A story about heroes and an evil overlord
- Cid stood in the center of the room, panting heavily with several bruises and cuts across his body. His clothes, formerly pristine and silken, hung in tatters from his shoulders and his green blood oozed from several wounds. The worst of them a stab wound in his back, that had barely missed his spine.
Around him stood the four heroes, that the world had sent after him. Three mares and a diamond dog, all armed and showing iron determination on their faces. All the mares were unicorns, two mages, in arcane enchanted robes and one a form of bizarre, necromantic battle mage, with armaments and armor of bones.
The diamond dog was a club wielding brute and towered over the surprisingly small overlord, ready to strike him down, weapon raised high above his head.
Still the small changeling looked up at him with a grim smirk, even as the massive weapon of blunt destruction came down on him in a surprisingly fast and yet brutal motion.
Only for it to simply stop, when it impacted with the raised hand of the fiend. The smile that spread over Cid's face grew and try as he might, the diamond dog could not rip his club away, from the dainty hand of the changeling, while the two mages took a few steps back and the necromancer mare slashed at his arm with several blades of bone and iron.
None hit.
The overlord's other hand opened up into a stopping motion and every weapon stopped short from it, suspended in air, while the mare pushed with all her might, even her horn glowed, but to no avail.
“How?! They say you can't use magic! You never used it! Not even when you were defeated!” cried out one of the mages, shooting a fireball at him, or better, a blazing inferno, that was extinguished before it hit the smaller frame between the two towering heroes.
Cid however just raised an eyebrow and headbutted the golem that had sneaked up from behind, crushing the fist on contact, or better, turning it to dust, that was blown away by the steady wind of the ravished throne room.
“Oh, I don't” But even as he lowered his hands and simply walked away, the two other heroes could not move, try as they might, they strained and pushed and pulled, but they could move nothing but their eyes and mouths.
“But I can use the next best thing, brute strength.” he explained and sat on his broken throne. Slowly it's pieces were pulled together and soon the seat of power was restored in it's simple, dark glory.
That seemed to confuse them and he chuckled a bit. “Ah right.. You can't see it.” he said and slapped his own forehead as suddenly dark strands appeared all around them and even through them. They seemed to grow out of the two heroes that had gone too close and ended midair. There were thousands, no, maybe millions of tiny strands and all the four could do was stare in horror.
“You know, you have been questing and traveling through this land of mine for 12 years now. Ever since the day you met you have struggled, fought, eaten, and succeeded. Sure you lost sometimes, but that only drove you forwards, especially after I killed the leader of your merry group of... heroes.” They all glared at him with anger and resentment.
He however just shrugged. “Oh yes, the eating part I talked about 12 seconds ago, well.. You all have eaten of my fruit, you have drunk of my water. Nothing anyone gave you specifically and you even cast spells and boiled most of what you ate. Still, all of you, like everyone else in this kingdom, and most on this world, have eaten ME.”
As their stares turned to confusion, Cid simply raised a hand and a small apple tree grew from it, with flowers, orange leaves and ripe apples all over, as well as some barren ones. “This here, is me. This tree. There are many trees around the world like this.” it changed into a pine, then a chestnut tree and then into a cranberry bush, then a rosebush and finally it turned into wheat and then moss.
Understanding dawned on the one mare's face, then absolute dread. “You mean.. All this time...” Her words shook, her arms and legs trembled and I smiled and without any indication of motion from the overlord, Black strings burst from her skin and disappeared in the air around her.
“I can do that with around 87% of the world's population at this point. And around 14% of all life on this planet. I am in many, many places by now. I am in many households, I am in all your precious nation's, in your rulers, your aristrocrats, your commoners, in you.” suddenly all the strings vanished and they were able to move again.
“You brought magic users, to counter me, but in all honesty, there is nothing you can do anymore. I can read your every thought, I can see, hear, smell and feel everything, I can cancel out any muscle motion or magic gathering you want to do. I am overpowered beyond believe. So, go home. I raised you all to entertain me and you honestly did your part. But I am bored now.”
His clothes fixed themselves up, every cut closed and even the blood seeped into the ground and disappeared entirely. The four stood there, staring in disbelieve.
“No..” muttered the necromancer and let out a rage filled scream, dark energies rolling around her and blood oozing from the skulls on her chest and shoulders. A second later she charged him and impaled him with all thirteen blades through various parts of his body. The necrotic magic flowing into him and rotting away all of his body and clothes, as well as melting away the stone of the throne.
The mare aged visibly, turned gray and frail, while the bones around her became brittle and the metal rusted. Finally she panted and slumped over, while the other three stared in shock and awe.
And then their hope was crushed one more. “Impressive, really. You burned up all your life and so much from within you. Your magic, your soul, your memories.” and as the voice run out from around them, Cid simply materialized back around the blades in a black ooze, that seemed to seep out of the very air. Soon the overlord sat relaxed and in the same pose there as before.
“50 years ago that might have been a threat to me, really. Well.. Maybe 70 years ago.” he patted her head and slowly, very slowly, the color returned to her.
“As a reward, I give you back your life, which you so foolishly threw away. Now, run along, dear, your friends are waiting.” Despair, confusion and hopelessness gleamed from the four's eyes, as they watched Cid remove every blade slowly with a hand, with no mark of it left on his body.
Finally the necromantic mare was kicked in the stomach and launched into the diamond dog, who buckled under the impact.
“Take her with you and go help some idiots out there who are too weak to take care of themselves. It's what you do best after all, now that you are done entertaining me.” With a dismissive gesture they were swept out of the slowly repairing throne room. And another afternoon passed, for the ruler of the small planet, that was orbited by a small sun and a smaller moon, somewhere in space.
The end.
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“Aww, did you write that all by yourself, Venus?” asked Cid, smiling down to his small daughter, who had written and drawn the story for him. He had watched the little hatchling work on something for the last 20 minutes and he was heart warmed, to see that it was a story about him.
“Mhm! Just for you, daddy!” replied the yellow eyes princess and squealed in joy, as she was lifted up onto his lap. The two hugged for a moment, then Venus lost her happy smile and pulled back.
“So get your fucking lazy ass from this throne and make it reality! You can literally infect all living things on this planet and make them your own and you just sit here, wasting time to WATCH me do things, while an entire nation waits on your orders!” The small changeling sucker punched her father, who did not even flinch, but kept his serene smile.
“Once you are in power, you can do whatever you want. And if you want the right things, people will not even hate you for what you do. Your brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces understand what I do here and they appreciate the time I spend with my family. So, you be good and plot your own power fantasies now, instead of making some for me, you hear?”
Ruffling her mane he sat her down, while she let out a frustrated groan and immediately trotted off. “I will see that they will become reality, unlike you, you lazy waste of a nonlife.”
“Love you too, sweetie, good luck with your work!” came the mirthful reply of the changeling and he laid back on his chair. Another afternoon well spent for the ruler of a small hive of changelings, on a small planet with a small moon and a small sun. Somewhere in space.
