The dark mage continued to sprint through the forest, occasionally glancing back to keep track of his pursuer. Something rustled in the woods, something huge and fast, and it was catching up with him.
He swung about and fired a doom bolt into the trees, the black blast of destructive mana streaking through the clearing and obliterating a cluster of trees. However, whatever it was, it managed to dodge his spell and continued closing in on him.
"What the hell is that thing?!" the dark mage screamed. When he first volunteered for infiltrating the southern province, he thought he would have an easy time here. After all, the real enemies – both the Possessed and Yvonne's hunter tribe – had been eliminated. It should have been a simple job to just monitor the place and report back to the new Demonic Emperor.
The dark mage never imagined that a new, fearsome enemy would descend upon the beleaguered southern province once again.
"That's it, man. Game over, man! Game over!" the dark mage yelled in despair. "What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?"
"Maybe we can build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh?" his familiar, a tiny zoo bat, suggested. "Why don't we try that?"
Then a sudden movement to the side and the poor zoo bat was gone, ripped onto shreds. The dark mage recoiled, backing away even as blood splattered his face. Unnerved, he continued to run.
"Damn it, I need to let his majesty know!"
The dark mage continued to stumble through the forest, bashing aside thick vegetation. The creature behind him hissed before lunging at him. The dark mage tried to duck, only for a tail to whip out and puncture his shoulder. He let out a cry as he was sent hurling through the woods, crashing against a tree.
"Ugh…"
He tried to get up, but realized something was broken. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Even in death, he would ensure that his duty would be fulfilled.
Casting a spell, he sent a distress beacon. Several magic circles materialized above his palm before turning into a dark light that sped away across the horizon in a blurry streak visible only to those who bothered to look carefully.
The black biomechanical creature emerged from the forest, slobbering. Its banana-shaped head was sleek and almost translucent, its skull almost see-through. Dorsal fins extended from its shoulders and a spiked tail whipped about behind it. Even though it had an insect feel to it, it was clearly humanoid, a bipedal organism that stood on two clawed talons and possessed almost human-like hands that were tipped with deadly claws.
The dark mage tried to fire off a spell, but the creature was too quick. It dodged his doom bolt before seizing him with its claws, bringing his face closer to its eyeless head. Its maw yawned open, revealing a secondary set of inner jaws.
"You want a piece of me?!" the dark mage yelled defiantly. "You ugly son of a bitch!"
Those were his last words.
The creature's inner jaws burst forth like a piston and split the dark mage's skull apart.
*
"Argh!"
Sam Benson jolted upright. He shook his head and brought a hand to his face, confused. He was sure that there had been something attached to his face, a creature that had jumped him…
He shuddered and looked around…only to recoil when he caught sight of a dead creature beside him. He stumbled back, cursing, not sure what he was seeing. The pale, horseshoe crab with spindly limbs and a weird tail…
"Dad…?" He called out, looking around fearfully. He wanted his father and he wanted him now. "Dad! Where are you?"
"Ugh!"
There was a cry of pain that sounded both familiar and frightening. Sam scrambled over a log as he followed the direction from where his father's voice originated, but froze when he caught sight of Buddy Benson.
The adult man was convulsing, clutching at his chest and going into spasms. Blood spurted from his mouth and he let out a scream that chilled Sam to the bone. Sam watched in horror as blood erupted from his father's chest as something bulged from within.
There…there was something inside his father, and it was eating its way out.
"Dad!"
"Ugh! Argh!"
Buddy toppled over, his eyes rolling in his head. Something finally burst from his chest, a worm-like creature with no eyes that sported razor-sharp teeth. It gave an inhuman screech.
Sam screamed and stumbled back, falling to his rump. His father was dead. He just knew it. He didn't know what creature was that, but he was sure it would kill him if he remained, despite its small size. Unable to hold back his sobs, he tried to scamper away.
Then he felt the pains. Shrieking, he clutched his chest as convulsions wracked him. Falling to the ground, blood leaking from his mouth, he stared up at the sky in horror as something began eating its way out of his body…
*
I was lounging in my throne…well, to be fair, it wasn't a throne but an office chair and staring at the screen when I received the distress beacon spell.
"What's this?"
I reached out and tapped the screen. Several data flowed through the screen, runes that were automatically translated by my device. I caught sight of several blurry images, a black, biomechanical monster with no eyes, but armed with claws, teeth, a secondary set of inner jaws and a spiked tail. I also caught sight of Flynn, who appeared to be breeding these monsters.
These were the last images that the dark mage who cast the spell had seen. Going through them, I then disseminated them to my subordinates.
"Seems like Flynn succeeded, after all," I told Lindley when he appeared. The lich lord looked grim and a bit embarrassed.
"I have underestimated the Lord of Flies' capacity for completing my research," he admitted and lowered his head. "I will receive whatever sanction or punishment you deem appropriate, my lord."
"Now's not the time to be assigning blame," I quickly said before Stella or anyone else could rebuke him. "We need to solve the problem. And since you wish to take responsibility, Lindley, you will take your legion and destroy Flynn. This is a direct violation of my orders."
"With all respect to the Lich Lord, his undead legion might not be enough," Eleanor spoke up grimly. She raised a hand and conjured another screen. "My intelligence networks inform me that the insect legion has raised a large swarm and they are heading toward Tyranvania right this very instance."
"Good. Saves us the trouble of looking for them."
"The problem is…Flynn isn't there. I fear this invasion is just a diversion. His real goal is probably the southern provinces in the human kingdom."
"So Flynn is currently in the human kingdom?" Larson asked in disbelief. Eleanor nodded.
"According to my sources, yes."
"I can confirm that," I added and gestured to my screen. "From the distress message I received from a dark mage I assigned there, Flynn is handling his new monsters personally."
"We have to stop him," Silvia said firmly.
"I will take care of that," I assured her. "I need you to coordinate with Ragios to help Lindley destroy all traces of the insect legion in the Demonic Empire. If they want to challenge me for the throne, then they must pay the appropriate price for it."
"We will annihilate them," Ragios promised. Unlike all the others, the dragon king was not physically present. He appeared as a shimmering holographic image, a downsized version of himself that occupied one of the seats at the conference table. I nodded at him.
"I know you will."
"What will we do about Gunnison Town in Colorado?" Stella asked urgently. She still had attachments to the Havan Kingdom and its people. So did I.
"I will take care of that matter personally." I rose from my seat and smiled. "If Flynn wants to challenge my authority, I will personally respond to it…and eliminate him once and for all."
"Alone?" Silvia asked in disbelief. "Begging your pardon, my liege, but is that not…reckless?"
"No," I assured her. "I have my reasons for going alone. We need to go about this carefully. I'm going there to clean up the mess, and the less of us going there, the better. Also, these creatures are parasites that require hosts to breed. I don't want to feed them and give them a chance to grow their numbers."
"How will you deal with them?" Stella asked worriedly.
"I'll sneak into town, cast a large-scale spell of mass destruction, escape, and activate it."
"But…"
"You have a better plan?" Larson asked Stella. She hesitated and nodded.
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
"Fucking A!" Ragios agreed wholeheartedly.
"Hold on, hold on one second." Eleanor raised a hand. "This province has a substantial dollar value attached to it."
"They can bill me," I replied with a smirk. "If they dare."
"We can cast a nuke spell from orbit?" Larson asked, confused. "How come I have never heard of such a thing before?"
"We can't," Eleanor told him flatly. "We don't have such a spell." She then turned to look at me sternly. "Let's be serious, my lord. Do you seriously intend to go to the human kingdom alone?"
"Yeah. I don't know how much you know about these…xenomorphs that Lindley tried to design and Flynn perfected. You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility."
"You admire it," Stella accused me.
"I admire its purity. A survivor…unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality."
"Er…what are we even talking about now?" Larson asked, totally lost.
"My lord, if you keep this up, then…" Eleanor snapped, staring hard at me. "I can't lie to you about your chances, but…you have my sympathies."
"Sorry. I got carried away." I held both my hands up when Stella glared at me. Clearing my throat, I returned to the topic at hand. "These things have an incredible reproductive ability. I don't think we have the time to leave them as they are – within a few days, they might overrun the entire province. Maybe in a couple of weeks, they will overwhelm the whole of the Havan Kingdom. They are that dangerous. We need to eliminate them and we need to do so right away."
Taking a deep breath, I continued.
"That's why I will be going alone. It's not just because bringing an entire army or even a squad would take too much time…I want to clean up the problem as soon as possible, yes, but also because my spell will only allow me to travel by myself."
I brought up Nocturne, its black blade gleaming in the conference room.
"My sword has a shadow spell that will transport me over thousands of kilometers and drop me right in Gunnison Town. The catch is that, the spell only has enough juice to transport a single individual, its caster. That's why I can't bring any of you with me."
"Even if that's the case, you should just wait…" Stella began worriedly. I shook my head.
"If we wait, then not just the Havan Kingdom, but the world will be doomed. These xenomorphs are near-perfect killing machines. Because one of those things managed to wipe out an entire crew in less than 24 hours. And if the townsfolk have encountered Flynn's swarm, then there's no telling how many of them have been exposed. Do you understand? An entire colony of them…well, you do the math."
Lindley lowered his head. "This is my fault. I apologize, my lord."
"Like I said, if you really feel guilty about this, go destroy the insect legion. Do what I assigned you to do."
"Very well, my lord."
"I will now make preparations." I rose from my seat and turned to leave the conference room. "And I will be heading out before the hour. I will leave everything here to you guys."