-[Act 4 * Part 2]-
Chronos greeted the late arrival of Schwartz and the twins with a frown. “You sure took you sweet time,” he said. “Most of your rangers have already assembled in the throne room. You better go and get them sorted out before the ritual begins.”
The old butler stood at the entrance of the Mansion, welcoming the servants of House Doom and directing them towards their allotted places. Beyond the arcane doorway the layout of the throne room was barely visible though the lingering mist. The difference in mood between the Mansion and the throne room of the dungeon was like night and day. Separated by the thin veil of the portal, the glamor and splendor of the former was met by the grim and somber tone of the latter, making for a striking contrast.
“Shouldn’t you be inside already, organizing the ritual?” Schwartz asked. “Has the Young Master not arrived yet?”
“He should be here any moment,” Chronos answered. “I am just waiting for my dear Gaia. She is bringing the reagents for the mixture. It takes a while for her to make her way across the Mansion these days. She gets a little slow around this time of the year.”
Chronos appeared to have taken notice of the blood on Nadia’s hands. “Now, now young lady, we can’t have you attending the event looking like that,” he said as he pulled a white handkerchief from the pocket of his vest. The old man then offered it to the young priestess.
Nadia bowed her head, but refused. “Thank you, kind Sir Chronos for the offer,” she said, “but I don’t want to ruin it. Is there perhaps a washroom nearby where I could clean myself up?”
“Nonsense!” Chronos insisted. “The blood of a high level vampire lord is hard to rinse off with warm water alone.”
Nadia choked at the delivery of the butlers claim. Somehow the old man had gotten wise to their confrontation in the hospital wing.
Chronos looked up at the towering form of at the dark ranger. His bushy eyebrows furrowed something fierce as he went on to berate the vampire for his conduct. “I don’t appreciate you wreaking havoc in my halls, Schwartz,” he said. “I will now have to replace the entire section of the wall that you wrecked. I do hope that this was an isolated incident…”
Schwartz scoffed. “Not isolated enough, apparently. Where did you get your eyes, old man?” he asked. “I could use a pair as perceptive as yours.”
“These are my halls that you walk,” Chronos reminded him. “Everything here belongs to the Young Master, but I am in charge of keeping the order. Nothing gets past me, be it violence or…” he looked to Aidan, “ill-advised schemes.”
Aidan tried to tell his side of the story, but before the young warrior didn’t even get a word in before Chronos dispelled his feeble excuses with the wave of his hand. “I don’t care,” he said. “Keep your reasons to yourself. You don’t want me getting tied up in on your personal problems.”
Chronos mumbled something to himself before continuing. “I don’t appreciate the way he chose to do it,” he said, “but Schwartz was wise enough to try and teach you a lesson about humility. He evidently chose too rough an approach, what with him almost killing you and all that. But still, I would advise you to heed his words—nothing good will come of sticking to your pride.”
The old butler gestured at the throne room through the open door of the Mansion. “This is your world now,” he said. “This is where you belong. I would urge you two to reject the temptations of your false memories, for you will never walk the same path twice. Accept your fate and move on.
Chronos tapped a finger to his nose. “Heed my words,” he said. “Until your contract has run its course, I would advise you to devote yourselves to your new Master. Like it or not, he is your creator and your fates have now been bound to this place; bound with his blood.”
Aidan considered his situation for a moment. The young warrior then bowed his head to the old butler in silent submission to his fate. It was probably going to take some time for him to reconcile with his new position in life, but at least he appeared to be on the right path, as far as the servants of House Doom were concerned.
“Good,” Chronos said. “I can let you go through now.”
Having wiped her hands clean with surprising ease, Nadia handed Chonos back his handkerchief. The old butler then proceeded to wring it between his hands and the blood stains disappeared before her eyes, as if they had never been there in the first place.
Chronos tucked the pearly white handkerchief back into the pocket of his vest. “We have to take our places,” he said. “The grand event is slated to begin very soon.”
Aidan and Nadia kept close to Schwartz as they entered the throne room of the dungeon. The twins examined the all too familiar scene of their birth. They soon spotted the assembled minions of House Doom through the veil of the black mist. Long rows of men and women—with several demi-humans and demons sprinkled in among them—reached far into the back of the throne room. They had lined themselves up to the left and right of the throne into clearly distinguishable boxes; manservants and maids of the Mansion standing in the back, paladins of Scarlet and the rangers of Schwartz in the front.
“What’s going to happen here?” Aidan asked.
“A dungeon jump,” his sister answered. “They are going to move the dungeon to a different world.”
Aidan furrowed his brow. “Move it? As in it will rise up from the ground or something?”
“I don’t know how,” Nadia admitted, “but they told me that it will be a spectacle to behold.”
They arrived at the front of the long columns of minions and turned to facing the steps of the throne. Made uncomfortable by how close they stood to the throne, Aidan looked to be searching for a less conspicuous spot, but the dark ranger ordered him to remain.
“You have been granted the honor of standing at the feet of your Master,” Schwartz explained. “Many of the minions in the ranks behind you would gladly risk their lives for such a boon, so don’t take it lightly.
“You are about to bask in the presence of their God. Keep your mouths shut and your eyes up. Don’t insult the culture and traditions of this dungeon. We are an ancient nation unto ourselves and you have only just been welcomed into the fold. There is only so much leniency that you can expect, should you err.”
“So, what happens now?” Aidan whispered to his sister. “Are we are expected to gravel before Lord Doom when he arrives?”
“Gravel before him?” Schwartz asked. “Do you take him for some petty despot?”
Nadia looked to her brother with concern, but for once his insolence was not met with threats and violence. Instead, the dark ranger appeared amused by his question; jovial even.
“Lord Doom would never demand something like that,” Schwartz said. “Our Master has nothing to fear and no one to impress, so he demands no displays of vanity from his subjects. Their loyalty is unquestionable, so he treats them as his faithful servants, not slaves or mercenaries, who need to be reminded of their place in his House.”
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The dark ranger gestured at the assembled minions. “Everything you see here today, every single gesture of worship; every expression of admiration and obedience is warranted not by some tyrannical mandate, but by a true sense of belonging.”
Schwartz’s jovial expression turned wicked as he drew a comparison with the Empire Solar. “Is this not what you wished that your little civilization could have been?” he asked. “I am sure that if we had given your inquisitions a few more centuries to purge the heretics and unbelievers in your midst you could have achieved this level of unity too...”
Schwartz turned his nose up at the bitter expressions of Aidan and Nadia. “Oh, yes,” he said, “I know all about your genocides and ethnic purges. Your land was drowning in rivers of blood long before we came to burn it all down. And yet, you think yourselves better than us, monsters.
“What a foolish notion to try and separate the two… You and I,” he gestured at Aidan, “we are both monsters. The only meaningful difference between us is that I accept it. I accept my flaws while you like to pretend that you are better because you killed in the name of a glowing bitch, while I did so for a demon.
“So don’t presume to disrespect Lord Doom, because you have no right to judge him. He knows what he is, while you two have yet to reconcile with your true nature.”
Having issued his warning to the twins, Schwartz directed their attention to a succubus that had just arrived in the throne room. The tall, black armor clad woman was much more reminiscent of a pure blooded human with her supple pink skin and smaller horns. Unlike Isabella in the Hospital ward, this succubus did not possess a set of fully grown wings. While her power level was clearly inferior, the woman in the black suit of scale mail armor appeared no less dangerous. She carried a black halberd slung over her shoulder and wore a crown on her head.
To the great and bitter surprise of the siblings, they recognized the golden crown. It was the crown of their beloved Emperor. Just how the most important head dress in Empire Solar had ended up in the possession of the demoness, they dared not ask—not after the recent events concerning Schwartz and the warning he had just given. Still, their anger stirred as the twins glared at the succubus parading around with their late ruler’s crown on her head.
Elnora greeted the dark ranger. “Lord Schwartz,” she said as she took her place at the steps of the throne, “I hope that I haven’t missed anything.”
The succubus ran her hand through her black hair in a subtle show of anxiety. “There has been so much to do,” she explained. “I haven’t even gotten a moment to myself since we began our preparations for the invasion.”
“I am sure that you will do fine,” Schwartz said. “Just follow the advice of our Master and your first conquest will be a success.”
The topic of their frivolous conversation struck Aidan out of the blue. “What invasion?” he asked.
Nadia nudge her brother in the side with her elbow, but the young warrior could hardly keep silent on such matters.
“Have we gathered here to witness the beginning of the end for another civilization?” he asked.
The succubus turned her attention to the siblings. “Are these the two servants that I was promised?” Elnora asked. “Aidan and Nadia, was it? I’m glad to see that you have both survived the initiation ritual.”
“What’s going to happen?” Aidan asked. “Have we been brought here to take part in a war?”
“Yes,” Elnora answered. “We are about to embark on a glorious conquest of a new world—my first conquest as a dungeon keeper.” She ran her hand across Aidan’s shoulder as if appraising him. “And you two have been assigned to me by our Master, Lord Doom, as my personal servants and bodyguards.” Her lustful eyes ran up and down Nadia’s body. “You can expect many things to come of it, if you serve me well…”
Aidan mustered a warped grin. The look in the young warrior’s eyes was half anger and half madness. “You want us to protect you while you go around destroying the lives of innocent people?” he asked. To his credit, he managed to keep his voice down. Having taken heed of Schwartz’s warning, he made sure that their conversation would not be overheard by the crowd of zealous minions gathered behind them.
Elnora shook her head in denial. “No, my brave warrior, I will not be spreading wanton destruction for no good reason,” she explained. “The world that we are going to conquer—Ragnadar—has been burning for two centuries already. It is my purpose to deliver the finishing blow to its ruling civilization so that it does not perish from existence entirely.”
She clutched her armored gauntlet mimicking one of Basil’s gestures. “It will be glorious! Oh, I can already feel the excitement for battle stirring within me.”
“Just like Lord Doom delivered a finishing blow to our Empire Solar?” Aidan asked. “You’re going to burn and pillage a world just like ours? And for what—just so that you can carry around the crown of our glorious Emperor like some cheap trophy? Is this all that our civilization was to you—a conquest in pursuit of glory?”
Elnora looked to Nadia, who had been reduced to near despair by her brother’s accusations. “Is your brother always this blunt?” she asked.
Nadia jumped at the opportunity to save their hides. “Yes! Yes, he has always been very stubborn,” she swore. “But don’t worry about him, Lady Elnora, I will explain everything to him later. We will work hard not do our best not disappoint you!”
Aidan looked to his sister with disgust. “You’re bowing your head to this demon?” he asked. “She just told you in no uncertain terms that she expects us to protect her life while she goes around destroying another world!”
“No,” Elnora objected, “you are supposed to protect me while I save their world.”
“Save it from what?” Aidan asked.
Nadia tugged on his arm. “Please, be quiet, brother,” she said. “I will explain it to you all later. They really aren’t just mindless monsters—”
“They destroyed our world!” Aidan replied. “They killed us—the real us—and now she wears the crown of our beloved Emperor like some cheap token of victory. I am sorry sister, but they are monsters pure and simple.”
“I am what I am,” Elnora admitted without a shred of regret. “I kill, I pillage and I burn, yes. So do all of the races of kith.”
“We are nothing like you!” Aidan declared.
Elnora laughed in response to his statement. “Don’t try to pull any of your sanctimonious bullshit, human,” she said. “Violence, vengeance, greed and lust—don’t thing even for a second that you are somehow above these base inclinations. The Guild has lost the count of kith worlds that have risen from barbarism only to fall back into it a few dozen generations down the line. You have the gall to call us horrible monsters and condemn our actions, when you need only to look at your own past to find people worse than us.
“Your precious Empire Solar cleansed your world of millions of lives in their centuries-long pursuit of domination—that is a fact. You crushed countless rival kith rulers along the way, not to mention all the demi-humans you enslaved and worked to death in your mines and quarries—those are indisputable facts of your rise to power.
“Your heroic soldiers butchered, raped and pillaged their way to the top of the food chain. Had they lost, we would have found a different empire in charge of your world—that too, I’m afraid is an undisputable fact. If not you, then someone else would have risen to the top. Through bloodshed and violence empires are forged. And they are glorious…
Elnora pressed her body up against Aidan’s back and spoke in his ear. “You see the difference between monsters and kith is that we don’t deny our nature—we embrace it.” The succubus then gestured at the minions gathered in the throne room. “And we are capable of just as much civility and compassion for one another as the kith. It’s just that we don’t hide behind it while we wage wars. Only the races of kith fight for peace. We do it for glory.”
She released Aidan and walked out in front of them.
The twins took a moment to consider Elnora’s words. Nadia might have been able to argue with the succubus, but she knew better than to embolden her angry brother any further. If anything, she was glad that Aidan finally seemed to have been forced to consider their situation from a different point of view. There certainly were nuances to account for and the young priestess understood the simplifications that the succubus had resorted to in an effort to convey her meaning, but at least they seemed well intentioned.
Their confrontation was broken up as the grand event that they had all been gathered here for finally begun.
“Look alive!” Schwartz said. “Lord Doom has arrived.”
The throne room fell silent as the dark prince emerged from the portal of the Mansion. Followed by Chronos and Gaia, Basil walked past the first row of minions that stood before the throne. He then climbed the steps alone and took his rightful place atop of his throne as the ruler of Dungeon of Doom.
Nadia could feel her mind going numb in the dungeon keeper’s passing. It was as if he exuded an aura of influence over his minions so powerful that it dulled their senses in close proximity. Once he had seated himself in the throne, however, her mind seemed to awaken. Only now she found her undivided attention fixed on the presence of the dark lord. She no longer felt any other concern for her burdens, not even for her brother’s safety, as she looked up at her Master, eagerly waiting for him to speak.
The entire room now seemed to breathe with a single breath; hundreds of hearts beating to a single rhythm—the tune of Basil’s unspoken will.
Nadia shuddered to think what would happen once he began to speak. She did not have to wait long to find out.