Chapter 40

“You’re going to wish you had left my Welcoming mask intact,” said Ozymandias as he finished strapping me into a wooden chair. I’d struggled every step of the way, but his demonic strength was too much for me. It was like trying to wrestle with a bear without my hands.

“I don’t see how,” I said. I tried to summon Stormbringer again, but only managed to zap myself with the magical feedback.

“You will,” he said, screwing a multi-jointed metal device into place. If he noticed my cry of pain or the puff of smoke from my shackles, he didn’t mention it. “That was one of my favorite inventions. It’s much more surgical than this chair. Much easier on the user and the recipient.”

“This looks like a glorified eye-doctor’s chair,” I said. “I have twenty/twenty vision, so there’s no need to examine me.”

“I appreciate your bravado, but it’s quite pointless,” he said. “Why waste the energy?”

“If I believe you, you’re about to erase my mind,” I said, feeling oddly calm despite it all. I guess there’s a certain freedom in being doomed. What else was he going to do to me? “I’m going to use it while I can.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, my dear,” he said. “I never completely overwrite anyone, whether I’m planting the full seed of myself in somebody, or using the mark to impart my worldview on them. The base personality always shines through. Surely you noticed? Kumar is still the mother’s boy he was when he arrived, Puja is still a harsh battle-axe, and Sunny is still as insipidly cheerful as ever.”

“Why wouldn’t you erase them?” I decided to keep him talking. The more he did, the more chance the Finding Device in my pocket had to alert Yukiko, Soren, and anybody else on the same wavelength to my situation. At least, until the charge ran out; I couldn’t feed it more magic without triggering my shackles. Thankfully, he hadn’t seen fit to frisk me. “You’re all about control.”

Ozymandias leaned against a nearby table, making a tut-tut sound. “Yes, but it’s a fine line. If I completely overwrite all that somebody is, they become useless drones that I practically have to tell to breathe until they can finally accumulate something like a personality again.” He paused, giving me a sidelong glare. “Though wizards are a bit different. The gift of my presence is like an organ transplant, and magic users always seem to resist the lesser methods, like the mask.” He let out a forlorn sigh. “It’s what landed me in this whole mess to start with.”

“Do tell,” I said, trying to sound interested. I was in a war for time. If he wanted to talk, I’d indulge him… as much as I wanted to lop off his ugly head. “What is a whole mini-horde doing out here?”

His blood red eyes narrowed. “You’re stalling.”

“Wouldn’t you?” I asked. “What, are you in a rush?”

He chuckled at that. I wished he hadn’t; the devil’s laughter lacked all cheer, and the threatening sound made me quake. “You know what? When some little piece of your mind is screaming as my seed grows and supplants you, I think it will be all the better if you understand the reality of your situation. Let me start at the beginning.”

A self-gratified smile spread across his face, his red eyes going distant as they focused on visions long gone. “Once, long ago, a rogue devil turned against Our Father Below. He seemed so surprised, which is funny in retrospect. It’s how He founded his kingdom, after all. That rogue devil was banished to a parallel world, one of the Enemy’s errant creations. It was a land you would think of as fantasy, full of creatures never seen on your mundane earth. He conquered it, learning the secrets of this other world’s dark mages, and he sent a message back to Our Father Below’s realm. It was ‘join me and we shall destroy The Enemy’s favorite children’, an offer that no true-blooded devil could resist.”

“When we arrived in your world, I was assigned to the Eastern Horde. I was struck by the sheer lack of imagination of my commanders. That was fine by me, though; it would make it easier to carry on with my plans to usurp them. My magical affinity lets me plant seeds of myself in others. At first, it is simply a voice in the back of the head, but eventually I become fully rooted and I can see through their eyes, regardless of the distance. It is hard to manage too many of my seedlings at once, but that’s fine; I didn’t need to controls them all the time, after all. I keep my spare puppets in those lovely little toyboxes, where they can sleep as long as they need to. I was going to eventually catch that useless figurehead Kartanan the Ruthless alone, conquer him, and rule from the shadows.”

“It must not have worked out,” I said.

“Kartanan didn’t get his sobriquet by being forgiving,” he grumbled. “One of my seedlings exposed himself, and Kartanan purged the entire damn royal palace down to the gardeners. I barely got away with a dozen followers, including that useless lump over there,” he said, pointing at Virgil for emphasis. “I’d fought in the Spratlys when I was on campaign, and I knew about the abandoned base on this enlarged island. The military rations were even still good, which was fortunate, since we didn’t have the villagers to do the hard labor yet.”

“How awful for you,” I growled.

“It was hard at first, I’ll admit,” he said. “Fortunately, and you’ll pardon the expression, the sea provides.” He cackled humorlessly again. “Oh, you hated that, didn’t you? Well, it’s true this time! Humans would wash up on shore, naturally at first, and they made fine additions to my little empire. However, you can’t rely on nature; she is the Enemy’s creation, after all. I did find fortune smiled on me, though.”

Ozymandias strolled over to the enormous console, running his fingers along the controls almost lovingly. “Affinities are a funny thing; every magic user has one, and they’re able to pull off feats of magic that would require miles of runes for a cast spell or a fabricata. As you can imagine, I’ve had a bit of spare time, and I decided that being able to summon a storm at will would help me with my… acquisitions. Of course, years of engineering are nothing compared to what you and your brother can do. However, it gets the job done.”

“That’s how you sank the Hercules,” I said. “And got the Tractor Beam.”

“Exactly. Well, I can’t take full credit; I couldn’t have swum out there. Speaking of…” He stepped over and smacked me across the face, rattling my teeth. “Zack was also kind enough to tell me about what you did to my pet. The teeth will grow back, but the poor thing’s horribly scarred. He won’t leave the Spratlys anymore.”

“You can’t imagine how sorry I’m not,” I said through a mouthful of blood. “He ruined my date.”

He reached out, tracing a finger along a trickle of blood running down my face. I winced in disgust as he swallowed it. “You suffered for it, you know. It’s why the men of the village had to go further to fish; a mosasaur on the loose tends to scare the natural wildlife away.”

“That and feeding your orcs and slaves on the other side of the island.”

“Granted, Haven village is my lowest of priorities,” he said. “That reminds me, I need to do something about Ruth; she isn’t pulling her weight anymore.”

“Don’t you touch her!” Stormbringer surged with my anger, the magic feeding right back into me with agonizing results.

“Aw, how sweet. You do care about them.” He ran his fingers through my hair; I couldn’t lean far enough away. “It’s funny; if I’d known what you were, you’d have never met any of them.”

“Why the two villages, though? And if your affinity is for planting your so-called ‘seed’, why the fabricata?”

“My activities on this side of the island tend to run through men like some run through tissue paper,” he replied. “Building vessels, clearing trees, all of that necessary work for the future growth of my empire. However, I noticed that the humans were wise to the so-called Spratly Curse, so I decided to set up a breeding colony.”

My eyes widened. “Breeding colony?”

He shook his head wistfully. “Human women aren’t very useful as bondslaves; I learned that lesson early on. So, I put all of you to work making my future workers.” He patted his wooden contraption. “I don’t waste my seed on the humans, though. It takes too much focus to control so many at a time. No, I translated the basics of my affinity to runes, and that artificial seed and a bit of good old fashioned cult tactics keep them in line. Still, I figured I wanted to be a bit coy that their sons would go off to work until they dropped. None are grown yet, but we devils live centuries; I have nothing but time to come up with a convincing story to explain where they’re going.”

More anger. More magic flaring up. More blinding pain.

Ozymandias caressed my face tenderly; I was too exhausted to fight back. “You don’t need to worry about them, you know. You’ll never see them again, though you might see their children grown and in the work camps.”

“Don’t touch me,” I managed.

“If you can’t handle this much contact, you’re going to be so disappointed,” he replied. “I thought I had good luck finding your brother, but he can’t give me children with your talents.”

His words hit harder than his slap before. “No.”

“You’ll be singing a different tune soon enough,” he replied. “Though, you’re making me wonder if I shouldn’t leave a few humans with free minds. The problem with having so many drones and yes-men about is that nobody can really appreciate my plans. That look on your face just now was better than sex.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I said, looking him straight in the eye.

“You’re repeating yourself, but you’ve had a rough day, so I’ll forgive you. It’s been so long since I’ve had somebody who could really talk back, besides that disappointment of a son.”

“Virgil?”

He grimaced like he’d tasted something sour. “Useless half-breed fool. He sees one woman and he betrays me without a second thought. Still, he did the trick for a while. I’ll just have to try harder next time.”

“Meistan!” A commotion came at the door before I could respond, and the four orcs from the funeral rushed in, spears at the ready, the megapede following shortly after. The lead orc, wearing a familiar cuirass, stepped forward and shouted in Demonic.

Ozymandias rolled his eyes. “How lovely, they’re here to inform me of your break-in. I swear, you can’t get good help anymore.” He stalked over, his own voice echoing through the workshop, jabbing his finger right at me.

I’d never seen a sheepish orc before, or seen a blow strong enough to knock one to the ground in a single punch.

He rose to his feet, babbling an apology, even as one of his tusks fell out of his mouth. He paid it no mind as he beat a hasty retreat. The other three couldn’t run away fast enough. The megapede stayed, exploring the shattered bits of fabricata in a fruitless search for food.

Go away! Ozymandias isn’t going to treat you any better!

The enormous roly-poly carried on fearlessly, and I didn’t speak up. There was no sense drawing the devil’s attention to the poor thing.

Not that it was much better to have him zeroed in on me. “So, you’ve been a busy girl! I’m as impressed as I am absolutely livid.” He loomed over me. His hand was a blur of motion as it lashed out, grabbing me by my collar and hauling me up. “You killed three of my orcs and my last goblin, and then you went and castrated my Tractor Beam. My irreplaceable Tractor Beam.”

I smirked triumphantly at him. It was better than shrieking in terror. “I always leave an impression.”

He tossed me aside, and the world went out of focus as my head grazed the cracked concrete floor. “That had better not have killed you.”

I stayed still, forcing my breathing to stay steady and my eyes closed.

“Well, we can fix that. Alheln.”

I’d heard the spell before: All Heal, the devil recovery magic that could turn horrific injurites into bad memories and scars in an instant. Soren had used it on himself a few times, a legacy of his demonkin past.

He’d never mentioned just how much it hurt, though. The growing knot on my head fixed itself with a flash of agony, but that wasn’t the worst of it. My hands felt like they were on fire, and then nothing. Was that supposed to happen? They hadn’t been hurt, had they?

“Oh, Hell, I forgot about the manacles.” I didn’t feel them come off, which was more concerning, but I did hear them clatter to the ground as he shucked them off. “Alright, second try. Alheln.”

I couldn’t keep my voice down that time, my pained shriek echoing through the lab. All Heal coursed through my body, knitting my charred flesh on my hands back into shape.

“Maybe I don’t want so much independence after all,” he snarled, hauling me back up, careful to keep my arms behind my back.

“What’s the matter? Did I hurt your delicate devil feelings?”

He leaned over, glaring daggers at me. “If your plan is to make me kill you, you won’t be so lucky. Let’s get you reprogrammed, and then I’ll plant one of my soul seeds in you.” Without waiting for my response, he hauled me around, frog-marching me towards the chair.

It was a good thing I had Ozymandias so riled up, or he might have seen what I saw out of the corner of my eye. The megapede had reared up, investigating poor Virgil’s prone form. The dumb creepy-crawly really did care about him.

Or it liked the palm fronds. Either way, it was doing something to his face I couldn’t see. Licking him? No, it doesn’t have a tongue.

Either way, whatever she was doing, I was going to give her the time to do it. His long-nailed fingers felt tighter than the discarded shackles ever did, but arms aren’t everything.

He leaned around me to loosen a leather strap on the chair, giving me just a bit of slack. I drove my head backwards, catching him in the nose.

“You little bitch!” His grip didn’t loosen as I broke his nose, though. I heard my bones creaking, and stars danced before my eyes.

“I haven’t started yet!” Stormbringer had plenty of emotion to feed off of, and I let it have free reign again. There wasn’t enough moisture to rain, but every bit of debris around us took to the air. Most of the bits slammed into my armored body, though I felt fresh bruises form beneath.

“Cut that out!” he roared in my ear, still audible over the roaring winds.

“Make me!” I punctuated my declaration by stomping on his foot as hard as I could. Demon strength or no, the heel of my magically-enhanced boot beat his bare toes.

The vicelike grip around my wrists finally relented, and I sprang away as fast as I could.

Demonic runes flashed around Ozymandias’ hands. “Bahadour!” Red lighting took shape around his right hand, and I barely ducked under the sizzling bolt of energy. The concrete wall behind me wasn’t so lucky, and as we stood there in stunned silence, I could just make out the lapping of the waves on the nearby beach.

Ozymandias looked as horrified as I felt at the display of raw power. “I swear, you aren’t going to die that easily.”

“Are you sure about that? I think I got under your red skin. You’re forgetting I’m your broodmare.” I tried to speak with all the bravado I didn’t feel. Christ. Stronger than an orc and more magic than a whole team of wizards. No wonder we’re losing.

“That’s what I mean,” he said. “Your work isn’t done yet.”

I needed space, but, if I turned and ran, he’d start threatening any of the four hostages he had in the room.

The solution?

“Blessed Bathysphere!” I made this one nearly skintight; there wouldn’t be enough air inside for a mouthful.

If I couldn’t make my own space, take away his.

Ozymandias’ red eyes flew open as he clawed at the energy barrier. The flexible envelope was designed to withstand changing water pressures, though. It wouldn’t be so easy.

“Magic Bolt!” I put as much magic as I could into the attack, the oblong energy structure flying forward like a bullet.

Even as he struggled with the Blessed Bathysphere, he could see the attack coming, and he twisted out of the way. Another hole was opened into the crisp night air.

His fingernails finally tore through the permeable barrier, clawing his face in the process. I don’t think he even noticed the deep gashes he’d left in his own face. “Enough! Firemblut!”

I froze in place, my eyes bulging out of my skull as every nerve in my body lit up at once. Never heard of this one. It took all of my effort to collapse to my knees instead of faceplanting.

“How do you like that spell?” he said, still gasping for air. “I tasted your blood before, you’ll recall.” He patted his muscular stomach. “As long as it’s in me, I can ignite it with a spell.”

“Th-that’s disgusting,” I managed.

His lips twisted into a triumphant sneer. “And that is why you’ll lose. I didn’t want to have to resort to this, you know; when I plant the seed in you, I’ll pick up your memory along with everything else, and Burning Blood hurts like a bitch.”

“S-sorry to inconvenience you.” Move. Move. You spent all that time building up your legs, move! My legs didn’t listen, twitching uselessly as the aftereffects of Ozymandias’ spell played out.

“Ah, well,” he said with a shrug. “We’ll just have to make some new ones.” He leaned over and swept me up, my limp limbs refusing to put up any resistance, no matter how I tried. “It’s an honor, you know; Ozzie’s never taken a partner before. You’ll be like the queen of the village. Kumar will be miffed, but he’ll fall into line.” He wrinkled his nose. “Humans aren’t really my fetish, but sometimes one does what one must for the future.”

“Lay back and think of England? You really are old fashioned.” I wasn’t sure how to feel about his half-rejection. The whole concept had me numb.

Ozymandias stiffened, and I was dumped onto the hard floor again. At least it wasn’t headfirst again, but my back didn’t agree.

Craning my neck up, I saw a familiar sword’s tip sticking through Ozymandias’ shirtless gut, as Virgil’s form swirled into view.

“Threatening to replace me and stealing my future girl?” He kicked the older devil in the back, sending him toppling forward into one of the debris-strewn workbenches. “You’re lucky I didn’t aim lower.”

“Virgil?” I said, staggering back on my feet.

The megapede clattered up behind him, rubbing against his leg. “Maybe you do deserve a name, girl.”