Queen Killer

by M. H. Johnson

  John shook with fury as his father gasped. "Because the Mitch who had been fleeing to the manor, he wasn't fleeing Overlord Tytus's wrath. No. I get it, now. Why he was so adamant that we keep that gate offline. He was fleeing from you! And that Inquisitor who tried to step through, he was one of your men, wasn’t he!"

  John's cold bitter laughter rang through the hallway. He didn't even need to pierce his father's Indomitable Will. The look in his father’s eyes, the smell of his sweat, were the only tells he needed.

  John forced the caustic fury boiling through him to still for the length of a single cold question. “By your own words, only one of Mitch and me can be alive at a time. How is it there are, or were, two Mitches? And how the hell did you bastards reactivate the gate so quickly?”

  John’s father swallowed. “I can bring him back,” he whispered. “I can bring back the Mitch you want. He’s not truly gone. None of you are. None of you are! You’re all in the vats below.”

  “Answer the question, Father.”

  Malus shuddered. “The doctor is the one who jury-rigged the gate. He explained to me the nature of the situation the moment you and your brother had lost yourselves to revelry. But no matter. You have already inflicted your vengeance upon the only party worthy of your hate.

  "And as for your foolish brother, the Psion-wave cascades preventing multiple vat-clones from acting in concert in this universe does not hold on Earth. For all that our forces and fields have infected it, the coding for Mana and Psion has warped into a conjoined field, separate from their electromagnetic spectrum. In that environment, both of your brothers were able to live harmoniously."

  Golden eyes glared into John's own. "As did a half dozen of your own clones, Johnathan Farreach. Each of you Mindlinked to the other, learning the skills Mitch taught you all, becoming weapons worthy of carrying the Farreach name!”

  His father’s piercing eyes seemed to grow, taking up all of his vision before John gave an angry shake of his head.

  Domination successfully countered by Evolving Castle!

  “Everything I did to you and your brother was a test, John. That is all.” Malus forced an approving nod even as he winced in pain, blood trickling from dozens of gashes inflicted by the vines still encasing him. "And it humbles me to admit that in the end, it was you, not your brother, who has proven himself worthy. It is you and you alone, Johnathan Farreach, who is worthy of our family name. Who is worthy of walking by my side as my second. Worthy of being presented before the very High Council as our deadliest weapon, and as my chosen son!"

  John laughed in his father’s face.

  “You’re like a bad salesman who can’t stop peddling his own shit.”

  The older man’s eyes widened at the insult, cheeks blotched with sudden fury. But before he could say a word, Mitch struck with all his hate, smashing in his father's nose. Malus futilely roared, though his ugly snarl couldn’t hide the tears of pain and fear streaming from his eyes.

  “The one Mitch who actually gave a fuck about me, you killed!”

  Malus cried out when John's right hook smashed his cheek, his head snapping back against leaves and thorns that further lacerated his flesh.

  "My friends were strangled before my eyes, and my girlfriend was skinned alive, screaming her guts out before she finally died! And you fucking sick savages were getting off on our pain, all of our pain. Well, it's high time I returned the fucking favor!"

  His father strove desperately to speak before his teeth cracked together, John's palm strike shattering his jaw with all the force and fury 14 Strength and 17 Quickness could generate.

  Highlord Malus groaned, shuddering with pain, spitting out broken teeth and sticky strands of saliva and blood.

  John flashed a cold grin, presenting a prize that made even his father blanch with terror.

  Arcane Perception Success! Not quite as high tech as they all pretend, are they?

  John smiled into his father's panicked gaze. "I see you recognize my old home, where you would have left my head to suffer for eternity if you didn't need the slot for another clone! I refilled it with more of the gloop your head scientist projected so frantically with his mind before I killed him. Slowly, I might add."

  He laughed as his father sobbed with desperate fear. "Turns out these aren't high tech artifacts after all. They're arcane. Bloody ironic, isn’t it? They’re magical tools embraced by Highlords hungry to stamp out every last trace of magic on Jordia. Especially Kentric. The Psychotic ass all you fucks are secretly hoping wins the throne. A psychopath who would burn all of Jordia’s ancient forests to the ground!”

  John flicked his fingers upon the jar, enjoying the tonal ring, the dirge his father recognized all too well. “Unlike Psiblades, I can port these just fine when I slip between the trees or step into Dream, and I’m sure it will continue to work when I bring you to your future home."

  His father licked pale, bloody lips, his now broken jaw and shattered teeth muffling his voice, but his desperate plea was utterly clear.

  “Please, son. Do not do this. I am your father. Your father!”

  John nodded, picking up the blade his father had dropped, licking off the blood on the hilt, savoring his father’s terrified gaze.

  “I know,” he said. “Now let’s see if I truly am my father’s son.”

  Psiblade catalyzed, and what a wonderful little wildcard you are! Oblivion would be pleased to call you Disciple. 50 Psion reserved!

  John smiled, admiring the 3 foot long shaft of oblivion surrounded by crackling violet energies somehow containing what John visualized as the event horizon of a black hole. “Well, will you look at that. It seems I’m my father’s son after all.”

  His father blanched, tears leaking freely from terrified eyes opening impossibly wide. “No, son. Please. Please don’t do this, John. Please! I was wrong. I went too far. I know I went too far! But our situation is perilous. It is beyond perilous. Don’t you understand? Our world is at stake! I was only allowed to flee to Earth if I could find a cure. Our clan’s survival depended upon it!”

  John chuckled bitterly. “Because of the Plague Queens. For all that Mitch swore they were the result of rogue scientists, it was all you, wasn't it? All of it, every iota of it, orchestrated by you!"

  John’s eyes widened in horrified disbelief as it all clicked into place, his Psiblade shaking with the intensity of his fury. "Lilith, Sade, all the others… Oh God. They're my sisters. You had me killing my sisters!"

  His father adamantly shook his head. “No, only the Lilith sequence. Only the Lilith sequence has any relation to you! The Eve and Sade sequences were gengineered by Highlords long since perished. They are no more! All the other queens you've already destroyed. Don't you understand how close you are to redemption, my son? Only the Liliths are still free! The most prolific Plague Queens hiding in the South are the Lilith series! Purge them, my son, and you will have redeemed yourself before the High Council itself!"

  John laughed at his father’s ludicrous statement. “I? Redeem myself? You monsters made me what I am! Do you understand? This is your fault! All of it!” Fury turned to ice-cold focus. “And if there was a version of me that managed to kill all those queens… where is he now?”

  His father blanched, but John already understood.

  Insight gained! Someone strong enough to take out multiple Plague Queens was too strong for your father to fully control. And we already know how your father likes to ‘get ahead’ of any situation!

  “You killed him, didn’t you?”

  He smirked at his father’s frantic headshake. “Lying, this late in the game? Pathetic!”

  John shook his head in both pity and contempt for that naive version of himself who had no doubt allowed himself to be morphed into the very monster he could now become at will. A boy desperate to please his father and brother, accepting each and every task they gave him. Enduring any risk, no matter how perilous, any mutation, no matter how grotesque, in the desperate hope of earnin
g his father’s approval.

  But in the end, it hadn’t mattered.

  All his fierce battles, all his desperate efforts to make the world a better place, all for the sake of his father, and it had meant nothing.

  His father and brother had probably cut off 270’s head without a second thought, as they no doubt had so many times before, so impulsively killing him that they had needed to rush Symbiote 271 just to finish the cleanup.

  John was alive upon his twin brother’s ashes, and that horror struck him deepest of all.

  Shaking with fury, John sheathed the Psiblade, snarling into his father’s relieved expression.

  “Let’s end this, once and for all. You think to fear me now? Then fear the mind you were so quick to denigrate and cast aside, as if I were nothing at all!” John roared, spearing his father with the blade of his mind.

  Mindblade successfully pierces Indomitable Will! Secondary defenses ward the remainder of your blow. Your father has been rattled!

  His father gasped before his face turned beat-red with a wild fury unlike anything John had ever seen before, clenching his fists tight, ignoring the prickling thorns of razor-sharp steel as if they were nothing.

  “Very well, Abomination. Ever the cursed mongrel doomed to bite his master's hand! Let’s see how far you’ve come since I first forged you into being!” And the force of his mind, a greater Highlord with nothing to lose, bowled John over.

  Ego Crush hammers your defenses! 60 Health and 30 Fatigue lost!

  You regenerate 17 Health & Stamina from Greater Regeneration and Bloodvines this round.

  John rocked back with the sudden surge of pain, chilled by how close the howling storm of his enemy's mind was to blowing his fortress over completely. Sensing the imminent collapse of his defenses, he took a desperate gamble, allowing the sides of his psyche to buckle under the pressure. Buckle and reinforce the whole, coaxing the obsidian walls of his psyche to curve ever more inward, forming an increasingly narrow bulwark with sloping fields of resilience and ego upon which his enemy’s fury would flow away into the ether, hardly touching him at all.

  Before spearing out with his mind once more, gazing into his Father’s eyes with all the hatred boiling inside, memory of Emily’s desperate gaze searing his soul. And now his father’s as well.

  Critical Strike! Mindblade pierces primary defense! Indomitable Will ruptured! Castling mitigates killing blow! Your father suffers 60 Health and 30 Psion/Stamina loss! Heavy Wound suffered by Cerebral Cortex! Your father now fears you more than death itself!

  John smiled into his father’s terrified eyes. “You doubled your defenses. I never heard of that before. Damned impressive.”

  His father was gazing at him in utter disbelief. “There is no way you should be able to pierce my defenses. Your attack does not exist! Who taught you that technique? Who dared to interfere with my creation?”

  “Her name was Captain Agneta Greenfield. 200 years old and as beautiful as a dream. She taught me what it means to cherish a woman beyond a high school crush.”

  His father’s eyes widened. “The Greenfields? Those Faerie Psionicist abominations? Impossible. We had them all purged years ago!” His father paled as his own words left his lips.

  John flashed a curious smile. Insight gained! “I think I’ve already damaged part of your mind. You’re no longer able to lie, are you? Perhaps Mindblade really does cleave into the brain, somehow.”

  “Yes," his father agreed. "If you damage the appropriate areas of the Prefrontal Cortex, your victim will reveal all their secrets without you even needing to pierce their defenses. And how delicious it is to see the growing despair overtake them as we pluck free every truth they sought to hide!"

  John peered into his father’s eyes, now echoing the very horror Malus had no doubt savored seeing in his victim’s gaze, once upon a time.

  “Well, well.” John smirked at his father’s whimper. “I’m glad to see you enjoying all this as much as I.”

  And so went the final night of Highlord Farreach’s life outside of a pain vat, blinking in horror as words spilled forth from quivering lips to his continuous dismay. All his dark secrets soon became John’s own before at last, with a despairing sob that resonated through the manor entire, it was over.

  John gazed almost pityingly into Malus’s frantically blinking eyes, blood streaming from his nostrils. He could barely make out his father's slurring words at this point, but he could read the man’s terrified thoughts with perfect clarity. "What have you done to me?"

  John flashed a cold smile. "I tore all your secrets free. Including that which you most fear in all the world."

  His sire paled. “No. You’re still human. No!”

  John’s dark smile widened. “Tell me, father, is this what haunts you at night?”

  You have successfully transformed into Midnight Mantis! Mantis form is now aligned with Arcadia! Arcadian Power Modifiers can be put in effect with successful use of Faerie Magic skill!

  Congratulations! You have successfully incorporated Tier 2 Rigidity into your Arcadian Form! 120(0.7) = 84 Mana spent. Your carapace is now as strong as an armored tank! Secondary synergism role failed: Not all biosystems were able to adapt. Spiracles are malformed! 1 Health & Stamina lost per minute due to hypoxic environment. This is well below your rate of regeneration of 16 Health and Stamina per second!

  And when his father caught sight of John embracing his true form, a form that Highlord Farreach had spent so many years fusing to his son’s genetic makeup, projecting his own worst fears to one day haunt his enemies on the battlefield, the shrieks that had come before that moment were nothing compared to the howls of animalistic despair that rang through the once-luxurious manor before John lashed out with razor-sharp limbs, cleaving his father’s head free.

  John smiled as he reverted forms once more, raising his father’s dying head by the hair, peering into the man’s wildly rolling eyes. “Control, dad. Remember telling me that, once upon a time? It’s all about control.”

  He then flicked his father’s head into the prepared pain vat, closing his eyes and smiling as his father’s mental screams washed over him in waves, riding it with the force of his mind like he had once enjoyed water-skiing with Mitch and their dad, years ago, in a life he supposed none of them had ever truly lived. But now that he thought of it, his father gazing back at him that day from the prow of the boat with a look of warm approval as his son finally mastered those skis was the only time John had ever seen his dad truly smile.

  You have killed a Greater Highlord! All his endless potential is now your own! Experience earned! You have earned 1 additional Potency Point to spend on any Arcadian power!

  Hidden Quest: Vicious Cycle Part 1 Complete!

  Hidden Quest: Meet Your Maker Part 1 Complete!

  You have learned the darkest secrets of the Highlords who had invaded Earth, using it as a testing ground for biological weapons that would violate Dominion accords to test anywhere else. Bio weapons just like you! Raised and slaughtered dozens of times over, left perpetually ignorant and desperate to earn the love and acknowledgment of a brother and father who saw you as nothing more than the most contemptible of tools, eager to kill you the moment you stumbled upon that forbidden concept known as free will!

  These quests involve the secrets of your very existence. You now know who, and what, you truly are! Unique quantization bonuses in effect. Triple normal experience earned!

  Your fate path offered two unique branches upon which you could have advanced with your father’s confession. The Path of Familial Redemption, or the Path of Crimson Tears.

  You have made your choice! Your father’s head now gulps endlessly in a pain vat. Additional Darkpoint earned!

  1 Down, 1 to go!

  Castling Rank 3 successfully transformed to Invulnerable Mind Rank 3! Mental attacks now break against your defenses like water splashing against a battleship's prow. You can cut through the waves of your enemies' minds effortlessly! Invulnerab
le Mind has no weaknesses. All attacks save Psionic Blast suffer a 2 point penalty! (Psionic Blast strikes all defensive points at once, so no penalties suffered.) You also benefit from additional reduction of partial damage against all psionic attacks, due to the Psi-dynamics of your evolved defenses.

  You are a natural at this! Too bad your father never bothered to harness your gifts. Too bad he never treated you like you were human at all!

  Except for that one time he took you and your brother water-skiing and forgot that you were anything other than his son.

  Congratulations! You have leveled up!

  The words rang almost joyfully within his skull as he strode back to the quarters he had claimed as his own, smiling in what was almost fond memory of his former naivete, so horrified to accept that the webbing binding the inn room tightly shut, or the desiccated corpse, or even the cocoon he had emerged from (remember that, Johnny-boy?) had been the result of nothing less than his true self.

  And with a little bit of focus, John found it almost effortless to shoot a stream of sticky silk from an odd opening he had morphed on his wrist, somehow intuitively shifting parts of his still-human body to effortlessly accommodate the powers of his other form.

  You have purchased the power Synergized Forms for 2 Points! Shoot sticky webbing, transform your fists into razor sharp pincers as sharp as any sword, or generate carapaces as hard as a tank to protect your mortal body with a thought! Or talk to your human friends, even in Midnight Mantis form. Too bad everyone you ever cared about is already dead!

  Now you can freely shift all powers and abilities between forms! 1 Potency Point & 1 Character Point spent. 4 Character Points remaining.

  John smiled, grateful once more that his Arcadian affinity allowed him to level up without having to sleep. God knew he’d probably never sleep again, with the nightmares waiting for him.