Harry hefted his hammer onto his shoulder and walked towards the shadow user while scanning the area for her companion, dealing with both at once would be a hassle and he would prefer not to be sneak attacked.
“Well? Where is she?”
He asked not expecting an answer but receiving one anyway.
“Who? Valerie? She’s playing with your men. My other friend will be here soon, I just need to set the scene.”
Samantha responded as she shook her joints and cracked her neck. Coughing to get the cobwebs out of her throat and breathing deep she began her preprepared speech.
“In the- Wait. When the- no that’s not it. Hang on, how did it go?”
Not prepared enough it seemed as she cupped her chin and tried to remember the words. She spent so long rehearsing and now that it was the moment of truth, she couldn’t recall her lines. Why didn’t she write it down? Harry stood before the mumbling adventurer waiting as she paced around starting and stopping several times trying to remember a poem or something. She stopped raised a finger with a bright eureka look on her face then immediately deflated and resumed her pacing much to the bandit leader’s annoyance.
“Alright enough, I have to be somewhere and can’t be bothered waiting on you missy. Better pucker up!”
He broke in, overhead swinging his hammer directly on top of the distracted girl. Samantha made no attempt to dodge or acknowledge the swing as it came hurtling towards her. It would have been certain doom, however just before impact, the huge hammer was stopped dead in its tracks only a few inches from colliding with Samantha’s skull. Harry looked on with wide eyed amazement at the single chain extending from the girl’s shadow to stop him mid-swing, there hadn’t even been a bit of sway or give from the black shackles. Samantha finally noticed her brush with death gawking at Harry, then her shadow and back to the bandit once again. She puffed out her cheeks, frustrated at the interruption while shaking her head disapprovingly.
“How rude, I am trying to remember my lines!”
The upset diva reprimanded and waved a dismissive hand at Harry causing the chain still holding back his hammer to push the slightest amount which sent the man and his weapon flying backwards several metres. Samantha looked at her own hand surprised then directed a baleful gaze towards the chain.
“Watch it! We need him alive for the ceremony! I know you’re excited, but we had a deal!”
She admonished her own shadow which warbled slightly at the verbal assault. Was this thing trying to be cute? No puppy dog act would work on this adventurer, no sirree.
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
It worked, she just couldn’t stay mad at that bundle of occult terror incarnate. Far from the cute display, Harry crouched against the ground while clutching at his side and breathing heavily. His gaze was transfixed on the shadow user. He broke through her chains so easily earlier and now a single one pushed him back? Just what was going on?
After a few more moments of concentrated effort, Samantha gave up trying to remember her lines. Huffing out a breath, she opted to just wing it and hope she could remember the main points from her grand speech. She came up with it all by herself taking inspiration from the temple where she acquired her second aspect and the description of her class. It needed a little more workshopping, but it’s not like many people would hear her. Taking a deep breath and letting it slowly filter through her teeth; Samantha felt the words come forth.
“In the darkest of blacks, where the sun cannot shine and light will not venture, you wait. When the sky’s burn, the land cracks and the sea’s boil, you will remain. On the battlefield where the Divine and the Infernal will wage war, you will be there to sunder them all!”
She revelled in her sole audience’s captivation and threw her arms wide announcing to the heavens.
“You were there at the beginning, and you will persist after the end! Though your body is locked away, your spirit cannot be stopped! By our contract I become the cage and the key!”
There was something wrong with how she talked, it was Samantha’s voice but something else was emerging from beneath it. Something old and powerful and angry and very, very, very hungry.
“No magic, no rune, no curse, no spell can harm you! For you have had it all and ate the very core of the world and you still hunger!”
The wind stopped blowing through the trees and all sound bar Samantha’s wailing cries ceased. Her shadow began to expand growing exponentially while the area around her dimmed to a pale grey, every mote of light being sucked away. From where he knelt, Harry could see it all from Samantha’s black cloak billowing uncontrollably to her roiling blonde locks that moved and undulated of their own accord.
“WHERE MEN RULE, AND KINGDOMS RISE YOU WILL BE THEIR ANTITHESIS! THEIR ARMIES THROW THEMSELVES UPON YOU AND YOU DRINK THE FLAMES OF WAR TO CONSUME THEM ALL! NO BLADE, NO SPEAR, NO BOW OR ARROW AND… no hammer will mar your being.”
Samantha screamed out ending in a whisper while looking into the very soul of Harry the Hammer. The man in question felt something instinctual stir within, not his own survival instincts but those of every living creature reaching out him. Heroes often said they felt the call come in times of crisis and could not refuse. Harry was no hero and yet in that moment, just outside some dingy little village against a girl not even half his age he felt the world beseech him to act. To not just to protect himself or his men, but for the kingdom he turned his back on, for the villages he would raid, for the people he was destined to slay and for the friends he had lost. He felt the heroes call to stand up and do something, anything to stop that girl before it was too late. As Samantha raised her hand to complete the sermon, Harry tried to rush forward and interrupt, yet his legs would not move. Looking down he found he was caught in hundreds of mini, needle like, chains pinning him in place. He could do nothing but watch in horror and realize he himself had played right into bringing about the end.
“You have rested for too long and your hunger has tortured you long enough! In the name of our pact, I command you, I demand you, I… ask of you to come forth and say hello…”
Samantha held her open palm high and slowly brought her thumb and middle finger together. She imagined everyone she had ever met, the people of the mine who abandoned her, the citizens of the capital who avoided her, the scholar who raised her, the warrior who trained her, the librarian, the cook, the receptionist, the cleaner and the crook who supported her. She imagined her best friend, the only person left whom she relied on and trusted unequivocally. She smiled sombrely as she doomed all of them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Rise up from the depths and honour our deal: Cromeran Perrenact Peilar!”
And with that Samantha snapped her fingers, the small barely audible sound that followed a reverberating call that was felt across the land. In Gentile priests fell to their knees dizzy, breathless and pale. In Maroch the dreaming oracles awoke screaming and refused to blink or close their eyes a second longer. In Shurle the shamans walked from their homes into the frozen tundra and were never seen from again. In Namhar the ancient dragons stirred, a shiver running down their scales as all turned their heads in one direction towards a horizon and a far-off kingdom where the end began with a lone girl at its centre.
Light and sound returned to the area as Samantha’s snap finally stopped echoing, she lowered her hand and began to shake. It was subtle at first a light tremor in her fingers that travelled up her arm and soon encompassed her whole body. She doubled over, gagging and retching something that wouldn’t come up as her body underwent a change. The hair on her head floated in all directions unaffected by gravity as a wave of darkness travelled along the strands and stained the ends like they had been dipped in oil. The polish on her fingers curled off, unneeded as the nail underneath turned black and sharp. A permanent void within the world formed in her shadow changing into an area no light could escape from and would never be obstructed. She stumbled on her feet, barely managing to right herself as she drunkenly rose back up. The last to change was her eyes that warped as the sclera turned a stygian dark shade while a faded and smoky orange replaced her irises. All she was missing was some black lipstick as well as issues with her father and she would be the poster perfect gothic icon. She shook herself like a dog and looked around the area seeing Harry’s mortified face but nothing else. To be more accurate she saw no ONE else.
“Uuuuuuh.”
She awkwardly slid herself up to the still emerging chain and kicked it with her heel.
“That’s your cue!”
She shout whispered to the erect series of links as a last ditch effort to save her from the embarrassment. At her behest the chain shifted and split into three, one still standing tall while the other two bent to near right angle halfway up either side of the original. From her shadow numerous black tendrils crawled up the chains encircling and giving them weight. They were thousands of chains of all different sizes, shapes and forms coiling around one another and converging into the form of something massive. Over the course of a minute the many chains wound and twist themselves into an arm with a five fingered hand. Then another opposing arm took shape in much the same way, both bulging and rippling with faux muscles. Between the outrageously muscular arms an equally shredded torso formed with chain made hair erupting around the collar bone that swayed against a non-existent breeze. Lastly, a head appeared combining and coalescing at the neck with a sharp face and pair of horns jutting out of either side. It was the upper half of the monster Samantha encountered in the Deep Jail; its lower section sunk into the void that was her shadow. Unlike the original it copied, the chain replica of the beast of the abyss was not a huge gaunt skeleton but a three-metre-tall sturdy bull that surged with unattainable power. The ox skull remained unaffected however, it was a staple of the creature and one it would not do without.
Slowly, the thousands of links stopped shifting as the beast’s form was complete and the imitation creation moved freely for the first time in millennia. It looked up to a sun it despised, scraped against earth it would shatter and felt wind it would halt. It opened its maw wide and let out a roar that made no sound, yet the surrounding trees still shook. The beast took in all the sights it had not seen in ages passed ending on the girl that called it forth. It moved its right hand to encircle her, placing her head between its thumb and index finger. It would be so simple to pop the creepily smiling girls head right off her shoulders, the first kill in forever, but a deal was a deal and the beast would not renege on its agreement. It let go of Samantha, resting both hands upon the ground and lowered its head before her. She patted the side of its skull like it was a humongous dog which the creature did not appreciate but made no move to stop her.
“Welcome home.”
Samantha uttered with barely contained excitement. She was really happy to see her new friend. She wasn’t sure if forming a deal with him… it? Him sure. She wasn’t sure if forming a deal with him would work but assumed if she could go into the jail and release some inmates why couldn’t she give others parole? Using her chains as a medium had been a stroke of genius on her part and she would be quite happy to share her eureka moment with Valerie later. Right now, however she still needed to complete the last stage of her bargain.
“Ooooooooh Haaaaaarrrrryy~”
She trilled in a sing song voice turning to the terrified bandit leader.
“This is the friend I was talking about: Cromeran Perrenact Peilar, I call him Peilar for short!”
She walked towards Harry, Peilar remaining in her shadow and forced to follow in her wake.
“You see, me and Peilar made a deal. I get something I want, and he gets what he wants. I needed someone who could help me kill monsters and maybe end the world, but you don’t need to worry about that.”
Harry felt his heart pounding in his ears as he tried desperately to move away from the leisurely approaching nightmare.
“Big ol’ Peilar just wants death and destruction, it’s like his whole thing. So, we joined forces and made a deal. The problem is… well I might have… no, I definitely did. I offered some collateral.”
She stood before the man and tapped his forehead with each word.
“Which. Is. You.”
Samantha leaned into Harry’s ear and whispered.
“Sorry, had to be someone.”
Overwhelming fear filled the bandit leaders mind and he did the only thing he could manage in that moment; lash out. While his legs were trapped his hands were free including the one wielding his hammer. He swung round trying to splatter the monster summoning girl who leapt back just before impact as she had done several times during their initial fight. If Harry had been in his right mind he may have tried to grab onto the girl with his free hand and then swing but as he was he could only act and react.
“Collateral? Me?! Over my dead body you psycho!”
Samantha frowned, that was kind of the point? She wasn’t a psycho either…. Okay maybe she was but that wasn’t her title. She also wasn’t a deep jailer anymore and had recently gotten a promotion. Her summoning had come with the unexpected side-affect that she wasn’t exactly unhappy about. It was only right to announce her new position and so she bowed low while using her cloak to curtsy.
“Old news Harry, I should reintroduce myself. My name’s Samantha Trapper and I’m the Corrupt Warden.”
What this change meant for Samantha she would need to investigate later and hopefully she would have an easier time of it than her first class. The immediate benefit was the addition of the Aspect of Control, which unsurprisingly gave her the power to manipulate her chains into any shape she wanted including her newest companions current form. Speaking of, she nodded her head in Harry’s direction and gave out her first order as the new woman in charge of the prison.
“Peilar! Kill him.”
The monster obliged roaring silently again as it shot out a series of chains from its hand, the many tendrils surging forth with mind boggling speed and force. Harry, fuelled with anger and the need to survive, used his hammer to knock the flying links away. The impact created a shockwave tearing him from his knelt position and ripping his trapped legs up in the process. He didn’t have a lot of time to care about the agony he was in as Harry gripped his hammer with both hands and ran straight for Samantha with speed unlike anything he had ever displayed before. His Aspect of Smashing focused on more than just his weapon and allowed him to drive his feet into the ground and push himself forward. In a few aspect empowered leaps he was before the shadow user rearing his mighty weapon back and pushing as much mana into it as he could muster. The weapon grew to three metres and then five, larger than he had ever made it go before, which strained and stressed the metal to the point of breaking. Harry yelled out and swung with so much force the bones in his arms shattered, he would likely never wield a hammer again. So long as he took out this monstrosity of a girl he could manage living as a cripple for the rest of his life. Which wouldn’t be very long as the gigantic head of his hammer was stopped with a single lazy block from the terrible beast.
Both combatants stood there like that, Harry clinging onto his hammer with all his strength while Peilar held it easily. Samantha checked at her nails, appreciative of the slight make-over her evolution brought. The beast craned its neck and reeled back in the discharged chains while tensing its hand into a fist. Harry couldn’t react in time as he was punched with a titanic strike, the impact sending him flying and tearing his weapon from his grip. The bandit leader skidded along the ground going some distance before finally landing with a thud just at the entrance to the collapsed mine. He stared up at the sky, feeling his ribs broken as well as a trickle of blood running down his head and from many cuts along his body. He was given a pristine view of the clouds overhead, the setting sun casting them in beautiful shades of pink and orange. His serene view was rudely obstructed as the massive form of his hammer was held above him. He craned his head the slightest bit to see Samantha standing at his feet while the monster gripped the broken off hammerhead ready to drop it.
“Bye Harry~ Don’t haunt me, it won’t work out well for you.”
She bade farewell to the bandit leader, waving him goodbye and smiling a precious smile. The man screamed out as Peilar smashed the enlarged weapon down upon him and the mine entrance alike burying both forevermore. Samantha felt goosebumps along her body and shivered, the final sign her contract with Peilar had been completed. Well, the contract had been fulfilled the moment Peilar was summoned forth as once he was in the mortal plain there was no way to stop him from holding up his end of the bargain. Harry was dead the moment Samantha came back from the Deep Jail; it was only a matter of when she would catch up with the ruffian. Turning to face her newly contracted friend, Samantha gave him a resounding two thumbs up which the monster did not reciprocate.
“Great job buddy, that was awesome. I tell you Peilar, me and you, were gonna do great things together!”
She proclaimed as blood pooled around her feet from the freshly murdered bandit leader.