Bab 34: Suffer
A pack of hellhounds were sleeping with only a few awake and attentively guarding the area. The mad dark wizard Carl the Terrible a few hundred meters up the spur of the mountain in a small cabin tucked away and hidden from view. Carl was an older man in his sixties bald with a long bear and bronze skin. His mage robes were black and gray in the modern style which was essentially a long tunic with a sash around his stomach. His pants were flowing and comfortable.
Carl is the head of the Secret Society Skeleton Key which is one of many feared organizations which as festered in the criminal underworld of the Testial Empire and Elvish Imperium. As one of the most powerful and influential members of the criminal underbelly he has unprecedented power in all aspects of society. Over the course of his long tenure he has become one of the notorious key members of the most feared dark magic organized crime syndicate which is colloquially known as the Dark Guild. While not an official organization its international influence is said to rival that of a country.
He was the leading researcher in summoning and taming monsters of all kinds; however his blatant disregard for ethics and morality drove him out mainstream methods into something far darker. His most recent breakthrough has been the most important of his long tenure. He has finally discovered the correct method of summoning hellhounds and enslaving them to follow his commands. Each hellhound requires at least three days of intense ritual magic and an additional five days to bind it to his will. In order to test his control and the destructive potential of his pets he has selected the town of Kilverstead to be his testing grounds.
He and his apprentices secretly spent half a year summoning and training hellhound in the mountains around the town. Recently he sent his apprentices back to their main headquarters in the neighboring territory of Dimsborrow as he finished his experiments. After that day he and his pack of hellhound minions were to return as well.
His plan so far had gone off without a hitch which started with keeping the town in a sense of false security. He had his hellhounds hunt and kill any other monster that would otherwise terrorize the town. The pathetic excuse the town had for Argonauts were of no real concern for his plan but they were diligent in their patrols and the last thing he needed was for them to call for more security. He would of course let a goblin or two slip by to give fools something to do and keep them from searching the forest and discovering his hideout.
"Well I guess it should be about time to recall the Hellhounds I sent out." Carl said as he stood up from his chair in the sparsely furnished cabin.
He walked out of the small dwelling over to the edge of his hideout with a telescope in hand. He expected to see the townspeople slaughtered or running to the hill only to be shredded to pieces by his pets. What he didn't expect to see from his perch were people returning to the town. His minions should still be down there spreading murder and mayhem since he had not recalled them yet. He skimmed over the town looking for some explanation.
"What in the name of the Demon Gods are going on here?" Carl said searching around frantically.
His eyes finally caught a crowd which congregated on the far side of the town near their town hall. His eyes when wide when he saw the massive black bodies of the three hellhounds he sent. His mouth dropped in disbelief in what he was seeing. There is no way the four Argonauts in the town were anywhere near strong enough to take on one of his hounds let alone three of them. He looked around for any signs of reinforcements, a military detachment, anything that would give him a clue as to what happened.
"Gods damn-it, I shouldn't have sent away Tatianna! She could use her surveillance magic to show me what is happening. No, that damn Dogman could sense surveillance magic anyway."
Carl looked down at his remaining pack of hellhounds now only fourteen in total. Summoning one hellhound cost a small fortune in resources, three of them being killed in this experiment was devastating. His apprentices took only two with them for protection on their journey home. Carl angrily stomped the ground and cursed loudly at the misfortune he found himself in when something suddenly caught his eye. A portal archway made from obsidian thorns formed in the small clearing in the midst of his pack of hounds.
Two people stepped through the unusual doorway seemingly unbothered by the attention of the monsters who were all alerted by the sound of the people entering their domain. The man dressed like a knight and woman in oldschool mage robes and they looked to be talking to each other. Then the man pointed directly at Carl which caused him to shuffle backwards in surprise before assuring himself it must have been a coincidence. The woman kissed the knight on the cheek and turned back to the portal and walked through leaving the knight on his own.
"What is this?" Carl said in disbelief. "She just left him with fourteen hounds? Are they Champions of the 10 or something? Even just one of them wouldn't stand a chance against this many; it is the equivalent of facing two hundred men. Besides, none of the Champions live in Mighthand!" Carl paused for a moment as his thoughts raced for answers. He then took a breath and summoned his staff which flew into his hand from the cabin. "Kill him!" He yells as the staff glows with a sinister red energy.
The hellhounds immediately converged on the knight with their teeth bared. Carl expected to see a quick and gory end to the overconfident knight. How dare he stand so boldly before the culmination of a lifetime of research and planning. Carl snickered at the thought of some foolish knight falling before his undeniable power. It didn't matter how fast he could swing a sword or how strong he was, magic was far superior to anything the human body could hope to achieve.
"Ha ha, rip him to shreds, don't leave anything for anyone to find." Carl cackled before turning his attention to scouring the forest with his telescope for any signs of the woman. "Now for that mage, where did she go?"
An explosion of force blew Carl off of his feet. He fell to the ground with a thud hurting his back as he twisted. His ears were ringing as he struggled to get a hold of his senses. With the aid of this staff he stood up and looked around for the source of the explosion. He waved his staff around and a blue hued luminescent bubble of magic surrounded him to protect him from any more sudden attacks. His eyes quickly fell on the clearing where everyone of his hellhounds seemed to have been simultaneously decapitated.
"Demon Gods… what on Zuth is that?" Carl screamed. "How… why…h-hhow!"
Carl started to back up getting ready to run when he felt the presence of someone behind him. He quickly turned and saw a woman in black robes and leather armor casually leaning against the door to his cabin. She was just watching him with no visible hostility but her gaze seemed distant as if she were looking through him not at him.
"I call on the power of the frozen mother. Come forth greater ice javelin! Pierce my enemy!" Carl screamed as he raised his staff.
The woman watched in unflinching amusement as Carls magic crystalised the air forming into three, two meter long ice spikes. She did nothing as the spikes rocked towards her at an unavoidable speed. Each spike homed in on a different spot, one on her head the other the throat and the last her heart. As each spike hit her it shattered into thousands of shards which peppered the surrounding in a sea of sharp silver shards. Carl was only spared because of his magical shield which buckled but didn't brake. Cracks ran along the magic dome like broken glass which slowly reformed to its original pristine condition.
"Wow, so you are like the stereotypical bad guy then?" The woman said. "I have some questions for you so no running, okay? I am going to incapacitate you now."
"What are you? How did you do that?" Carl yells as he gathers up more magic for a second attack. "Do you have any idea what you and your partner have done? Did you save the town? Decades of research gone!"
The woman stepped towards Carl as she lowered her hood. The ash elven beauty that Carl saw for only a second began to distort as waves of magic twisted around her. What was in her place was a red skinned demon in immaculate black and silver robes. Metal armor made from a material Carl had never seen sparked with demonic purple energy. Her eyes glowed with power and the world felt heavier in her presence. She lifted her arm and reality broke, shattering like glass and bleeding black blood as she pulled out a massive polearm.
In that brief moment Carl knew he stood before something primordial. The being was genocide and death personified looking through him and measuring his soul. He stood at the precipice of what is possible and impossible in the abyss was staring back. He was sure with all of his being that this was a Demon Goddess that clad herself in a mortal coil. Fear nearly arrested his heart and stopped his breathing but before either could claim him.
"Suffer." The woman said.
The barrier around Carl disintegrated and blood flowed from every orifice as he collapsed to the ground. His body seizing up in painful unending agony. He could not see, or breathe or scream or feel anything but every nerve in his body rioted against him. Moments passed like hours then days as he squirmed on the ground with new more intense pain replacing the old with every passing second.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone