City of IF

[Phang]

Yes, yes, a bit late, yes.


Winger sighed. The Master seemed unbeatable. If he had sacrificed his strongest hand, he would probably sacrifice more body parts, or find some other way of creating more and greater beasts until the entire world beyond his Factory was eradicated, its inhabitants enslaved for his evil and insane needs. The only way to defeat him was to strike now – maybe the death of his Hand had weakened him somehow – and hope they could end it. If the wolves were still willing to fight for them, there was no way he could fight by himself against the whole force of the forests…

“We must take the war to the Master. Are the wolves still willing to fight?” Winger and Fourteen turned to the army, still cheering.

“Friends!” Fourteen bellowed, attracting their attention. “We thought we had killed the threat when we had killed the Claw-Beast. But, we are wrong.” There was a commotion. Curses were shouted, at the half-humans, at each other, at the severed hand lying trodden into the dirt, reduced to nothing after its defeat. “The thing that controlled this enemy lies before us!” Silence fell over like a cloud again. All eyes stared at Fourteen as his shaking hand pointed towards the gates. “It will keep attacking us with new evils until we are too weak to defend! We must kill it at its source!” There was moment of all-consuming nothingness, not even a mutter amongst the confused wolves. “If you are still with us in this war, then you must fight it with us – if it doesn’t end now, it never will.”

Still there was silence. Then, slowly, a Dark-Eye Alpha strode through to the front, standing before Winger and Fourteen. “The Dark-Eye tribe of the Southern Forest of Eternal Midnight will join you in this war, for it recognises the safety of its people against this dark threat.” The whole army was surprised by the Dark-Eye’s willingness to continue fighting. They were noble, but looked after themselves first and foremost, and enough of them had died fighting the Hand. This triggered uproar, with almost every wolf claiming allegiance. Alphas surged forward to be at the front of the army, and forming itself into a defensive, ordered might, Winger and Fourteen took them through the old gates, onto the dead, grey rock, where evil lurked above and below, and ahead.


Almost instantly the deformed creatures appeared out of nowhere. Winger looked up to see what she thought were Scarva hawks, but proved to be much worse as she realised human forms and heads behind the wings and talons. Worm-like things crawled and slithered from beneath their feet, and the Factory horn whined its old, wailing sound as another army of humans armed with metal claws, spines and teeth where there shouldn’t be marched out to meet them. The wolves snarled and attacked the sluggish once-humans, stomping and slashing, easily dispatching them. With her old experience as a Scarva-hunter Winger ordered them to launch themselves at the half-Scarvas whenever they swooped low enough, and Fourteen, looking at the army marching steadily and threateningly towards them, leapt at a half-Scarva himself and slashed at it’s wings, steering it towards the army where it crashed in a flurry of feathers and took several humans with it to the ground, where Fourteen cut at necks as best he could as the entire crowd stormed on him. The others attacking half-Scarvas copied, some smashing straight to the floor, others into windows, but the army were distracted enough to keep them from focusing on any one thing. Winger could imagine the Master screaming in frustration and confusion, as she dive-bombed herself towards the army, flapping furiously and sprinting across the ground until she took off and plummeted instantly after, grabbing onto a human who swiped with claws desperately until she snapped its neck. She was momentarily surprised at how easy she found it to kill them – but suddenly everything froze. She looked up to a sky which had instantly become black, and as a single bolt of brilliant blue lightning flashed over the top of the Factory she saw the silhouette of a figure, standing with arms folded, cloak flapping in the horrendous wind. “Winger!” roared the thunder, and as normality returned she was compelled to enter the Factory, and none of the humans stood in her way. Tearing at several enemies in the process, Fourteen followed her.

“What are you doing? Winger! Come back!” Fourteen bellowed at Winger as she continued to walk slowly towards the Master’s lair in the heart of the Factory. Stopping, she turned to look at him.

“I…I don’t know. I can’t help it.”

“What do you mean?” Winger didn’t answer. She turned and continued walking, oblivious to Fourteen until she threw open the door to a nightmare. The Master stood in the middle of a ruined room, his old machines and instruments, once so delicate, strewn across the floor or smashed. Mist diamonds floated around him, their eerie light forming a barrier around him. The hood of his cloak covered his face, but his eyes gleamed brightly in the gloom, the same sky-blue that pierced Winger’s soul.

“Hello Winger. And ER.14.” the sense of a wicked smile entered Winger’s mind. “It’s been a long time since I met you two. Though I saw you destroy a certain part of me very well…” again, Winger felt his facial expressions instead of seeing them, feeling him frown slightly, before returning to the evil grin. “This time, however, you will not have your army to help you. Neither will any Slilambra come to your aid. I will end you, Winger. But first, I want to make you suffer like I did…the painful story of my life…let’s start from the end first – make it a bit different.” He threw back his hood, and Winger screamed, falling to the ground in agony. Her face burned and itched, she clawed at it with her hands, making blood spill on the floor. Her face was being eaten away. Fourteen leapt at the Master, but the Mist diamonds held him back. With a flick of his hand the Master bound him to the wall of light, leaving him to stare as Winger writhed in agony, and hear the Master’s awful laugh resonate in his head. This was how he made himself known now. He could no longer speak, no longer laugh, no longer frown or snarl.

For his face had been burnt away, leaving only a gleaming ball of blue energy, kept in his head by a metal skull.

“I thought I had succeeded when I created you, Winger! I had made so many…sacrifices…” the burning spread to her hands, and Fourteen noticed that the Master’s remaining hand was gloved, with a faint blue light peeping out of worn holes. “So many failures before you, Winger…more than fourteen, but he is the only to survive incineration…maybe you’re not such a failure after all…” the cords of light tightened around Fourteen’s neck, “But you can’t even come to terms with my full power! It would drive you insane! I can kill you now! You deserved to be incinerated!”

“You…are…insane…” Winger lifted her scarred face up from the floor, fighting against the power. Somehow, she understood it. The Master was wrong. She welcomed the power; saw it as a great tool in the wrong hands. But she would wrestle it from his grip, into hers.

“What did they do?” the Master demanded, swinging round to face her. “What did the Slilambra do to you!” the Mist diamonds were flung outwards, smashing into the wall, releasing the energy. Fourteen screamed in agony at the force, crumpling in a heap on the floor. Winger staggered to her feet, concentrating all herself on the Master. But he kept her back easily, or so it seemed. She sensed he was surprised, that he was weaker than he made himself seem. He had after all been burnt away in several places by his own power.

But how did she fight someone who, however weak, was still much more experienced and powerful then herself?

[Starwalker]

Wow, this is good. If Winger can accept the power and use it for good, she should be able to fight Master on atleast an equal footing.

[Shady Stoat]

Yes, accept the power. Perhaps even call to the Silhambra for help. The Master said they'd be no aid to us, but he's lied about many things, that could be just another one of them.

Great chapter Phang. Very well written :D

[Phang]

A week's gone. Anybody else gonna say anything?

[Phang]

Okay, I'll take that as a no.

Chapter 13 coming soon.

[LordoftheNight]

I'm afaid I have nothing to say, though I'm still reading it.