The Fall of Dwahahl – Part 2

By Dru

Azerag watched the scene with stern disapproval.

“I told them this would happen,” he muttered to the lonely cluttered chamber.

Knowing it may be too late, Azerag waved his hand over the mirror and the battle outside the walls of Dwahahl was replaced with his own aged reflection. Moving about the room he mumbled complaints of fools and their good intentions as he gathered his most powerful magical weapons. He did not have many. Most of his equipment was for research and analysis, not combat. There were others he could call upon, others who were perhaps more suited to the task he faced, but none who lived so near to the city.

Once he had the two trinkets he thought might save the kingdom, Azerag took up his long staff, and started the long climb down from his tower. He had only taken three steps on the rather lengthy stairwell before stopping himself.

“Stupid old man,” he cursed himself, quickly returning to his disorganised benches and rummaging once more. He took up a small ring decorated with an elaborate raised-relief of a soaring eagle. He had only use this ring on four occasions … and as he stepped to his three-hundred foot balcony, Azerag remembered very clearly why this was the case.

“I hate flying …”

Saiya thought for a long time about sparing the cavalry. In about an hour or so she’d be their Queen. But while it appealed to her to have an army under her command, she did not require one. Standing among them as they continued to bravely assault her she was reminded that she was an army in her own right. No … she did not need them. And besides, Saiya had already decided to crush anyone who tried to stop her.

Once her decision was made, she pulled the next man to attack her from his horse. The action forced the rider and his mount to the ground so forcefully neither survived. Taking the dead man’s sword, Saiya raised the point to her mouth and took bit off the last inch and a half from the steel blade. Rolling the steel on her tongue Saiya soon had a red hot ball of molten metal swishing around in her mouth. She started spitting at the riders, not wanting to kill the horses, her incredible eyes allowing her pinpoint accuracy. Taking further bites of blade as required, Saiya continued until the remaining riders broke ranks and fled.

“Cowards!” she boomed after them, dropping the remains of the sword to the ground. “I have seen your faces! And I will hunt down every last one you!”

Her promise chilled the escaping riders … there was a firm ring of truth to her words, no lie in her voice. Even as they rode hastily away their terror increased, somehow certain that her threat was not an idle one.

Turning to the gated inner-city, Saiya admired the beauty of the walls. She could destroy the monumental defences with a puff of breath, but she wanted her prize intact. Piercing the wall with her magical eyes Saiya found a courtyard not far beyond the gate that was perfect for her plan. Crouching down a little, she launched into the air and cleared the wall by forty feet.

The courtyard she had chosen was crowded with the King’s elite guard, who had been preparing to mount the next wave. Her impact among them killed three and left eleven others unable to fight. As the rest regained their feet they looked upon Saiya with open fear.

“Kneel, and be spared,” she suggested. They attacked instead.

Disappointed in them, Saiya placed her hands on her hips and inspected the walls of the courtyard, carefully gauging their resilience. And then she increased her strength suddenly. So suddenly that the explosion of raw power shattered every last attacker against the cold stone walls.

Reducing her enlarged muscles to a comfortable size, but keeping them at their new power level, Saiya’s steps shook the entire city as she made her way through ancient streets.

“Now!”

From the rooftops, the King’s men deployed their ambush. All they accomplished was the destruction of Saiya’s clothes as the hot tar and burning oil was dropped on her.

The sticky substances slid off Saiya’s soft unblemished skin to the granite tiles under her feets. Unashamed of her perfect physique, Saiya stood proudly as they dropped large stones on her invulnerable body from two storeys above. Deciding a little damage was acceptable, Saiya slapped her incredible powerful hand on the wall of the building to her left. The building exploded, launching those on the roof many hundreds of feet in the air.

Turning around, she walked though the wall of the other building and jumped up through two stone floors to the roof. She gave the ten men a moment to understand their dilemma before slamming her hands together. The shockwave alone shattered bones and organs, doing considerable damage to all neighbouring structures as the men around her were thrown aside with tremendous force.

“I don’t want to destroy the whole city,” she mused, at the same time reluctantly admitting to herself that she didn’t want to kill any more of her future subjects. She wanted to keep as many alive to serve her whims as possible.

Letting go her desire to crush every single attacker, Saiya walked on toward the palace. Any foolish enough to take her head-on died. All attempts to kill her from above or from a distance simply failed. Tearing the breastplate from a foolhardy knight, Saiya tore the armour into two strips and stretched the polished steel over her to protect her modesty.

Standing at last before entrance to the palace … her palace … Saiya demanded they open the massive doors. In response came a rain of pitch that sizzled uselessly on her skin and covered the ground.

“Foolish. You’re only making work for yourselves.”

Saiya walked up to the thick oak doors and pressed her hands on their cold hard surface. She could see the beam sealing the doors closed was as thick as two large men. As the pitch fell harmlessly from her skin, Saiya pressed slowly forward, watching with fascination as the massive beam bent and began to splinter. There was a cry of shock, and twenty oversized royal knights pressed themselves up against the groaning timbers. Saiya smiled, hardly noticing their added resistance as she continued to force open the entrance to the palace. For all their grunting and red faced efforts, they were helpless before Saiya’s callous might. With terrific force she burst through, snapping the beam and scattering those who tried to stop her.

The remaining knights moved forward, but she halted their progress with a casual exhalation, and very badly injured them with a uncaring puff. A brave soul jumped her from behind, but simply placed a hand on his arm and squeezed, rendering the limb useless and placing the owner in too much pain to be a further nuisance.

As she approached the regal entrance to the main hall, the doors opened before her. She was grateful they didn’t make her ruin more of her new home.

The interior of the palace was every bit as opulent as Saiya had been led to believe. The main hall was decorated with artworks from all over the Realm. Sculptures and paintings that drew the eye but did not distract from, but enhanced the gold and gem-encrusted architecture.

“What is the meaning of this?” the King boomed. He sat on his massive jade thrown, his fear hidden behind well practised arrogance.

“I am taking your kingdom. Kneel before me, and I’ll forgive you for sitting on my thrown.”

The King of Dwahahl was outraged.

“My family has ruled this land since the dawn of time! What claim have you? By what right of law do you challenge my rule?”

“I’m making new laws.”

“The gods will strike you down!” the Queen, seated on a smaller thrown beside her husband warned ominously.

“Really?” Saiya asked, making them cringe at the volume of her words. “What makes you think I am not a god?”

“STOP!!” a new voice commanded. “ENOUGH!!! If you would rule the people of Dwahahl, snake-child, then you must first face ME!”

Saiya span to behold the new arrival.

“Azerag,” Saiya greeted him, her eyes narrowing. “You told the rebels to kill me …”

“Was I wrong? Are you not, even now, proving me right?”

“And what are you going to do now, scholar?”

Azerag took out a talisman and quickly wrapped its cord around his wrist. As he did, Saiya noticed he was wearing several rings. One of them she knew was a sister artefact of her Overseer’s ring, and Ring of Command. It’s fate had been a mystery to Saiya until this moment. Another she knew to be his own Ring of Clarity, designed to enhance thought processes to speed up his research. The other two were unknown to her.

“Denounce you evil ways … submit.”

“So you can kill me?”

“I have no choice. You’re the last … the dark order MUST be destroyed.”

“Fool. You think I can be stopped?”

Azerag closed his eyes for a moment and uttered several words of a long forgotten tongue, and the talisman in his hand glowed. Saiya stepped back as her opponent slowly grew until he towered over her at an imposing sixteen feet tall, his grey hair almost brushing the high vaulted ceiling.

“You’re doom is the salvation of all,” Azerag declared, lifting his massive foot and kicking Saiya hard as he could. He stumbled back, crying out in pain. Rather than fly to her death, Saiya remained right where she was. Confused, Azerag swung his charged staff at her head. She did not move as the magically enhanced blow reverberated back up the staff to jar the giant wizard painfully.

“You’ll need to get a lot bigger than that, Azerag. Why don’t you just give me that talisman and I’ll think about ignoring the fact that you tried to have killed when I was just six years old.”

With a boisterous cry Azerag released a blue bolt at Saiya’s chest from almost point-blank range from his staff. The bolt burned out on her flesh, leaving her improvised steel garments glowing gently from the heat.

“Oooh … what else can it do, little man?”

Azerag cooled his anger and looked down at his ridiculously tough opponent.. His failures made him feel weak and helpless, despite having such an advantage in physical size the girl was apparently immune to any form of attack he had tried so far. It was time to use his brain.

“Why don’t you give me your enchanted artefacts, Saiya? All of them.”

Saiya could feel the power of the Ring of Command tugging at her will. She smiled dreamily, and reached for her necklace.

“That’s right … take them off. All of them …”

Saiya grasped the chain either side of her amulet, and held it out to carefully present it to Azerag. She waited for him to realize she wasn’t going to take it off.

“Now, Saiya! I COMMAND you! Give me that amulet!”

Saiya’s smile grew mischievous. “Have you even looked at it?”

Azerag took a very close look at her tarnished amulet, and his blood ran cold.

“It can’t be …”

“But it is. You can bark orders at me all you like … but this gives me immunity to you pathetic ring, Azerag. Now that I have the amulet of Siah, I am completely invincible.”

Saiya started pacing toward her outclassed, oversized opponent, making sure that he and everyone else in the palace, could feel the power of her footsteps shaking the bedrock. Azerag backed away, shooting fireballs and icicles, curses and jinxes at her as fast as he could think of them. Nothing worked. She calmly took hold of his giant staff with one super-strong hand. Even as he struggled to overpower her phenomenal might, Saiya used the staff to wack him in the head so hard that he fell to the polished floor unconscious.

As the wizard shrank to his normal size, Saiya removed his rings and placed them on her own fingers. Then she removed the talisman and looked at it with wonder. This item may yet prove to be her favourite … but before she tested the talisman, Saiya tried out the Ring of Command.

“Alight, Your Majesty. Tell your Queen to give me her crown.”

Backed up by her amulet, the Ring of Command demolished the King’s willpower.

“You will give the Crest of Elena to the enemy,” he droned, before shaking his head and looking back to this arrogant intruder.

“What? How …”

“Tell her to give me the Crest. Now, slave.”

Once again the King turned to his bewildered love and issued the cold empty command.

“My Lord … I will not!”

“I don’t think your Queen’s obeying you. Disrespectful. Why don’t you have her flogged?”

The tone of command now entwined in her voice made even a hint of suggestion impossible to fight. The King ordered his personal guard to get a whip.

“No! If you want the Crest, then take it!”

The Queen rushed forward and presented the Crest of Elena to the very happy Saiya, who wasted little time popping it on her head.

“Do you know the story of the Amulet of Siah?” Saiya asked, as the magic imbued in the tiara started to do its work. “Not many do. It’s existence is denied by all the highest orders of magic. But I know it’s real. I’m wearing it.”

All eyes in the room were widening as Saiya changed before them. Her perfect muscles shifted under her skin, her physique gaining more feminine appeal with each pulse of her heart. Her face softened, any hint of an age line was rapidly removed. Even her hand-made steel clothes creaked as the two pieces moulded themselves into spectacular garments in order to draw attention to their beautiful owner.

“There was a time, long forgotten, when magic belonged only to the gods. Spells used to be prayers. You’d ask a god to give you power to do something, and if they felt like it, they would grant your request. But there was one, the god Siah, who was bored with this … arrangement.”

The King and all his court hung on Saiya’s every word as she grew ever more beautiful.

“He started giving his power away … letting his followers use his power without praying for it. His brothers and sisters grew angry, and decided to punish Siah. If he wanted to give his power away so easily, then they would let him. They tricked him, and trapped him in a stone for all eternity. But as the years went on, the other gods died out. As they died, their power was released into the world for anyone who knew how to use it. Of course, without the gods to concentrate it, their power is scattered now. Weakened.”

Saiya’s increasing beauty seemed to level out. She sensed this, and started pouring more of her amulet’s infinite power through the Crest of Elena. There was a collective gasp as she continued to become more beautiful, her features now almost painfully glorious to look upon.

“But the god Siah lives on. His power intact … his spirit preserved for all eternity in this little amulet right here.” Saiya tapped the now shiny Amulet of Siah. “And as long as I have other artefacts to focus His power through … Siah’s power is mine to do with as I will.”

The King and Queen were both drooling now, lost in the vision of Saiya’s ever improving beauty. Saiya approached the thrown.

“I think you want me to take your throne, don’t you, Your Majesty?”

The King nodded, rising from his throne.

“I … You …”

“I know. Down here and kneel.”

The King and Queen fell before her and grovelled at her feet. Saiya reached down and took the crown from the King’s head. She had though initially of marrying him, and taking his thrown in a legal way. But she had no need of relying on the old customs. She was powerful enough to rule in her own right, and force her will upon the kingdom without laws. Tomorrow, she would summon all the Lords of her new kingdom and thrust her will upon them, but for the moment she was curious to see if former royalty made good sex slaves.

“Okay you two. How about you show your Queen a good time?”