy defenses and dodge strikes that should have claimed your head! Each additional rank halves Mana cost and increases combat rolls by 1 point. Adept level allows free use at will!
And the Bio vat began to bubble and seethe as John embraced the darkest gifts of Nightmare and Faerie, the first move in a series of events that would send shockwaves through Jordia’s aristocracy every bit as significant as the Terran who dared the throne.
Vengeance was finally at hand.
26
Hunter’s Sense activated! 10 Mana Spent.
The entire massive chamber with its clone vats, dissection tables, gurneys, and computers was suddenly in exquisitely sharp, crystalline focus for the creature that burst through the grates covering the seething pool of alchemically catalyzed biomass. Only two individuals were in the chamber at that moment, the doctor whose skull was covered in chrome plates and ports, his cybernetic eyes gazing intently at a computer monitor, and the same hapless lab assistant who had so callously tossed all the bodies present into the slurry, including the bodies of friends the Midnight Horror once known as John had known and loved.
The suddenly bug-eyed assistant didn’t even get a chance to scream as massive serrated pincers burst through his abdomen before tearing him open in a shower of intestines and blood.
Wild blinking eyes rolled in their sockets as the nightmare creature speared its victim’s chest, ripping free the heart and devouring it, forcing the dying man to watch as he did so, the victim’s dying gaze spattered with his own heart’s blood.
And all of it over in a handful of seconds.
Long enough only for the lab-coated doctor to turn away from the black and white computer monitor he had been using and stumble to his feet as he beheld his servant’s violent death and the nightmarish abomination charging forward faster than he could blink.
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