Far to the south, a range of mountains separated the land from the southern sea. A pass winded through the peaks to a valley at the center of the range. Jagged shards of obsidian the size of trees jutted out from the slopes, making the pass all but impenetrable. Very few of the Ibu or Tante had ever navigated the pass successfully, and many who tried were never heard from again.

In the center of the valley, a portal was kept in constant operation, leading to the realm of the demon queen, Ratu Iblis. She sat on a granite throne, wearing nothing but a scowl, staring into the fist-sized amethyst at the end of her staff as demonic minions oiled her deep-purple skin. In the stone, she had just witnessed the defeat of the two lesser minions she had sent to scout the way for the larger offensive she had planned. She had expected that. The two were so inept as to be little more than front-line fodder when the real attack began.

What she hadn’t expected was the axe. She knew it wasn’t from her realm or the world of Memek. She sensed a presence in the weapon, a life-force so vital that it dwarfed that of the Ibu and Tante. And that handle! Ratu ran a forked tongue over her crimson lips. She closed her eyes.

Thin tendrils of black smoke began to emerge from the demon queen’s onyx nipples, curling their way through the air towards the portal at the far side of the room. As the tendrils passed through the shimmering gateway, Ratu closed her eyes, and could instantly sense that the axe’s life force wasn’t alone, that there was another just as powerful, in the village of the Ibu.

A man.

She touched the man, briefly, with her dark essence. No woman would have him before her, she had made certain. Then, the tendrils retracted into the queen’s breasts, and Ratu opened her eyes and smiled, showing a mouthful of grey, pointed teeth. She summoned two of her henchmen, and together they outlined a plan for the next excursion into the land of Memek.

The axe could wait. They had a new target, a far more important one.