A figure moved through the darkness like a snake through mist, lithe and smooth as it picked its way through the rubble and carnage. The dark figures that surrounded it fell to their knees in reverence at the figures passing, their glowing ember-like eyes focused only on the dirt beneath them.
"Hail Queen of Shadow..."
"Honor be the Queen..."
"Darkness swallow her highness." The whispers filled the dark void, echoing around endlessly at the passing of the woman. Her glowing green eyes pierced through the shadows as she strode forward casually. She was the essence of boredom as she moved. Her eyes never strayed from the invisible path that she was picking her way down.
The world she inhabited was made entirely of inky nothingness suspended in an array of glittering starlight, the remnants of dying gods consumed by their own siblings in a never ending cycle of rebirth and re-death. It was the perfect world for a being like her, she had consumed her siblings too just like the gods. Except unlike the gods she didn't grow brighter, she couldn't continue consuming everything in sight. But as she stepped over a few white, stripped, brittle human bones she smiled. She may have been hungry for thousands of years but soon her god would release her and her armies to ravage the world once more.
"The time is almost near!" She sang into the air; she threw her hands up and swirled around as her heart sang in glee. Or, that was, what was left of her heart. Most of it had rotted from her chest thousands of years ago. Such was the price to pay when one sold their soul to Vekkar and stepped into his realm of eternal darkness.
"Fucking great, we finally get to leave this trash heap like Elise?" Another woman leapt down from a craggy spire to land a few feet away from the woman. The newcomer was short with round human ears and round brown human eyes. Her dirty brown hair was cut bob-style to frame her young immortalized face. She wore an old style tunic which had been stained with blood for thousands of years as well as some well-worn leather pants.
"Well, funny you bring her up." The woman smiled as she recalled the memories of a dying dragon and a desperate rider. Elise had been a child. That was quite literal considering her death and rebirth as a child thousand of years ago.
"Yeah, why isn't that bitch back yet? I want to go, I haven't felt the air on my face in... What? Three thousand years?" This time a male voice rang out. A larger man broke through the fields of mist to join the ever growing party. He was sun-kissed brown with dark black hair cut short to his head. He had the face of a killer with eyes that reflected a deep and unnatural insanity.
"Brock, so lovely to see you again." The woman sneered tersely. So many questions her little minions had, so many gruesome exciting answers.
"So, when does Elise get back?" The woman stomped her foot angrily as she glared at Brock. Brock shrugged his shoulders with a lopsided grin,
"I'm with Tahani. Where's that lucky fuckin bitch at? She's been out too long." The woman smiled as she recalled the dying screams of Elise's dragon, the sobs of Elise, the fiery eyes of the giantess.
"Why, she's quite dead." She had expected a few gasps, sighs, or even yells of excitement and glee at the girls passing. They had all hated her, though to be fair they hated each other just as much.
"Hah, right. Dead? We haven't died in thousands of years, what changed?" Brock's voice had gone from jovial and lighthearted to grim and cold.
"The turn of the era of course." She continued to walk with purpose even though she now had an entourage. And a rather annoying one at that. Tahani snorted, the sound rather piggish in her human throat.
"You mean to tell me that N'Kalla actually managed to get one of those stupid 'last-resort' eggs to hatch? So there's a new..."
"Rider?" Brock finished off Tahani's sentence only to earn a glower from the little human.
"Yes, indeed there is. A giantess no less. And she ripped Zihari's head off." She still relished in the memory, death was her blood and agony her heartbeat. But her comrades were not the breed of coldblooded she was, they actually mourned the loss of their... Friend. Once they had been friends, but that life was nothing more than tattered memories on a world that was soon to join the smattering of dying stars in their skies.
"You... Aren't kidding." Tahani's voice quivered. The woman rolled her eyes as a jab of spite and hatred fueled her. They were focusing on the wrong things. Vekkar had promised that upon the turning of the age they would fly free from his belly and rain chaos and anarchy from the skies. And the first thing she wanted to do was add a shiny new glowing red jewel to her collection of undead riders.
"She died brutally, with the sound of her dragon's dying soul rattling in her head until the pressure of it overwhelmed her fragile little body and drug her to the depths of whatever hell awaits us after death. Now we are four, but I have a little... Ace up my sleeves." It took a few more minutes of somber walking to reach her stone palace.
The stone walls had been carved throughout the years by Vekkar's spawn, the demon souls awaiting a chance at grasping the sharp shards of their god's brother's power. Only to devour it for him. In the meantime however they required a task, a purpose, a leader. And Dualia had been that for nearly five thousand years. But it was what was within the palace that she planned to put to immediate use.
"You're not planning on waking up that freaking buttmunch are you? She's not only a raging sociopath, she's also a raging murderer. And I mean, for someone like me to say that it has to mean something right? If you do this, she'll rip us all limb from limb again over and over until your little gremlins finally manage to sink her back into the stone." Brock breathed deeply through his nose. Just imagining the torture made him sweat again.
"I want to torture that little red haired snack until her soul breaks. She's already infected... This will just push her buttons until they... Snap." She stopped in front of what appeared to be a massive statue fused into the stone walls of the mountain. But it had a clear face with high, sloped, chiseled cheeks and sharp angular eyes. The features were textbook for a giant, though her horns were buried into the stone and her ears sort of fused into obscurity as well. Though the flesh of the giant was still slightly pink in color setting it apart from the gray and black rock she rest against.
"She literally ripped your arms off once. And tried to eat them." Tahali muttered as she stepped back into a corner where the shadows obscured her. She could remember the giantess well, though she was a relatively new arrival compared to the others she still held a formidable reputation.
"She's been asleep for over twenty years, she'll definitely eat us now." Brock too found a hole to hide himself in. But the woman didn't worry too much about the opinions of her sheep, especially because in the end the giantess sleeping in the entryway of her palace was just another rack of lamb she could throw into her grand barbeque.
"She'll be too hungry for the job I'll throw her." She traced a finger over the giantess's large toe, the appendage alone was far larger than any human stood tall.
"Why not send one of us out? You want this baby rider, it'll be easy to rope her up and drag her back here ourselves. Then you can torture her all you like without ever having to wake up that... Monstrosity." Brock was an opinionated man with a simpletons mind. He saw the world in black and white, point A to point B. Anything more complicated tended to confuse him, his inability to think ahead made him perfectly pliable. Yet sometimes the woman hated him for it.
"You did hear the part I said about this particular giantess ripping the literal head off of a dragon right? Do you want that to happen to yours? Or better yet, you? And another question since you're so talkative today Brock. Have you ever seen a giant fight in earnest? It was once said that the kings of giants could bring the world to an end with their legendary battles. None of us stand a chance right now should this 'baby rider' as you call her get well and truly pissed. Now... Her mother on the other hand." The woman smiled evilly as she pooled a bit of mana in her cupped hands.
The sleeping giantess was practically identical to the rider in the lingering memories of Elise and her dead dragon. Take away their differing hair and eye colors, skin tones, and ears they were twins. She had never anticipated such a delicious twist but she wouldn't turn down the opportunity to sow grief, malice, and aggression. She was also truly curious on who would be stronger, daughter or mother?
"Awaken, daughter of stone and heed the call of your master." She spoke sharply and with conviction as she released the slim stream of mana into the sleeping giant. A few moments passed in utter silence before a thunderous 'CRACK' echoed through the halls and chambers of her palace. The giantess's eyes opened slowly to reveal arctic blue eyes set into an impossibly stern and hardened face. The massive irises turned to pierce the woman, she could see the icy hatred and rage lighting up and burning brighter with each moment that trickled past.
The process that came next occurred either very quickly or very slowly, the woman could never decide which. The giant woman slowly tucked her feet beneath her and pulled her hair from the rock at her back. Once her hair was free she threw her head forward to rip her horns from the wall as well. Now all that was left was to stand though there was nowhere near enough room to accommodate her full height within the palace walls. So she stood on her hands and knees to observe the woman who had summoned her back from the brink of eternal rest.
"What is it you desire, Queen of the Dark." The woman's voice was deafening, thunderous, and obedient. The woman smiled victoriously, it would seem her faith in Vekkar was rewarded once more and a loyal lamb was properly poised for sacrifice.
"You are to travel to the mortal world and find a woman for me. Bring her back alive, though I don't care how alive. And her dragon too. Kill whoever you want along the way but those two are off limits Hyesiea." The giantess nodded briskly once before holding out her hand.
"As you wish, my Queen." Hyesiea's voice was softer then as she awaited transport. The woman delighted in her title as she reached for the giantess's forefinger with growing anticipation. She was the enemy poised in a shroud of darkness, and her quary? A completely oblivious and fiery new rider who was likely anticipating saving the world. Oh she couldn't wait to snuff out the light of her flames! Darkness against light, poison against flames... Finally she could do something worth while after so many thousands of years living in obscurity.
With one final rush of power the giantess's body was whisked away into the realm of mortals where she would undoubtedly wreak havoc. The queen turned quickly to stride towards her throne of broken bones. She would have to ensure that Hyesiea had the proper tools, it was fortuitous that there were a few other giants that had been poisoned against the light. She only had to ensure they were waiting for her at the right moment to crush her annoyingly unnerving daughter. But that was all in due time, for now she wanting nothing more than a fine goblet filled with human blood and a their song of wails and misery to drift her off to a blissful sleep.
"Tell the others to prepare. Now get out of here and don't dare show your faces to me again until a fortnight from now, that's when the real fun will begin." The darkness closed in once more as she sank into misty obscurity.