Jade Benz

The smoke that filled Jade’s lungs was an interesting mix of fragrances and flavors. She was sitting in the biggest chair that Tik and Tok could find, pulling deep drags from the pipe one of the locals had been holding out to her when they had arrived.

As her lungs filled with the intoxicating leaf, she also inhaled the sharp and sickly-sweet scent of burning bodies. She had to admit that the pairing was very interesting, she might have to repeat this little drama again elsewhere just to see if the high was as good.

The chair was situated right in the middle of the village square. She had picked this spot because it gave her the best vantage of the two ogres as they demolished the settlement around her.

“Hurry up, Tik, Tok, time waits for no one.” She cackled wildly at her own joke through the mental haze the smoke had imparted. At her call the two rock grey slabs of muscle moved a little more enthusiastically about their assignment.

Not that ogres would bother walking faster then a lumbering plod. Their enthusiasm showed itself in how hard they hurled the little green bodies onto the burning wreckage that was the town hall. Jade didn’t know what the little creatures were called here. To her they looked like Goblins, so that’s what she was calling them.

“Hey boys, keep your eyes out for more of this shit.” She said waving the leaf pouch over her head. “I’ve nearly polished off the bag and my buzz is wearing off.” She fumbled another pinch of the dried leaves out and stuffed them into the pipe. She hadn’t spared the thing a glance after tasting the good shit inside. Its surface was a little rougher than her glass one back home but it did the job.

“Did you realize Miss Benz that you have consumed enough blue leaf to intoxicate seven of the locals. Or that you are consuming it from the two-thousand-year-old artifact that I sent you here to collect?” The voice spoke from right next to her chair.

She hadn’t noticed anyone walking up on her. When she heard the voice, she debated for a second if she should jump in surprise, then decided it didn’t really matter anyway and took another drag.

“Who the fuck are you?” she asked without turning her head away from the show. The smoke that came out of her mouth had a blue tint to it and she started to wonder…something about blue.

“I am the Erlking, Miss Benz. I sent you to this place to acquire the pipe you are holding.” The Erlking answered patiently.

“Um…Oh yea, you’re the horny dude who gave me Tik and Tok. You said this thing is what you sent me here for, you sure? That little green fucker handed it to me as soon as I got here.” Wouldn’t that be funny if she killed them all to get something she already had.

“Yes, miss Benz it…” the Erlking started to say.

“If you are the horny dude then I already fuckin told ya, don’t call me Miss Benz. It’s Jade.” She said continuing to smoke. “You can have it back just as soon as I’ve finished off this blue stuff.”

The Erlking stood in silence for a long time, watching her. She didn’t really care, she was used to people looking at her that way.

“I suppose that means you no longer want…Tik and Tok?” he asked. That got her attention quickly enough.

“What do you mean? You gave them to me, no take backs.” A thread of worry had wormed its way through the fog in her head, she liked Tik and Tok. They killed over a hundred of the little green fuckers in less then twenty minutes. Looking at the pipe in her hand she supposed that it hadn’t actually been necessary to kill them, but they had seemed to enjoy doing it as much as she had enjoyed watching.

“Yes, Jade, I gave them to you. If they were to die however, or you were, then they would be gone. I thought about letting you take complete control of them, but I am afraid that it would be too much of a rush for you to handle.” He said looking at the rampaging ogres.

Jade narrowed her eyes at the blatant challenge in the Erlking’s voice. She knew he was baiting her but didn’t really care.

“I can handle anything you got, horny dude.” She said turning to face him at last.

“Are you sure? For someone of your stamina it might be too much to handle.”

“shut up and do it already” was all she said in response.

The Erlking gave the barest of nods and raised his hand in a beckoning gesture. The two ogres stopped feeding the fire and walked over like called dogs. When they arrived, they each lifted a boulder sized hand and reached out to Jade.

“Simply touch them at the same time and they will belong to only you.” He said and stepped away.

Rising to her feet, Jade did as he said. As soon as her hands made contact with the ogre’s rock-hard flesh, she felt a horrendous jerking from behind her navel. Then she felt her entire being shudder and was almost ripped apart, as her soul rapidly expanded to cover the two giants standing in front of her.

Alien thoughts and sensations filled her mind as the ogres became part of her being. She could feel the lazy desire to destroy and the almost carnal enjoyment they had while butchering the little green things.

“Wow, that really was a rush.” Jade said as she finally came back to herself. She felt a little off, getting the edges of emotion from Tik and Tok. She felt raw, like she was just waking up from a three-day bender. “Can I do that again?” was all she managed.

The Erlking looked at her unfocused eyes and unsteady stance, and smiled.

“Of course, Jade, but first I am going to have to ask you to do something for me.”

She laughed nastily and Tik and Tok loomed up behind her protectively.

“Sorry horny dude but there’s no way I’m gunna sleep with you, no matter how good the high. A girls gotta have some standards ya know.”

“Not at all what I meant Jade.” The Erlking reassured her, pointing down the road. “There is another village about a day’s walk that way. They also have something I would like you to acquire for me. If you get that object, just like you got this one, I will give you another ogre. Do we have a deal?”

She looked from him to the burning village and started to laugh. She threw herself back down into the chair and put the pipe back to her lips. Without a word spoken the two ogres reached down and, grabbing the chair by the arms hosted it onto their shoulders.

“I will be ready to collect in a day or two horny dude, don’t forget you will owe me an ogre.” She called back over her shoulder as her beasts of burden lumbered away toward another village that needed burning down.

* * *

Erlking

The Erlking watched the damaged human soul as she wandered away. The path she was taking would get her to another town, but not for almost a week. He thought it best to give her the time to recover from all the recent shocks in relative peace.

A form stepped through creation to stand beside him. He didn’t have to look to know that it was the avatar of the Morrigan. She was his closest ally among the World lords and had worked closely with him to get the others on board for this project.

“Are you sure that was wise Erlking? The Arbiter will not be happy if you damage one of the human souls.” She said with a frown as she too watched the ogres lumbering away as a slow but steady pace.

“Relax Morrigan, the Arbiter doesn’t want to be here anymore then we want him here. As long as we follow the letter of the rules, he won’t quibble about the spirit of them.” He said with assurance, looking over to her at last.

He liked her humanoid avatar. Her skin was pale as moonbeams and there was a lot of it showing. She was completely naked; her femininity was covered only by the sleek raven feathers that grew in place of hair on her body.

“But why risk it at all?” she pressed tapping the tip of one taloned foot on the ground in agitation.

“For several reasons. First among them that soul is broken, she won’t ever be as useful as some of the others.” He said raising one razor sharp claw.

“She is still young and this is all new to her, there is a chance that she will come around.” She said, most likely only playing devil’s advocate for him.

“Granite was a World lord more then a Millenia before I was born.” He rebutted, bringing up the giant brute who was likely even now smashing their saviors to bloody paste.

“Good point,” was all she could say to that. “You said reasons?” she waved a feathered hand for him to continue.

“There are two more reasons. I want to experiment on her, see just how much stress her soul can take while still making her stronger.” He raised a second clawed finger. “Lastly, I think she will be the perfect tool to get some of the others motivated.” He put up the last finger.

“If she is that unstable, is giving her more power the right answer?” Morrigan asked with a touch of concern showing in her crimson eyes.

“I could gift her this entire planet, and it would raise her threat level to that of a flea biting a dog.” The Erlking said dismissively.

“True enough I suppose. But why bother at all then?”

“Mainly because I now have what she wants. She has a weak mind, if I continue to give her brutal beasts to bind to herself, she will start to enjoy fighting more than drugs. We still have to fight the corruption and to do that we need to make use of every tool we have at our disposal, no matter how distasteful.”

“Sounds like you have that one all figured out. How about the other ones? It seemed like a mistake to me to trade Briggs for Vryce.” She said changing topics slightly.

“That was a bit more involved then manipulating Miss Benz.” The Erlking said. “Briggs has a fantastic mind for strategy. He used the rat swarm he wanted to devastating effect, but he isn’t comfortable getting his hands dirty. Giving him to Shipwright was the best call, with an army of those combat drones the kid will make a good showing.”

“Smart, why did you give him the rats?” she asked.

“He is quite young and is still feeling his way into this world. Giving him those rats served a dual purpose, first it ingratiated him to me for being nice when he was so upset. Second, it removed his ability to leave via reincarnation. With his soul ‘tainted’ he has to stay here and fight the corruption.”

“I have to say I am impressed. How about the other one you have been working on, Vryce?”

“his first showing wasn’t all that impressive I will admit. He did learn quickly though, using his A.I. to commandeer that Juggernaut was genius. He also understood that even with its help he was finished. There was no way for him to complete the trial with what he had on hand, but instead of giving up or going back he decided to damn the consequences and go as far as he could before death claimed him. He even beat Shipwright’s estimates by two levels.” He said cracking a smile that exposed a sharp canine.

“Next you will tell me that getting Shipwright to offer him that small drone was part of your plan too,” she said with a chuckle of her own.

“No, that was unexpected” he admitted. “The way he went about it though was useful to us. Vryce wasn’t happy when he found out that changes to his Soul removed his options of going home. Regardless of the fact that he was never going to be able to go home anyway. If I play it right, I can use that resentment to further bring him into our camp.”

They stood together in companionable silence for a time, watching through various screens as the human souls got used to their new reality. The Erlking knew that he was being manipulative, he just didn’t see any other option.

He looked out at his world, one of thousands he directly controlled. If they did not get, ready and, soon the corruption would eat into this world. Like a worm eating into an apple until there was nothing left but rot.

“And how about you Morrigan?” he asked to dispel his tension. “Any stand out candidates?”

“There are a few.” Morrigan said pulling up two screens. One showed a muscle-bound black man in combat fatigues holding a saber and a small round shield, one in each hand. The other screen held a slender woman that looked like she originated somewhere in south America. Dressed the same but holding a sniper’s rifle.

“Mike Bishop and Beth Blake. I did as you suggested and have them fighting in random scenarios, sometimes together and sometimes on opposite teams. I am having them die as much as possible to get them used to the idea that death is temporary and that victory is more important.” She closed the windows with a shrug.

“There are a few others but no stand outs. None of them will make good leaders, but they are working up to be excellent soldiers.”

“Fantastic,” said the Erlking. There was still a long and winding road ahead of them but it looked like they might actually have a chance of surviving what was to come.