They stood before Duulys Ambar as a group, covered thickly with sweat and dread. All fidgeted nervously, having heard at least a few stories of his abrupt brutality and power. Being in front of him only made it that much easier to imagine being the victim to one of his sudden bursts of anger. He oozed potential violence.

His long black dreadlocks tumbled down his head and scarred shoulders. He wore bejeweled rings around almost every finger except for one finger on his left hand, an opulent display of the wealth he had amassed controlling the Sonara. As he flex his digits, they almost all glittered. His shirt and pants were unassuming, but none of their group failed to recognize that the most suitable descriptor for him was Tyrant.

His silver eyes lanced through each of them in turn, vicious and hungry. He searched and found nothing to his satisfaction.

“So.” Duulys licked his lips. “Whichever of you is Randidly Ghosthound… step forward and let me examine you. The rest of you, don’t you dare move a muscle.”

There was a long moment of silence as the group absorbed that unexpectedly direct request. They shot each other increasingly desperate glances. Because the more time passed without Randidly Ghosthound stepping forward, the more Duulys Ambar began to frown. The light radiating out from Duulys’s eyes became increasingly sharp.He scythed around, peeling off layers of skin.

“Well, well,” Duulys eventually smiled. “You all look like nothing special, but if one of you has the nerve to refuse my order-- not that it will save you, but it has certainly made this trip worth that much more gratifying. You, with the cape. Come here and let me snap your spine. Maybe then this fucking Ghosthound will reveal himself. If he does not, I will continue to punish the group.”

Gwennet jumped, realizing that this powerful figure was talking about her. Her rather stylish cape suddenly felt foolish and superfluous on her back. She licked her lips “Huh? Sir, I think there is a-”

“If you make me ask you again, I won’t stop with just your spine,” Duulys grinned fully this time. Chills ran through Gwennet’s body as he looked at her. Behind him, she felt the emotional intensify he possessed. Duulys Ambar’s Silver Lion image had been so violent during his stint in his campaigns against Nether Forces that even his comrades feared being caught during one of his moods.

Now, suddenly, that hungry predator was staring her down. Refusing to allow her to speak until she satisfied him, but she couldn’t-

“If I might intrude,” The man in the suit standing at the edge of the giant atrium spoke up. He raised a hand, like he was a student in a class.

“Mimic. If we keep meeting like this, I will have no choice but to believe you are stalking me,” Duulys’s tone remained acerbic, but at least his focus shifted to the suited man. Gwennet took several quick breaths, her heartbeat pounding against her ribs as though it wanted to escape. “I don’t appreciate having you totter after me like a lovestruck calf.”

“In this case, dearest sir, I really am trying to help you accomplish your admirable goals.” Mimic bowed graciously. “From my own personal conversations with the people of Idylla, Randidly Ghosthound is not amongst this group now assembled in front of you. These are, in fact, essentially normal people. Fresh meat in the Sonara, unprepared for your profound presence .”

Gwennet felt vaguely insulted, even through her relief. Meanwhile, Duulys only seemed more affronted by Mimic’s pronouncement. “What? This farce of a city is famous for its byzantine requirements for passing through. How the hell did he run through the city faster than I could descend to meet him? Oh, where’s that boring stickler for rules? You know the one, who always sends those fat information packets-”

“You are thinking of Pullas, sir. The founder of the city.” Mimic smiled sweetly. “Apparently, the Ghosthound convinced her to accompany him, along with-”

“She defected?” For the first time, Duulys seemed genuinely shocked. “After all the years I didn’t punch her teeth in for the inane explanations she generated? She dares-”

“Oh, I didn’t think you read those, sir.” Mimic nodded. “Well, I don’t know if it can be considered defection. She never swore any oath to serve you. Not like the one I made in my heart-”

“A true liege doesn’t need an oath,” Duulys growled, but a smile began to tug at the corners of his face. He placed his forearms against his knees and looked down at the ground for several long seconds. “Wasn’t this Pullas actually quite strong? And she was swayed to the Ghosthound’s side. Interesting, interesting. I really want to find this guy.”

There were several long moments of silence as Duulys Ambar continued to show some sort of vicious animation while he pondered Randidly Ghosthound. Then abruptly, he looked up and glanced around. “Wait, then who the hell are these people and why did they request an audience with me?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Gwennet wanted to cry.

*****

Randidly made several serious attempts to rip through the image that restricted his senses in this ring. His image proved nearly useless; not only was the creator of this ring much more powerful than him, but also it appeared to be an image similar to Pullas’s, concerned with philosophy rather than a concrete shape. Before its gentle but insistent guidance, even Pullas was helpless.

The wine-colored sky and the undulating pink cacti were a constant taunt from this figure. Randidly had to acknowledge that while the combat ability of the images in the Sonara hadn’t been overwhelming, their broader applications were becoming increasingly problematic.

Nether proved much more effective and Randidly was able to tear open a path for the group to walk. But once he did so, he felt a rumbling build-up within the image power- his actions clearly drew the ire of the ring’s owner. More restrictions were thrown up in his path. A thick pink mist swirled around them, masking the surrounding hills. The prospect of bulldozing through them all was exhausting, even through Randidly’s powerful Nether.

He tried the Alchemist’s Passport, but as it had on the earlier floors, the elastic image rind of each ring meant he could only shift their group within this area. Plus, activating the Fatepiece immediately drew the attention of the controlling figure of the ring. Again, restrictions swirled around him, attempting to guide his movements to their desired destination.

Sighing, Randidly lowered the Fatepiece. The space my Fatepiece uses to move is also what channels all the image echoes here. With the interference, it’s hard to say whether I can force the issue. And to be honest, taking the talking route has worked about half the time so far in the Sonara…

So long as it doesn’t take too long, let’s see what this owner wants.

“Just move forward,” Randidly said aloud. “Whoever this is, they really want to meet us. I suppose it’s only polite to make a brief visit.”

“What about all the people that I’ve wanted to visit,” Pullas muttered. But both she and Xershi fell into line behind Randidly as he proceeded forward. Once they began walking, a dull gold road practically paved itself in front of them. It wound its way around the base of the hills, taking a meandering path to the destination. The pink mist happily receded.

At first, Randidly was annoyed at the circuitous route, but then he felt the image begin removing restrictions it had tightened around their group when he was ripping it to pieces. Suddenly, they began jumping forward through space.

The first encounter they made was with two individuals, a man and a woman who completely ignored them. The strange duo wore strange clothes that didn’t match; the man had on some sort of fur armor and the woman wore a brightly colored toga. Yet they leaned into each other and breathed deeply, savoring each others’ scents. Both were slick with sweat.

The man pushed the woman back against a nearby pink cactus. Obligingly, some of the stumpy growths of the cacti extended and bound the woman’s hands. She squirmed, but it wasn’t any sort of true struggle. The man stepped forward and leaned over her, lowering his head to kiss her cheekbone, the bottom of her jaw, and then her neck. The woman released a long sigh and arched her back to press her body closer to him.

“Um, should we… say something?” Pullas’s words came out in a squeak. Her skin had steaded reddened with pounding blood until she seemed about to burst.

Randidly looked back to the road. “...yea, let’s continue.”

Unfortunately, moving forward didn’t help. Randidly almost wished the mists would come back. After the next jump forward, they found two furry beast people, similarly so intoxicated with each other that they didn’t even notice the arrival of the trio. This time, the man sat in a simple stone chair, his legs bound to the furniture and his hands tied behind him. The woman straddled him tracing her fingers across his brow, nose, and lips.

Growling, the man strained at his binding to lean forward and reach her. The woman laughed, scorching in the heat of its passion and scorn. She leaned forward until she was only a short distance away from him and drew her tongue slowly across her lips, making them glistened.

“Is anyone else uncomfortable?” Xershi said. “I truly cannot understand the motivations of you fleshy beings.

Randidly waved a hand and the group continued forward. Truthfully, he felt uncomfortable too. And vaguely irritated. But more than that, he had to admit he was drawn to the strange scenes for two reasons. One, he was trying to understand what exactly the image of the owner of this place was. These scenes were the best sort of clues to gather up information before their encounter.

Second, he looked at these with a strange wistfulness that was difficult to describe. A part of him was embarrassed to watch such intimate scenes. But another part felt so exhausted and frantic to accomplish his current goals that he didn’t have much spare emotional space to worry about being a voyeur.

But while the first two scenes felt vaguely sexual, the third just struck Randidly as strange.

“How abhorrent,” For the first time, Xershi seemed genuinely disturbed. In front of them was a strange, many-armed silver creature. It curled up on its back, so its arms began to work and adjust some of the mechanisms of its belly. The thing was surrounded by piles of materials and periodically the precise movement of its arms stretched outward to pluck a few to continue its work on itself.

It took a bit of observation for the realization to hit Randidly, but then he got it: this was a machine slowly building itself. Once he focused, he could see that its torso stretched out and ended in several open metal connectors.