Axis looked up at the massive, diamond-scaled dragon that, like so many others around him, sent nothing but a hateful, rage-filled gaze his way. But, while his plan to escape had failed, he had other aces up his sleeve, and he would make full use of them.

“Then, let’s see how you handle thi-!”

He didn't get the chance to pull whatever card he was going to play out from wherever he had hidden it, as Monarkea’s tail had whipped around and hit him in the side, sending him flying off like a rocket towards the edge of the arena. He tumbled through the air, rebounding off the floor a few times before stabilizing himself and skidding to a halt just a few inches from the molten lava that was flowing like raging rapids around the edge of the battlefield.

“I said, ‘Then, let’s see how you handle thi-!”

Once again, before he could do whatever had planned to do or tried to do, he was sent flying around the battleground as a pillar of lava spiked up at an angle from behind him, knocking him forward while searing his body. After that impact, another set of impacts, this time formed from highly pressurized blasts of air, juggled him like a living hacky-sack for a while until he was completely discombobulated.

After being juggled by concussive wind blasts for a few seconds, Axis was then yanked towards Monarkea by an unseen force, only to be smacked by her tail yet again and sent screaming into the upper limits of the cave, impacting the rocky ceiling with a thunderous thud as the crowd cheered.

“I believe that you Races call that a ‘home run’.” Monarkea joked as Axis plummeted toward the ground from over 100 stories up. Axis, though, was less worse for wear than any normal person his size, age, and species would have been, but this resilience was in part due to the will inhabiting him and in part due to Monarkea pulling her punches to make this torture of an execution drag on (pun intended).

“I am part of something far greater than you viruses could ever hope to be!” Yelled Axis as he touched down in a classic superhero landing. “I protect those whom you tried to exterminate! I will succeed in my mission, and you all will be eradicated! I! HAVE! THE! POWE-!”

“Oh, shut up.”

As she said that, Monarkea smashed Axis into the floor of the arena with one of her clawed fists, lifting her claw up a bit after that, revealing that Axis was trying to get back up. Monarkea was feeling sadistically playful at this current moment, and as Axis reached the point where he was nearly entirely upright, Monarkea brought down her fist again, pulling it back after the impact to let Axis try and stand again.

He did, and Monarkea repeated the action she had done twice before, and Axis ended up repeating the ones he had taken, and so the scene repeated itself another few times before Monarkea swatted the teen to the side rather than crush him into the cracked ground once again.

Axis shakily stood up again and leveled his sword at Monarkea.

“I cannot be beaten!” he yelled. “I was made for this! I cannot be injured, let alone killed! You! Have! Lost!”

Monarkea tilted her head.

“So, do you feel pain?”

Axis huffed and smirked.

“Yes, I do, but that means nothing, virus.”

A smile began to form on Monarkea’s face.

“Do you feel fear?”

Axis’ smirk grew wider.

“I do, but you cannot make me feel fear!”

Axis continued to smile widely, but his countenance gradually soured into a look of mild concern.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Monarkea’s lips had fully parted and a look of malicious, sadistic, cruel glee had filled her draconic face.

“Oooooh, you stupid little sliver of those bastards…” she half moaned in excitement. “We are all going to have so much fun with you.”

Axis unconsciously took a step backward as Monarkea crept closer, her grin ever-widening and showing more of her massive teeth.

“Y-you can’t intimidate me!” he blustered, but while it was not obvious to him it was painfully obvious to everyone else that he was, in fact, already intimidated by the approaching mass of malice. “You can’t kill me, so just give up and let me kill you!”

“Oh, ho ho…” Monarkea purred. “But you should know by now that death is often preferable to the fates I and so many others can visit upon you.” She now towered over Axis, who had fallen on his ass and was sporting a face far more fitting than the one filled with bravado that he had previously sported.

“Y-you think you can break me? I-I am loyal! I c-c-cannot be swayed!”

Monarkea merely grinned and replied with a very ominous series of words.

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

Monarkea’s mouth began to glow as a light of a certain kind flowed from within it.

“But for now, just take the punishment we have for you.” she said with the coldness and callousness of a true sadist. “This is going to hurt you far, far more than it will hurt us.”

“Uhh…” Axis mumbled as he tried to scoot backward. “Can we,” he gulped loudly, “talk about this? Please?”

Monarkea brought her mouth down nearly to Axis’ face and opened it as wide as she could. Before the massive breath attack she had in store flowed out and washed over Axis, she whispered just one singular word to the possessed fool.

“No.”

…

Vaile blinked a few times before he realized that he was, in fact, standing in the place he feared that he was. He had never been too much of a fan of the traditional fae, neither in any TTRPG nor in any other media.

He found their cruel, whimsical nature to be far too chaotic for his tastes, but when he was in the game he had felt the need to Tame a few of the fae nonetheless simply to complete his collection. Now he was here, in a place that reeked of fae bullshit, while also being a place suitable for a Fantasy TTRPG Setting based on a certain ‘place beyond the looking glass’.

“Fuck.” he groaned as he walked down the side of a literal house made of cards and onto a floor made entirely of multi-colored rose petals. He could practically hear the laughter of the fae-folk as he passed through a garden made of stained glass statues, paintings that shifted between moving images and stills, and a swirling mass of butterflies formed of dreams. “As if the Fog City wasn’t weird enough….”