Mature Content Warning: Blood covered things, mind rape, and general adultness.

Author's Note: I decided to break the current chapter into two parts since it would have been around 10,000 words. This is the first chapter of the next episode. :)

--

Inside the chambers of the queen of the Dark Empire a fell ritual was occurring. Pheare was once again contacting Mettalica the embodiment of the Dark Force, an alien intelligence that desired to engulf all that lived in its deathly embrace and would leave nothing in its wake but a broken husk of former existence. However, the Dark Force that is Mettalica was not responding. Something was distracting the ancient embodiment of death and hatred. It could not be bothered with the desires of a mere vessel.

Someone, somewhere, was drawing on a rival's power. The creature doing so must be stopped soon lest its hated foe should awaken and all of the elder being of hatred's plans would be in jeopardy.

Eventually, Pheare gave up trying to contact her master. The Dark Force was not answering and this was most disconcerting. The only thing she could think of was that she had somehow angered the mighty spirit of chaos. Shit rolled downhill and as such she immediately began seeking someone else to blame for her failures. The only name that came to her cruel yet kissably soft crimson lips was, "JAEDU!"

The general snapped into her presence almost immediately as the call of his name was worse than a summons. The call was a command to appear and he had no choice but to do so. His very existence was bound up within the power that Pheare possessed. He was nothing but her puppet; no different than the other converts from the old Earth kingdoms. When the planet had fallen each of those who remained behind had been reanimated as walking corpses empowered by the Dark Force.

Underneath even the prettiest Fiend veneer was nothing more than corruption and hatred. The souls of the fallen were locked away behind nigh impenetrable mental walls that few even bothered to try and pierce anymore. In short, they had a semblance of free will and acted as though they had minds of their own, but truly did not. They were but the tentacles of a great evil octopus; no more, no less.

"Yes, my queen... I...”

"Silence! Report Jaedu... Tell me you have succeeded in gathering the necessary energy I required of you!" snapped Pheare hatefully. She knew full well that he had not, but ultimately this didn't matter. She had to lay the blame somewhere.

"Queen Pheare... not yet I...” began Jaedu with uncertainty as he had no idea of which command to obey. It was generally difficult to be both silent and to report at the same time. He was cut off abruptly by a lashing wave of energy that sent him hurtling backward with great force. He only stopped his backward motion after he slammed into the obsidian colored wall of his queen's chamber. The power of the blow was enough to send fluorescent green blood flying from his lips to splatter onto the floor several feet away.

Jaedu's vision began to fade in and out as more waves of force lanced into him. This time they were accompanied by necrotic powers that ripped and tore at his body while causing it to flare with pain.

The air erupted out of him in one short scream as his flesh began to tear and shred along with his formerly clean and pressed general's uniform. The general could not even scream anymore as he hung there flattened against the wall with no capacity to even attempt to defend himself. The power of the queen was too much for any mere general, and he found himself in a position that was becoming all too familiar of late.

An hour would pass with intermittent questions, both rewarded and punished with bouts of lashing force and ripping winds. Jaedu was chastised severely for his lack of effect, even though his primary energy centers had been bringing in power on a steady basis. Queen Pheare cared not about this. He had failed in his latest large effort energy draining scheme and revealed his hand.

It was not until be babbled out a half sobbed, "The knight... that damned knight...” that Pheare took interest. She remembered hearing him bellyaching once or twice about some armored warrior and his band that had stop a few of his schemes. Most of his plans continued unabated, but they were of lower quality energy wise. It was his big expenditures that seemed to fail frequently and she would know why.

"Who is this knight you speak of Jaedu... What mere human fool can withstand the power I have granted you for the glory of the Dark Empire?" asked the queen casually.

Jaedu whimpered softly in his pain as he slid slowly down the wall to settle on his blood drenched ass. The green life fluids pooled around him in his pain and terror. He was in no condition to continue speaking.

Pheare seeing this snorted out, "Worthless waste of skin aren't you... Still, you have gained my curiosity. Show me this knight of yours Jaedu... show me!"

The fallen general cried out in agony as his mind was ruthlessly and thoroughly invaded by his queen. He was nothing but a tool, a resource for her and the Dark Empire, even his mind was not his own.

Normally she didn't bother to insinuate her will into the minds of her minions. She allowed them their petty schemes. It kept them at each other's throats while preventing them from thinking they could ever unite and challenge her. If they did she would be forced to slaughter them out of hand and it was ever so difficult to empower proper generals.

As she raped his mind for any reasonably useful information, she saw the course of the last year and all the successful missions Jaedu had accomplished. He had not truly been failing at all, at least at the basic plots and plans. However, each of his major schemes seemed to have been thwarted in one way or another and in several of them a single figure continually arrived to cause trouble.

Through the eyes of his fallen minions he had witnessed the struggles and the failures of his creations. He had been slowly working on a plan to capture this knight and as the months passed it became clear that it was a slow and methodical one. That was how Jaedu operated as she recalled. He was the true tactician among her generals.

Nepher was lost in the stars, Zoe was a raving pervert, and Kainsi had changed his name to Malach and started collecting powerful Demi-Humans for no purpose she could see other than to drain them and try to absorb their powers for his own. He had not really succeeded beyond improving his physical strength greatly, but then again he had always been the strongest of her generals. Power mattered more than tactics to him.

Jaedu, and only Jaedu, understood true cunning. The others were intelligent and crafty, but it was her darling Jaedu that knew how to properly scheme. It was the reason he was in charge of the current energy gathering operations after all. His plans were solid and rarely failed.

However, this knight that continually appeared seemed to stop his major gambits at every turn. Yes, he and his group deserved close attention in the future.

Pheare would not know how close that attention must be until she came to her general's most recent memories. On the bus she saw an image that caused her blood to first run cold and then slowly begin to heat. Her heart began to beat faster and her saliva dried within her mouth momentarily before it flowed warm and wet against her tongue. It was an image that she had seen before to some extent, yet had dismissed due to the angle and the impossibility of the situation.

A single word came to her lips with a disbelieving half-moaned sigh "Nocturne...”

She blinked away the dreamy look that stole across her face and her features shifted into a tightly pinched visage. Hatred turned her beautiful face into the image of scorn and contempt.

"Impossible! Nocturne is still imprisoned... he is mine... he can't be free in the world!" she snapped out imperiously.

She watched in anger as he regarded the two unconscious women with him and seemed to gaze thoughtfully at them in concern before turning back toward the Fiend Jaedu had crafted for the mission.

Why was the night with Nocturne’s face paying such attention to those two girls? Who was he to do such a thing with another man’s face!

"That... That... He is mine! Mine, mine,MINE!" railed the queen of the Dark Empire as black lightning erupted from her clenched fists to strike randomly around the chamber.

She removed herself from Jaedu's mind and left him drooling in a puddle of his own blood. She walked over to her viewing orb on its pillow topped dais. Her hands flew across it and her hair began to lift up and away as she focused on her crystalline sphere in a bid to locate what she sought.

A few moments passed and then she saw it. There was a figure of a man entombed in a glacier not far from her location at the North Pole. Nocturne still resided there, his body cold and pure. No, that knight was not Nocturne. She had been witnessed her dear one, reborn in this world.

Nocturne was not dead, but suspended cryogenically in the ice using magic. He probably would not survive thawing, but that did not matter. No one could ever touch him again... and only she could gaze upon his perfection. Even if she could not really see his face, either.

After all... she was his number one fan. No one else had the right to touch him.

----

Chapter 26: Choices

----

Cerene sang happily as she danced around the courtyard steps. She had spoken to her mother the day before and both of her parents were coming to see her. Apparently her master was making some big announcement and he was inviting everyone that would be involved.

She had given up hope of ever speaking to her mother and father again and had not felt it was right to ask her master to take her there. She knew he would probably say yes if she asked, but they were so busy what with trying to protect the world from devastation and all.

"She seems happy." said Nina with a smile as twin sets of tears trickled down her cheeks. Apollo patted her with a paw and nodded. "Yeah... it's good for her to see her parents."

Nina nodded. She knew she had them, but could not remember anything about them except for the fact that a few years ago she had been living in London. She did not know their names, or if they were even alive. For that matter she did not know if they would care to talk to her even if they were.

Makina stopped sweeping to glance over at Nina. She knew how rough it was to lose your parents. At least she remembered hers though. *Skrtch...Skrtch...*The sound of her broom starting up again echoed through the morning air. It promised to be an interesting day.

----

"So, you're saying that there are no shorter routes to the shrine than that?" asked Scott to a local guide. They had been trying to discover the quickest way back to the shrine, but unfortunately they were on the wrong side of the mountain. Only the cavern route would get them there in time for their meeting the next day.

The merchant nodded to them and fidgeted. Scott took this to mean there was something he was not telling them. He sighed softly and asked, "Fine... what's wrong with the cavern route?"

"Sir... I...I... there is some kind of strange beast in there. People claim it isn't even a Demi-Human...” began the old man, before he quieted himself and looked away.

"Beast?" inquired Pirouette curiously. There were occasional monsters that showed up in this world, but most real threats were Demi-Humans. Few creatures she was aware of would be a credible threat to such people.

The old man nodded worriedly. "We posted a bill at the adventurer's guild and another at the taming center. No one who's gone in there in the last month has come out again..."

"Geeze... just what we need... a boss monster side quest." sighed Scott out loud. Reina and Pirouette stared at him strangely for a moment and the old man acquired a confused look.

"Yes... um. Well, the beast it... it well...” continued the old man.

"It what?" asked Pirouette just so she could get the man moving along. They had a schedule to keep.

"Well... it, the beast that is... it seems... well... statues... there are a great number of statues at the front of the cavern." informed the man.

"Statues... what the monster is an artist?" asked Reina curiously.

Scott shook his head. He doubted that. There were any number of monsters in fiction and mythology that could turn someone to stone. Pirouette actually voiced that fact a moment later causing the Demi-Human's eyes to widen in shock.

"Are we going to have to fight something like that?!" she asked fearfully and in shock. That did not sound like anything she wanted to deal with, even if the thing needed to pay for what it had done to all those people.

Pirouette and Reina both looked at Scott and he frowned. With knit brows and a frustrated anger growing on his face he nodded slowly. He knew they would have to try and deal with it if they were going to make it on time. Shirt rolled downhill, anyway. Things like this were part of his job description.

He could reschedule his meeting and take the long route back, but if he did he would never live down leaving whatever it was in the caverns alive to kill more travelers. His idiotic sense of duty was likely to get them all killed.

"We'll have to go to the guild shop to see if they have any supplies. As much as I hate parting with funds we are going to need equipment." stated Scott with finality.

"Equipment?" asked Pirouette.

Scott nodded at her and began walking away. The sooner they went shopping, the sooner they could be off to their possible doom once again.

A few minutes later Scott and Pirouette were down in the underground shopping center of the guild. Reina had been balled since she was a Demi-Human and couldn't be allowed to run free despite her protests.

"What kind of equipment are you looking for?" inquired Pirouette.

"Protective magics and the like. As far as I know, there aren't any Demi-Humans, or magical spells, commonly known on this world that can petrify. It's a glaring omission in the part of the magic of the world."

The dark elf in human guise nodded at him. "True, there is not likely to be anything useful against that here."

"Yeah, that's why I’m looking for things that will improve resistance against earth and ground based special attacks, psychic ability, and magic in general. It's not much, but it's probably going to be necessary."

"Hmm, too bad you can't use that teleportation spell of yours to simply take us to the shrine."

"Yeah... but...”

"I know... you'd still want to find out what's in the cavern. Fine, I’ll help you look."

Nearly an hour passed as they shopped and Scott was growing frustrated. None of the items for sale here were of use beyond the simplest utilitarian spells. The item selection in this town was greatly lacking compared to Oldtowne.

Eventually, he settled on three copper bracers that nullified Ground and Rock element special attacks while slightly increasing general magic resistance, and a few restorative items that were cited as being as good as the “True Status" spell. Hopefully it would eliminate petrification if it happened.

He also purchased some shield bracelets. These were magical items that generated a field around the wearer's body that acted as a mystic shield against damage. These were the strongest the shop had for sale and were cited as granting a defense rating equivalent to Reinforced leather armor. It wouldn't stop most Demi-Human attacks, but it would weaken incidental damage and might work to help defend against other threats and close calls.

In total it set him back a tidy sum of money, but he felt this was necessary. He could not afford a new set of armor similar to his old one and provide for his companions as well, so he did what he could for the three of them. Unfortunately, the guild shop in this town was out of firearms as well. He did not want to purchase a bow.

It seemed with the recent trouble from monsters and Fiend alike, humans were buying up firearms in record numbers even if they were not always the most effective weapon. Even if they were not the best tool around they were still far better than a stick or hiding in a closet.

"Just out of curiosity why aren't we contacting the others to let them know we're coming through the mountains?" asked Pirouette in the guise of Analise.

Scott winced and replied, "They would try to join us... There's no way to know how that would turn out, even if it seems like a good idea to hit this thing in the caverns from both ends."

She nodded at him, but she was not sure she agreed with his logic. It seemed to make more sense to have backup. Still, she would not argue. She had faced down ancient dragons that could slaughter armies and struggled against an incarnated god in the form of her beloved King Vashra. The idea of facing a little petrifying cave monster did not bother her much.

Once the shopping was finished the duo exited the guild and Scott released Reina. The supplies and equipment were distributed and tested again to make certain they would work. Once preparations were made the trio set out for the trade road that would cut through the mountains. Once again the time for valor had come.