by Ian Rodgers
After watching a demon fly down from the sky and alight on a balcony made from cartilage and gristle and proceed to enter through a door where the giant being’s left ear should have been, Dora was unable to hold back any longer and vomited all over the ground.
“What… what in the actual Hells is this?” she gasped. Her bile sizzled against the flesh of the Vale of Screams, melting a hole into the ground at her feet as she stared at the monstrosity of architecture before her.
“Th-they turned a living creature – A Titan – into a gods damned mansion!” Ain hissed in disgust.
“The Wailing Tower… this… I can’t… I don’t have the words to describe this, this abomination!” Dora growled angrily. She glanced at Enrai who was staring blankly in horror at the creature in front of them. She then turned to Ain who was swearing in elfish at the way the demons had despoiled one of the most ancient and powerful entities in existence.
“Enrai? Ain? Forget stealth, we’re smashing our way in and burning the place down if we can,” Dora announced.
“I love this plan!” Enrai said gleefully. Ain simply grinned a toothy, vicious gin, that promised pain in the Queen’s immediate future.
As one, the trio bolted out of their hiding spot and began to run full tilt at the disfigured Titan who’d been forcefully converted into an abode. They aimed for a door that had been grafted onto the Titan stomach, right where a belly button would have once been. Approaching the Wailing Tower, the group had to use Enrai’s wings of fire to carry all of them up to that particular entrance.
The door was unlocked. Hardly surprising, since who would be stupid enough to break into and steal from a Demon Lord? The door was torn off of its hinges all the same, and hurled away from the Titan. The flesh around the frame quivered in pain, and Dora quickly used her magic to healing the gaping hole in it. The entrance was completely healed over in no time, and the Healer patted the newly grown flesh apologetically.
“I’m sorry I can’t do more than this,” she mumbled to the Titan. “And I’m sorry for any further pain we’ll be causing you.”
A rumbling groan echoed through the fleshy walls of the Tower, and Dora’s mind was bombarded with images of herself, tearing apart countless demons while standing protectively in front of a withered, yet still beating, heart. Painful emotions accompanied the mental projections, mainly vindictive glee at the thought of someone hurting the demons, and a pleading sensation that begged to die.
“You want us to kill you?” she asked, and a second loud groan reverberated through the flesh and her thoughts.
‘YES!’ the projected emotions screamed at her, and the Healer nodded.
“Sometimes, a Healer can’t save a person. And the kindest thing they can do is send the patient off in peace,” Dora said, reciting a passage of the Healer’s Creed her mother had taught her long ago. She turned to her friends, who were raring to go, and smiled.
“Come on, let’s tear this place apart and find Nia’s pets!”
In response to her words, the halls of meat and muscle around the party contracted, and Dora found herself with directions popping into her head.
“The Tower’s showing me where to go,” she explained to Ain and Enrai as she bolted down one of the many branching corridors. The two didn’t question her response and just rolled with it, following her down the twisting labyrinth of flesh that was the Wailing Tower.
“It’s a lot bigger on the inside then it seemed from the outside. Is the Queen using Space magic to distort the dimensions of the interior?” Enrai asked as they passed by a vast, arching room filled with pools of acid. Demons could be seen swimming through the corrosive fluids without a care, the Titan’s stomach acids no match for the mutagenic regeneration of the Abyss.
“According to the Tower, the answer is ‘yes,’” Dora replied after listening to a whispering wail that flowed through the corridor.
“Oh. Neat. Uh, thank you, Tower,” Enrai said hesitantly. “How, um, how is the Tower able to observe what goes on inside of it? And answer our questions?”
Ain rolled his eyes at his human friend. “It’s a Titan, Enrai. Primordial entities who are more magic than material existences. They built an empire across the Aether, and ruled as gods on fathomless worlds and realities, until being overthrown by actual deities. It stands to reason that a Titan could perform feats of magic beyond our comprehension even while bound and tortured.”
“Hush, you two. Talk less, obliterate demons more,” Dora said, using purifying purple and silver light to blast a demon who’d stepped out of a room in front of them. It didn’t even have a chance to scream before it was wiped from existence.
Dora inspected the room it had emerged from. Within was what appeared to be a giant lung, straining to pump. Frost tickled the Healer’s face and forehead as freezing cold air walloped her in the face when she peeked inside. Magical apparatus had been grafted onto the organ, and after examining the magical arrays and runes decorating the devices, Dora glowered in disgust when she realized the demons had converted the Titan’s lungs into some kind of cooling device! This particular lung had been modified to produce and pump cold air throughout the Wailing Tower. No doubt there was a similar set up with the other lung being made to create hot air.
“Ain, fry the place,” she ordered, stepping back and letting the Spellsword get a look through the doorway. The elf scowled and raised his saber, chanting softly, puffs of frozen air rising up with every word.
“Blitz Wave!” he cried out, and a ripple of purple-tinged electricity surged forth into the Lung Chamber. Whenever the energy came into contact with a rune or magical artifact, it would explode violent, reacting harshly to the Lightning magic. In seconds the room was a mess, the lung little more than scraps of flesh dangling from cords of muscle and pipes of meat, and the Tower shuddered and howled with both pain and relief.
“Good work, Ain!” Enrai cheered, slapping the Grand Elf on the shoulder. Dora nodded in approval as well.
“Nice shot. Now, come on, we’re almost to where the Elemental Tails are being kept!” Dora replied. She stumbled as a rippling groan rang out, and she stopped in her tracks, a look of intense worry on her face.
“What’s wrong, Dora?” Ain asked.
“Th-the Tower just sent me a vision… the Elemental Tails are in a room with a giant heart. It looks like a throne room… and the Queen Swathed in Vermillion is there, entertaining a pair of guests…”
“Well, crap,” Enrai grunted. “Who are the two visitors? Are they also Demon Lords?”
“No, the Tower didn’t recognize them, but it did seem to be wary of them, which I imagine means they’re powerful enough to be on par with a Demon Lord,” the half-orc said after thinking it over.
“Should we wait for them to leave?” Enrai asked, trepidation clear in his voice. He was under no illusions of how well they’d be able to handle even a single Demon Lord. The plan had originally been to distract the Queen Swathed in Vermillion, grab the Elemental Tails, and flee. Now that there was an extra pair of beings on par with the Demon Lord of Dark Carnality in their way, the odds of them successfully pulling off their quest dropped significantly.
“Yes, that sounds like the only reasonable solution,” Dora said after thinking it over. “Only problem is we might not have the time to spend waiting.”
She glanced down at her hands, and focused on the film of energy coating her. Purple light flickered under her analyzing gaze, and Dora checked how much time they still had left. The answer left her with a frown.
“How much power does the spell have?” Ain asked, noticing the intensity of Dora’s stare.
“The spell has plenty of mana left. We could easily spend a week in the Abyss with no ill effects. But that’s assuming we don’t get into anymore fights. Every battle we have, every demon we slay, every hit we take, every spell we cast weakens the protective energy around us.”
“So, you’re saying our best bet for survival is to rush in, cause a mess, and then run
away?” Ain inquired.
“If we keep the fighting to a minimum, then yes,” Dora said, looking at her companions warily. They’d used up more of their Divine Protection than her due to being the vanguard in all of their fights so far.
“I’d say you two would be able to take five hits… maybe eight if your luck is strong and the attacks are weak,” Dora announced.
“Five to eight blows… from a Demon Lord or equivalent?” Ain asked, and the half-orc nodded.
“And if you don’t try to use any spells stronger than Level Three,” she added. “Level Four and higher will drain the Divine Protection spell in a more taxing way.”
“Well, that severely limits our combat options,” Enrai muttered. He then sighed and forced a smirk onto his face. “But hey, we’re not here to win a fight. Grab the pets, get out using the Elemental Tails to open up a dimensional portal. That’s the goal, right?”
“Exactly,” Dora agreed. The Monk took a deep breath before nodding.
“Yeah, okay, we can do that. What do you think, Ain? Up for some old school fighting? No spells, only fists and weapons?”
“Been a while since I’ve done that,” Ain admitted, gripping his saber tightly. “But I suppose there’s a sort of enjoyment in going back to the basics.”
Their resolved steeled and their minds made up, the trio turned their attention towards the battle that was about to erupt.
“We’re ready, Tower,” Dora said, placing a hand against the wall. The abused Titan groaned, causing everything around them to shake and quake. Meanwhile, a series of directions were broadcast into her mind, showing her a path straight to the Heart Chamber where the Queen was attending to her guests.
With a map telepathically seared into her brain, Dora led the group through the abomination of flesh and living tissue, eventually coming to what had once been the spinal column. The bones and discs of the Titan’s spine had been twisted and deformed with biomancy and crafted into a spiraling staircase.
“No turning back,” she muttered as they began to ascend towards the final confrontation.
Chapter 14: A queen challenged
“Beautiful, yet disgusting,” the Healer of the party commented on the altered flesh and bone around her. Dora could tell that a master of the fleshcrafting arts had had a hand in the creation of the Wailing Tower. Seeing the massive staircase that had once been a spine only drove that home deeper.
She shook her head free of the lingering thoughts and turned to her friends. “These stairs will lead us up to the Heart Chamber. Once we reach it, we’ll have a major fight on our hands. So, take these.”
She reached into her pack and removed a quartet of tiny glass vials. The Divine Protection upon her transferred over to the potion bottles, keeping them safe from the Miasma around them as she presented them to Ain and Enrai.
“Here, each of you get a Grand Healing Potion and a Grand Mana Replenishment Potion,” she declared, handing her friends the potions.
Two of the vials were filled with a deep red liquid that was a like molten rubies. The other pair of vials contained a bright blue substance that had the quality of liquid sapphires. Ain’s eyes lit up in awe at the sight of the rare potions and he hastily took his share, squirreling them away in a pouch at his side.
“These are crazy expensive! Both to buy, and to make! When did you have the time to make these?” Enrai gasped as he carefully took the small vials.
“I didn’t. I managed to swipe ‘em from Glast’s tent back in Down’s slave market. He had a bunch of nifty potions and alchemical ingredients just lying around. Since he wasn’t going to need any healing when we got through dealing with him, I decided to take them,” Dora said, not a single shred of guilt in her soul at stealing from the Marble Elemental slaver.
With the healing items divided up amongst the group, they quickly made their way up the winding staircase. It was an eerie experience walking on magic molded bones and cartilage, made more gruesome by the raw, wet flesh on all sides that twitched and undulated in response to their presence, not to mention the thudding beat of a massive heart, growing ever louder with every step they took.
The air itself felt different. Not just the heat, which was rising thanks to Ain having destroyed the lung responsible for pumping cold air through the Tower, but there was a static-y charge that caused all their hair on their arms to perk up warily. For the first time in many a day, the foul tang of the Abyss’s Miasma was replaced by something else. A pulsating, crawling, ravenous power that demanded attention.
Dora sucked in a gasp as she recognized the foreign energy. ‘It’s almost identical to the power I felt radiating off of the World Rebellion cultist back in Targua!’ she realized. ‘Is the Queen in league with the Void? Or is it the guests she’s entertaining?’
A tremble ran through the Tower all of sudden, and the trio found themselves stumbling and falling. Desperately, Dora’s arms grabbed onto the central pillar the staircase was built around, stabilizing herself and keeping her from falling. The Void energy she’d detected earlier briefly flickered, replaced momentarily by a suffocating amount of Miasma. The two energies warred against each other for a few seconds before the all-consuming Void emerged victorious. The Tower ceased quaking immediately afterwards.
“What in the name of the gods was that?” Ain demanded, feet planted firmly on the ground, arms outstretched and pressed onto the walls in an effort to stay upright. Enrai shrugged, though his face displayed a look of consternation, and his fingers had dug into the bone handrail, cracks fissuring wildly through it.
“I think the Queen is angry, and her guests are also none too happy,” Dora said hesitantly, trembling slightly from the residual pressure. “Oh, and fair warning: I think her guests might be from the World Rebellion. Because that hungry sensation you’re feeling? That’s the Void.”
“Son of a sword!” Enrai swore loudly, his face contorted into an expression of horror and disgust. “Did that masked cultist follow us from Targua, somehow?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll have to be extra careful now,” Dora said, taking a deep breath to calm her quaking nerves. “I don’t know how well the Divine Protection spell will hold up against Void-based attacks.”
“Just our luck,” Ain muttered dejectedly, before drawing his sword. “Come on, let’s keep going before we all get cold feet and run away.”
“A sound plan,” Enrai agreed, and Dora nodded firmly, her expression stern. They continued their trek up the winding spinal staircase, coming to a halt outside of a door made from countless different kinds of teeth, ranging from bestial fangs to human molars.
“Eeewww…” Dora moaned as she pushed it open, feeling the chunks of enamel move and shift under her touch. The teeth all tried to bite the half-orc as she pushed it open, but her Divine Protection once more flared up and scorched the offending items to ash.
Stepping through, the trio found themselves in an arched corridor, the ceiling held up with what could only be one of the Titan’s ribs. Grossly modified so it held up the passageway’s ceiling, the bone stretched far off into the distance down the hall. Dora watched as several doors suddenly closed up ahead, preventing any demons from coming through and alerting the Queen Swathed in Vermillion of the intruders.
“Thank you,” Dora said to the Tower, patting it softly. A weak, pitiful moan filled the corridor, and the green-skinned Healer tilted her head to the side, listening.
“…Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” Dora said after a moment. She turned to her friends and informed them of what the Tower had told her.
“Listen, this might be tricky to pull off, but if we have the chance, try to destroy the heart. It’s being guarded by the Queen, but if it’s destroyed, the Tower will finally be put out of its misery and freed from this wretched existence.”
“We can do that,” Enrai vowed solemnly.
“Indeed. It’s only fitting to help someone who has helped us,” Ain stated nobly.
With renewed vigor, the trio
stormed down the hallway, growing closer and closer to the Heart Chamber, the Queen’s throne room. A shiver of fear ran through Dora at the thought of confronting that vile creature again. Memories of her encounter with an avatar of the Queen Swathed in Vermillion back in Annod Bol swam to the surface of her mind, yet she crushed them violently back into her subconscious.
‘I’m stronger now than I was before. Better at magic, and at fighting. I have two powerful friends to support me. I’m not alone. The Queen has no power over me,’ Dora thought to herself like a mantra. She banished the memory of the slick wet tentacles brushing over her legs, repressed the stink of the perverse incense, and rejected the terror that tried to worm its way into her mind.
Within her body, her soul surged with mana, filling it with the essence of purest silver. A new spell settled into her as Nia blessed her Chosen One again. A trump card to be used. Just in case. Dora grinned widely as she felt the Goddess of Love intervene to help her once more.
‘I won’t let you down!’ she declared mentally, before coming upon the entrance to the Heart Chamber.
Unlike the other doors in the Wailing Tower, which were made of metal, stone, or foreign materials, this one was fleshy and molded from the Titan’s own body. It was circular, and reminded Dora of a throat, clenched tightly to deny entry.
Before they could try and bust it down, the portal opened for them with a wet squelch, the Tower urging them through with a final groan of good luck, and the trio found themselves in the heart of the Wailing Tower, figuratively and literally.
The Heart Chamber was massive. It had a vaulted ceiling made from the Titan’s ribcage, and the walls, made of flesh and raw, exposed muscle like every other inch of the Tower, throbbed and pulsed rhythmically. Here and there, brazier and torches made of bone burned with a sickly orange glow, using fat that dripped from the walls of the chamber as fuel. Pillars of rusted iron lined the sides of the chamber, with the flayed, tattooed hides of creatures stretched between them as crude and disgusting tapestries.
