Chrysalis *HF* - Chapter 10
By Gomurr
CHAPTER TEN:
Psi-Shot awoke slowly and was greeted by cold, dampness and
pain. He was lightheaded and groggy from the blood loss of
Cherub's attack, but he tried to focus his attention on what was
happening to him. He realized with a flash of embarrassment
that he lay naked and bound with coarse rope onto a stone slab.
He could only see the people directly to the right and left of
him due to his prone position, but there he saw that both Mufasa
and Nytshade shared his predicament. They both seemed to still
be unconscious. Psi-Shot's gaze lingered on the Dark Priestess
and he realized too late what effect the sight of her beautiful
body was having on him. He heard a high pitched titter of
laughter from somewhere behind him, and he knew Cherub was
close by.
"If he's got enough blood flow left to do....that," said Cherub as
he pointed shamelessly. "Then I didn't take too much of it with
my little love bite."
With another wave of miserable embarrassment, the events of
earlier flashed through young El Wyn Mah's mind and he
instinctively tried to reach for the wound in his neck. He was of
course restrained and this wouldn't' allow him to move his arms,
but his own self awareness led him to believe that the wound was
somehow completely healed, and with a bit more looking around
he realized how.
The old woman known as Stitch was leaning over Mufasa, lightly
touching his forehead. As her hands crossed the bloody gash
there. The angry looking red wound sealed itself without
slightest evidence of scarring. Mufasa began to awaken at this
point and begin to struggle against his own bonds. He snapped
his teeth like a cornered animal and came close to reaching the
face of old woman. Her hand shot out light lightning and she
slapped the handsome black man's face. Mufasa's head
rebounded upon the stone and he opened up another gash on the
back of his head. Before his blood could begin to soak into the
braid he wore there, Stitch healed this wound also, clucking to
herself like an exasperated grandmother over her children.
"Be still, boy." She coaxed. "The elder gods would be offended
if we offered them damaged bodies as their first meal. I'm
afraid I can't do anything for the ones already dead, but I can
make you highly suitable for the offering."
"Highly suitable indeed," came Bliss's velvety voice from the
darkness as he approached Mufasa. "Just look at those muscles."
Bliss's manicured nails scraped lightly against Mufasa's tight
abs and he began to feel himself slip once again under Bliss's
thrall.
"Oh my," purred the lips of the man named Bliss as he continued
his exploration of the bound White Rook. "We are a big boy
aren't we."
"Leave him," rang out the Necromancer's voice. Bliss began to
protest, but Adonis spoke up quieting him.
"We have plenty of playthings without you tampering with the
sacrifices, Bliss. Don't be petulant," came the steady voice of
the heavily muscled man. "I'll lend you Jeremy if you like."
"But breaking them to the saddle is so much more fun," Bliss
laughed and Adonis joined him."
"ENOUGH!!" Roared the Necromancer. "It's time to begin the
ritual. Time grows short. The alignment is upon us."
Psi-Shot struggled again in vain against his bonds, as the
gathered Illuminati began to put on their ritual robes. The scene
as seen from above was grim indeed. Fifty six near identical
stone blocks were arrayed in a circle in the cathedral room of
the cavern. The eleven members of the various branches of the
Hellfire Clubs were all bound to these stones and the remaining
stones were occupied by the most recently deceased members of
Magdalene's former undead army. Inside this outer circle tall
stand mirrors were placed. Within the circle of mirrors lay a
large ring about 20 feet in circumference. It was made of some
polished metal and was about five feet in height. Upon the ring
were arcane markings that were much like the tribal tattoos
covering Mufasa's arms. Inside and effectively pinned in by the
metal ring, lay Harry Tanaka. He lay curled up almost childlike
on the cold hard ground and seemed oblivious to the world
around him. The collar and chain around his neck appeared to be
of the same material as the ring itself.
Gomurr cried out as he tried to free himself from his bonds.
"Don't do this, Malia. No power on earth is worth the price that
you're about to pay. The demon is a liar, he'll slay you as soon as
he's free."
"Silence you old fool," spat the Necromancer coldly. "You could
have shared in this glory, if your vision weren't so limited by
pathetic morality. He is father to the Illuminati. The very
creation of our group lay in the days long ago when he was
imprisoned by jealous mortals wielding puny magics...and don't
bother trying to user your own abilities to escape. My power
with a little help from Genoshan technology has allowed me to
dampen all of you people's pitiful skills. I finally own you body
and soul, and it's such a pity it will all be over so quickly for
you. I seem to remember how much you liked being.....mastered."
"Silence, Harlot," the ancient mage roared as he continued to
struggle. "He'll destroy you. You can't control him."
"Silence yourself, Gomurr the great and powerful WEAKLING,"
Malia hissed. "It was your own doing that allowed me this
chance. By tampering with the original containment spell in order
to save the life of the one you called Mufasa, you left me the
perfect opportunity to sever the power link forever from his
family line and instill it into a tool of my own. The demon will be
contained again, but by someone who is completely in my thrall.
The Tanaka boy is mine, and shall remain so...and with him....The
power of Estaphalum."
The Necromancer began to laugh to herself as she gathered her
coven around her. They clasped hands and she began to speak in
a voice that rang throughout the chamber.
"As below, so above. As once was, shall be again. We open the
gate to your world so that you may grace us with your presence
and your power. Come Estophalum of the nether realm. Come
Scion of Dargoth and Kali. Come and be with your children again.
Come, illuminate us with your dark grace so that we can truly be
the Illuminati once more. Upon your coming we offer blood
sacrifice. Powerful souls to feed your unending hunger. COME!"
The final note of her spell rang out into the air and was followed
by an eerie silence. Then slowly a flash of light seemed to race
around the rim of the pen encasing Harry Tanaka. The symbols
began to glow faintly and Harry Tanaka was yanked straight
into the air like a balloon tethered only by his chain. His scream
snapped his vocal chords as his soul was torn asunder. Eldritch
fire flashed out from the symbols on the ring like sheet lightning
and hit the circle of mirrors. There they were magnified and
rolled like waves of electricity into the bodies tied to the stones
in the outer circles. The living members of the Hellfire Club as
well as the bodies of the dead jerked and sputtered as the
eldritch energy coursed through their bodies. As the Hellfire
Club members began to scream, the circuit made yet another
jump and shot straight up to the cathedral ceiling, disappearing
into the earthen roof.
ABOVE: STONE HENGE
The outer ring of 56 holes glowed like heated embers as the
demonic energy as well as the power from the life essences of
the bound fed them from directly below. The power now flowed
inward in a reverse pattern of the ritual below. Like
concentrated lasers, beams flew from the burial holes and hit
the blue stones. Fire arched and pieces of the giant stones
shattered as they too began absorbing the otherworldly energy
being fed into them. Finally completing the circuit, the Blue
Stones released their energy into the Temple Door formations
for which Stone Henge is famous. The silent stone monolith's
absorbed the power with what appeared to be little or no
effect, until a patches pitch darkness, ten times darker than the
surrounding twilight, began to grow directly in the center of
each "doorway". The ebon darkness grew and spread like finest
gossamer until it covered the entire area, shoots of brightest
crimson arced their way across the blackness. From within the
darkness, screams of unending torture and the charnel house
smell of death poured out. A voice that shook the earth itself
came forth. "I COME!"
BELOW: THE CATHEDRAL ROOM
The members of the BHC were beyond screaming...beyond
pain..... They jerked and spasmed in silence as froth poured
freely from their mouths. They all knew in what was left in the
chaotic mess of their minds that as they died they would birth a
demon onto the world that would be the end of all that is.
"It's working," Cherub giggled. "The master comes."
ABOVE: STONE HENGE
Gigantic barbed tentacles burst forth from all of the doorways
dragging in earth and stone and trees as the demon scrambled to
free itself from its dimensional prison. In some sort of free
form evolution the ends of the tentacles morphed into horribly
clawed hands as the demon continued it's ascent from the broken
worlds into our own.
BELOW: THE CATHEDRAL ROOM
Even the long dead corpses that were nothing more than
moldering bone began to jerk and move now as Malia continued
her demonic chanting. "Look how the dead, welcome their new
lord," she screamed.
"Welcome this, bitch," a voice rang from the darkness as the
Black Queen in the body of young Violet Priestley leaped from
her hiding place. She had followed the Hellfire Club party into
their stealth craft and on their mission shielding herself from
their thoughts as well as the prying psychic probes of the
Illuminati's Deacon Faust.
"Who the fuck are you," Malia Trent screamed. "Get her you
fools."
"Let's just say that the reports of my death have been greatly
exaggerated." The Black Queen said as she dodged a surprise
assault from Scarab..
"Claudia?!?!" the Necromancer hissed. "I killed you, bitch...and
I'll kill you again."
The Illuminati began to close in on Claudia, and she fought to
keep the fear she felt from her face. She only had one chance to
beat them, and she knew it would take everything this new body
possessed to do it.
ABOVE: STONE HENGE
The claws had now formed into arms and glowing eyes began to
show from the darkness. Suddenly a spiked shoulder burst forth.
A horn burst forth from the shoulder and the blood that
sprayed forth was acid that hissed and burned itself into the
doorway. Suddenly horned heads began to appear at the
doorways. Estophalum, the many that are one, was almost born.
BELOW: THE CATHEDRAL ROOM
The members of the Illuminati Brotherhood began to laugh
among themselves as they cornered the cowering Claudia
Sandubal. Behind them the remainder of Magdalene's undead
army, perhaps 100 strong closed in their ranks.
"You should have stayed in hiding, bitch," snapped Malia as she
came within ten feet of Nemesis.
Suddenly a skeletal hand tore itself across Malia's beautiful
face, opening a wide gash along her cheek. The Necromancer
spun around only to see the rest of her coven grappling with
undead opponents of their own.
"Magdalene, you traitorous cow," Malia hissed.
"Magdalene's not home right now," said Nemesis using the
captured voice and mind of the red-haired speaker-to-the-dead.
A slow stream of blood made its way down Nem's new youthful
face from her nose, as she ran toward the center of the
cathedral. She knew she was burning this new body out, pushing
it beyond its untrained limits, but she had to go on. Barely
dodging a well placed flame blast from Pyre, she landed beside
the stone Jack Silver was tied to. Gargoyle took flight to
apprehend her, but was set upon by ten corpses that drug him
back down to earth. Akasha fought with the mystic swords of
Azri, but the corpses felt no pain as she broke their bones and
tore their rotting muscle. Stitch and Bliss already lay dead
trampled beneath the skeletal feet of their foes. The rest of the
Illuminati fought savagely but were slowly being overwhelmed.
ABOVE: STONE HENGE
Estophalum gasped in air it hadn't tasted for ages untold. He
smelled the human flesh miles away that he would soon consume.
His stomach hungered for the sweet taste of innocent souls. His
many faceted body struggled to pull itself free from the womb
of darkness that still held it.
BELOW: THE CATHEDRAL ROOM
Claudia looked down at Silver and gasped as she began to untie
him. A tear slid down her face and mingled with the blood from
her nose as she saw the withered old man that Scarab had made
of Jack Silver the man she called friend...and maybe more.
Through the haze of pain and transmogrification that Silver lay
in, he saw the beautiful visage of Violet Priestly above him...but
something wasn't quite right. There was a look in her eyes...a
dangerous look....a depth of passion that only one person could
possess.
"Claudia?" he croaked weakly through his pain. "End it....please."
Claudia wasn't sure whether he was talking about his own life or
the hellish reality surrounding them, but she went into action to
save all she held dear. Leaping from her position on the outer
rim she rushed toward the center. Harry Tanaka still floated in
the air tethered by the chain around his neck. Blood poured
from his nose, eyes and ears. The Link as Malia had called him
was never going to be strong enough to hold the demon that was
escaping. He only served as a corporeal anchor long enough to
birth the entity into the mortal realm. Fighting back tears,
Nemesis pulled a dagger from the scabbard of her belt and
plunged it into the heart of Harry Tanaka.
ABOVE: STONE HENGE
The vile heads of Estophalum all roared simultaneously as the
link was severed. Immediately the darkness in the "doorways"
began to clear and he was being pulled back into his own domain
once more. Clawed and taloned fingers snapped off as he
attempted to anchor himself. An entire beefy shoulder slipped
loose and lay sizzling on the ground as he fought to retain his
foothold on the realm of men. With the sound of a thousand
mirrors shattering the darkness disappeared and all that was
left of Estophalum was piles of sizzling debris that soon began
to be eaten away by their own viscous blood.
The flow of energy having nowhere else to go snapped back like
giant cosmic rubberbands first into the Blue Stones. Then into
the burial mounds and finally back down through the ground.
BELOW: THE CATHEDRAL CHAMBER
Harry Tanaka died instantly, and fell to the floor with a wet
meaty thump. Nemesis still controlled Magdalene and thus her
corpse army. Even now several beings that were barely skeletal
remains were chipping away at the ropes binding her friends.
Many of the undead army had been pulverized but some still
fought on. Enough anyway, until she could free her friends, she
prayed.
The energy came like a fog of blood red snapping back onto the
bondage stones covering the HFC members. The energy snapped
back into the ancient mirrors, and they shattered not being able
to handle the reversed polarities of the eldritch power. Shards
of glass flew through the air. One particularly nasty piece
struck the psychic vampire Scarab through the eye killing him
instantaneously. Stolen life essences poured from him as he fell
and flowed back into the Black King, Jack Silver.
Suddenly the earth itself began to shake again. The ancient
temple couldn't stand the eldritch energies that were so
suddenly forced back into it. The metal ring glowed white hot
and Nemesis
covered her eyes and face to protect them as screams from both
the Illuminati and her friends filled the air.
"Everyone around me, quickly," screamed Silver as he stumbled
toward Nemesis and the glowing hot ring.
The roof began to collapse and the Illuminati quickly gave up
their fight and began to flee. As Gargoyle tried to take flight to
dodge the falling debris a stalagtite broke off from the ceiling
skewering him as it drug him to the cave floor...and then all was
darkness as the earth covered them all.