//------------------------------//
// Chapter Fifteen - Zeykosi alu Txawew Utu 
// Story: The Titans' Orb: Rising Storm 
// by Mister Horncastle 
//------------------------------//


Healing the Frozen Forest





I opened my eyes and quickly felt the icy chill around me, I shivered and looked around to find myself in a small shack, the same one I spotted on my first visit to this place. I put out my arms to see a pair of lavender hooves.

{Right, Sparklebutt. Let’s do this.} Conscio said.

I stood up and began to wobble around, needing to readjust myself to Twilight’s body; with some assistance from Conscio, I quickly found my bearings and opened the door. The snow was falling heavily, and was at least a foot deep; I stepped out and recoiled in shock from the icy chill that shot into my hoof.

“The forest is even colder than before.” I muttered.

Conscio had very quickly become accustomed to being inside this body, and had control over her magic far better than I could due to being able to completely direct his conscious thinking into using spells while I focused on the world around us. He thought of the Thermic Hide spell and Twilight’s memory of the spell appeared into our mind, allowing him to cast it. My body briefly shone a faint orange, and I became resistant to the cold around me. I stepped out into the snow and only felt a slight coolness this time, confirming the spell was successful. After a few minutes of walking around, I found the right direction that headed towards the heart of the forest, and trotted off into the woodland.



“We’re still on the right path, right?” I muttered after a while.

{Yeah, we’ve still got quite a long way to go.} Conscio replied.

I kept an eye out for any suspicious movement as I trekked through the wood, now the Fel had complete domination over Twilight’s mind, I feared all sorts of things could be lurking in the forest.
I thought about it… The Fel…
It came from a video game, the Warcraft games to be exact. If the Fel was real, then so was the entire world of Azeroth and such. How had Nah’Lek come to find it? Or even gain control over the Fel? From what I remembered, the Fel was only controlled by the Burning Legion, an army of demons and monsters that had been dormant in a faraway world, until it later corrupted an orc shaman named Gul’dan, whom pledged to serve the Legion. He was rewarded control of the Fel and corrupted his entire home world, including most his race, with a planet of orcs under his command, he became hellbent on conquering other worlds and enslaving all other sentient races, and killing those who disobeyed.
So how, HOW, did Nah’Lek have domination over this deathly magic?
When I cured Twilight, we would need to talk about his history, I wanted to know where he came from, and why he was so intent on bringing death to Equestria.



My attention was snatched from this subject as I heard movement ahead, my pony ears instinctively pricked upright and swivelled ever so slightly towards the sound. My nose twitched as my senses quickly shot up to high alert.

I stood my ground and crouched low, my horn glowing very faintly. A twig snapped and I squinted my eyes, trying to spot whatever was lurking ahead. I thought carefully about the spell Twilight had used in Brazil to scan for crocodiles, thankfully Twilight’s memory appeared in my mind and I focused on locating any lifeforms around me. My horn flashed and Conscio received the information.

{A mammal, bipedal, male.} Conscio told me.

I sighed with relief as I realised there was no danger. I walked ahead and just as predicted, found someone walking around aimlessly, lost and confused.
Myself.
Well, Twilight, in my body.

“Psst…” I hissed.

She turned around and spotted me, and waddled over to me, still unable to properly get the hang of walking on two legs.

“Callum…” She breathed, but paused.

She dropped to her knees and teared up, and put a hand to my cheek, her touch was as cold as ice.

“I thought I killed you.” She mumbled, looking into my eyes.

A tear left her eye and started crawling down her cheek, only to freeze solid just before reaching her jawline. She would surely freeze to death if I didn’t help, my horn lit up and I cast Thermic Hide onto her, she sighed with relief as the bitter cold seized to assault her.

“I watched you fall to your death…” She began.

“No. You watched me fall.” I replied, giving her a wink.

She gave a slightly bemused chuckle, before latching onto me in a tight hug.

“I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am, Callum… I don’t understand what’s happening to me, I’ve been so horrible, to you, to my friends, and I don’t know why I’m doing it! I can’t help it, I just feel so hateful and angry, and I don’t understand why! I’m scared of myself Callum. I’m terrified of myself!” She spluttered.

She burst into tears, which was weird to watch myself crying, but I quickly ignored it and put a hoof around Twilight, holding her to my chest, the fur on my chest was much more fluffy and softer than silk, it comforted her slightly.

“I killed Bunnie… I killed her, Callum… I took her away from you… What’s worse, is that I enjoyed it! I enjoyed watching you suffer, seeing you so broken made me feel good. I’m sick in the head, Callum! I’m evil…” She wept.

Even while hearing this, I knew Twilight wasn’t to blame anymore, I just cradled her side to side while she continued to sob.

“Why are you looking after me? Why are you trying to comfort me? I’m a monster. I deserve to die!”

I pulled back and made eye contact with her.

“Listen to me. You have been poisoned, by Nah’Lek. He planted a seed of evil into you, and it’s been growing ever since you came to Earth. It’s corrupted you to the point of becoming a completely different pony. You aren’t responsible for the things you’ve done.” I explained.
She blinked a few times, looking at me in complete shock.

“I’ve… I’ve been poisoned?” She stuttered.

I nodded, and went on to explain to her all about the Fel, and that the Frozen Forest was in fact a dreamscape inside her own mind. That’s when her mouth fell agape.

“Before we teleported to Earth, Princess Celestia gave me some residue from the Titan’s Orb, some of its essence, so that I could trace it and locate the shards.” She told me.

{Sneaky fucking bastard…} Conscio muttered.

Nah’Lek had infected the remaining essence of the orb with the Fel, knowing someone would use it to track its whereabouts. Nah’Lek wasn’t just a psychotic monster, he was clever; and if I knew anything at all, it was that an intelligent enemy was an extremely dangerous one.

“Well that explains where the corruption came from.” I murmured.

“How do we stop it? There has to be a way to stop it!” She asked with desperation.

I explained how the Fel needed to be drained from her mana well.

“How do you know what that is? The study of mana and mana wells one of the highest magic classes at college!” She exclaimed.

I decided to trust Twilight with the knowledge of Hawnu Rey’eng, and told her how he had been following us since Chernobyl. I explained how he was my guardian and that he’s secretly been helping us, he’d given me a brief explanation on mana. She understood and we began to head off out of the clearing, when we heard movement behind us.

“What was that?” Twilight whispered, instantly worried.

I stood perfectly still and looked in the direction of the sound, my horn glowing once more.

{Uhm… Callum…} Conscio said nervously.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue.

{You know the male, bipedal mammal we scanned?}

{Yes…} I thought back.

{It wasn’t Twilight…}

Before I had a moment to process that information, the bushes in front of me were shaken with a mighty force that caused snow to flurry forth from it; followed by a loud roar of pure bloodlust.
That’s when I saw it.
Charging towards me, was a creature built like a man, but taller, broader, his skin was green and he had two massive tusk-like teeth protruding from his mouth. In his right hand was an axe with a head the size of a laptop, easily big enough to cleave a man in half.

It was an orc.

“Stay behind me!” I shouted to Twilight, whom was already hiding behind my tail.

The beast reached me and swung his axe at my head, to which I dodged and then punched him in the stomach; this barely caused any effect to the orc and I remembered I was in Twilight’s weak body.

“Oh for fuck sa-” I grunted before being smacked by the orc.

His backhand caught my upper torso and sent me sprawling a few metres across the ground; that’s when he spotted Twilight cowering in terror.

“HUMAN!” He roared and raised his axe above his head.

Without magic to defend herself, Twilight dropped to the ground and covered her face in fear as her impending doom approached her. Conscio instantly got to work and we launched a fireball at the orc, it hit his right arm and caused his strike to miss Twilight, who took the opportunity to crawl over to me, completely terrified.
I decided to take the initiative of using the extreme cold to my advantage, and enveloped all the snow around us in a telekinetic grasp, before dumping all the snow onto the orc, burying it completely. I compressed the snow to strengthen it into a hard icy bunker.

{Don’t waste all our mana fighting this guy! We need to get to the well!} Conscio barked.

“That won’t hold long, come on.” I commanded Twilight.

I let Conscio direct my path as I ran deeper into the woodland, with Twilight literally on my tail.



We were nearing the entrance when I heard a war cry, the orc was gaining on us and would surely catch up to us soon; I turned to Twilight, who had gained some confidence alongside me.

“Twilight, you’re in my body, you can run a lot faster than me, definitely faster than that orc.” I told her.

“What are you saying?” She asked.

“I need you to distract it, lead it away from here.” I explained.

“Why?”

“I need time to drain your mana well, preferably without an orc trying to slice me into pieces.”

“I can’t do it, I can’t!” She cried out.

I took one of her hands with my hoof, and looked into her eyes.

“Twilight, if I fail here, one of us will die; we’ll fail the mission, and Equus will fall.
Trust my body, my legs have never failed me. Run Twilight, run like the wind.”

She glanced down for a moment, before looking back up and nodding, stepping away from me.
I turned and galloped to the entrance to Twilight’s inner brain, and only looked back once to see the orc bursting from the treeline and spotting Twilight. It roared, and began to charge, Twilight turned and bolted, thankfully at a greater speed than the orc, so long as she trusted my body, she would be able to outrun him.



I made my way to the large hole and looked down into its depths, the green glow radiated from deep inside the blackened earth. I lay onto my back and put my hind legs first, and dropped down into the chasm. I slid down the tunnel and went down, deep, deep underground; I gritted my teeth as I felt a few jagged rocks dig into my back and cut me slightly. I eventually slowed down as the tunnel levelled out and I found myself in a large open cave, the walls reflected a pulsating green light and I knew the mana well was close. I followed the brightest light and the cave opened into a huge cavern, and that’s when I found the well. Shaped like a giant kidney, the vessel hung from tree roots and was easily the size of a house. I then saw what appeared to be enormous arteries that seemed to transport mana to other areas of the body, or in this case, it transported Fel.

{I say we stab the bottom, so it all drains out like a giant cyst.} Conscio suggested.

I agreed with the idea, and approached the base of the well, I placed a hoof on it and pushed against it to find it was squishy, as though it were made of flesh.

“It basically IS a giant cyst.” I muttered.

Connie thought of the same laser spike Twilight had attempted to skewer me with earlier, and cast the spell, I quickly felt the immense heat as my horn extended out into what I could only describe as Mace Windu’s lightsaber. I took a deep breath, before driving my energy lance deep into the mana well, I tilted my head sideways to create a large gash in the strange organ; I then deactivated the spell and dived out of the way as Fel poured out. It wasn’t liquid, nor a gas, it was like a combination of both; it was a fluid unaffected by gravity. The deathly substance oozed into the air and faded into nothingness, unable to sustain itself without any life to feed on.

{It looks like a fart cloud.} Conscio chuckled.

“You’re a fart cloud.” I muttered.

{I like this name… Fart...} He spoke with a deep, soulful voice.

“If you’re not careful, I’ll start calling you that.” I teased.

We both laughed while the Fel was steadily drained from the well. There was about a third left, when I heard a loud screech from the cave’s entrance, and it didn’t sound like the orc.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” I grumbled.

{This is it. It’s now or never.} Fart muttered.

{AND ITS CONSCIO!}



The sound of thousands of small feet came towards me, the pitter-pattering echoed loudly against the cave walls as the threat approached. I could hear screeches and high pitched cackling, akin to a hyena’s laugh. Conscio and I remained calm and focused on our unity, we prepared a chain lightning spell, which if cast correctly, would hit multiple targets at once.

I was soon able to get a glimpse at my foes. They were tall and thin, and ran on two bird-like legs, they had two sets of arms, each arm had a large scythe shaped claw at the end, easily able to tear into flesh. Their heads were small and had tiny black beads for eyes, most of the head was taken up with a large pair of mandibles, with rows upon rows of needle-like teeth. They were slightly shorter than myself, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous.

“Well aren’t they just adorable?” I said in a camp voice, putting on an American accent.

Being in Twilight’s body, I ended up sounding almost identical to her normal voice, which was slightly disturbing.
One of the creatures raised its scythe-arms and prepared to leap towards me, which was when I shot my first spell, the bolt of blue lightning met its chest and electrocuted it, while more arcs shot out from its back and spread to its nearby kin. At least ten of them dropped to the ground, I was pleased with myself until I spotted around three-hundred more pouring from the shadows.

“Now I know what Hawnu Rey’eng meant when he said I’d be fighting hell!” I squeaked.

{Stand still.} Conscio ordered.

“What!? Are you crazy!?” I yelped.

{Trust me.} He grunted.

I gulped and stood perfectly still as the vile, shrieking monsters surrounded me.

“Connie…” I nervously said through gritted teeth.

{Trust. Me.}

I turned around in circles, realising how many there were, there was at least a thousand.

“Connie.”

{Shut up and trust me!}

He hadn’t failed me yet, so I put my faith into Conscio and breathed out, calming myself.
The beasts were about a metre away from me in all directions, and that’s when a few of them lunged towards me.

{JUMP!} Conscio yelled.

I jumped up and my horn flashed, I felt a massive force pushing me upwards and I was catapulted into the air. I looked down to see almost a hundred of the creatures scattered around on the ground, dead and mangled in grotesque positions. As I fell back down to the ground, I noticed my hooves were glowing purple, the moment I made contact with the stone floor, large fragments of rock burst from the ground and shot outwards like a shotgun, tearing more enemies into shreds, arms and legs went flying as the sharp chunks of stone made literal mincemeat out of them.

“How did you do that?” I cried out, amazed.

{Gravitational rip, followed by a telekinetic shockwave; child’s play!} He laughed.

“You’re a fucking madman!” I laughed.

{Well aren’t you quite the hypocrite? You’re the one talking to a voice inside your head!} He sneered back.

Another creature jumped at me and I shot it with a fireball, burning it to a crisp.

“You’re sentient, with your own consciousness, totally different thing!” I retorted.

{If you say so!} He teased.

More foes leapt at me, and I grabbed them in a telekinetic grab and threw them backwards into the horde skittering towards me, I switched up a new spell and let out a large jet of fire, engulfing a large number of them at once; I chuckled to myself as the beasts screamed in the flames.

{MY LITTLE PONY! MY LITTLE PONY! AH, AH, AH, AH, AAAHHHH!} Conscio sang.

I burst into laughter as I heard the damn theme song in my head, and the fact I was literally Twilight Sparkle at this point made it all the funnier. My laughter was quickly abrupted as one of the creatures reached me and sliced into my flank, right across my cutie mark. I turned around and used my telekinesis to rip its arms off and stab it repeatedly with its own scythes.

“I KILL YOU FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!” I screamed maniacally.

I needed this, after losing Bunnie, the endless slaughter was the perfect way to release all the emotions rushing through me, I was free to let out all my anger and pain, without a shred of remorse or self-restraint. I could butcher away until there wasn’t a single creature left alive. Besides, it was saving Twilight in the process, so it was a win-win situation.



After around ten minutes, Twilight’s unathletic body was beginning to slow me down, I was panting heavily as I ran and dodged each beast as they lunged at me. Thankfully the horde was running thin and the ground had piles upon piles of bodies, I had to occasionally clamber over the dead simply to get away from all the others relentlessly chasing me.
I yelped loudly as one of them jumped onto my back and sank its teeth into my neck, I tripped over and the entire swarm surrounded me; I teleported into the air just as they were about to consume me and used another gravitational rip to annihilate the majority of them.
A few more minutes of running around and casting various spells, I had killed them all. The last one screeched as I drove a laser spike through its chest. I dropped to my knees and continued to pant for a while, recovering from the physical exhaustion. I gritted my teeth painfully as I felt warm blood all around my neck, I put a hoof to the wound and growled as the injury stung; thankfully it wasn’t too deep.



I was given about ten minutes to recover, when I felt the cave rumbling, and then a deep roar.

“Oh come on… Just five more minutes?” I begged.

As I stood up, the mana well behind me made a whirring noise, I turned to find the Fel was now completely drained, I went over to the strange organ and used my magic to seal the hole shut. That’s when a rumbling growl shook the cave again.
Large footsteps came thudding towards me, and a haunting shadow loomed on the cave walls as the creature approached. The first thing I saw was a huge pair of tusks, and then a muzzle with rows upon rows of teeth. As the creature stepped out into the light, I noticed it had no eyes, just a large pair of furry feelers all around its lips, its entire head was just a giant mouth. The creature stood onto its hind legs and revealed a large open hole in its chest, all its organs were exposed, with nothing to protect them.

{A good blow in that spot ought to kill it.} Conscio hummed.

I agreed, but remained still to study the creature further, its grotesque mouth had a large spongey sack instead of a tongue, I had a horrible feeling this monster would have the ability to spit whatever that sack contained. Its back was covered in black tentacles, each one tipped with a barbed spike, and it had two tails, both of them thin and designed like large whips.



This creature was designed for one purpose.

{To be really fucking ugly…}

{To kill, Conscio, it was designed to kill.} I thought back, rolling my eyes.

The monster’s feelers detected me and it let out a loud gurgling sound, before charging towards me; I teleported out of the way and shot a fireball at it, only for the fire to be extinguished upon contact with its black hide. It lunged towards me and I teleported behind it, this time shooting an arc of lightning at the beast. This only seemed to enrage the creature as it growled at me and swung its large tails at me, it narrowly missed my face and I jumped back in fear.

“Get some more offensive spells ready!” I ordered.

{I’m on it already!}

While in Twilight’s body, it appeared my sentient conscience had much greater control over our brain, he could access past experiences and could use Twilight’s muscle memory to aid me in running on four legs with ease; we worked as a team much more efficiently here.
Considering the fact he appeared after touching the first orb shard, I had a feeling Conscio was connected to magic, or something from Equestria, so it made sense that he was more active while in Twilight’s mind.

The creature had turned around and was about to grab me in its maw, I teleported backwards and escaped, this was when it opened its mouth wide and the organ in its mouth began to glow green, I created a magical shield in front of me to deflect the attack. From the beast’s mouth shot a bright green mucus, which burst into the same substance that had drained from the mana well.

{It spits pure Fel!} Conscio cried out.

As soon as the Fel touched my shield, it corroded right through it.

“Fel burns into magic like an acid!” I yelped.

I jumped back as the milky green mist edged towards me, any physical contact with pure Fel could kill me. The hulking monster launched forward and I narrowly escaped its attack, its hide was too think for any sort of counter attack, I needed to get a clear shot at the organ sack on its chest.

It turned around and swung its tails at me, the attack caught my leg and flung me into a stalagmite, it shattered on contact and I received a small cut on my shoulder. This caused no issue for me with the current injuries I’d already sustained, and quickly stood up and used my telekinesis to throw the broken pieces of rock at the beast. They smacked into its head and caused it to roar angrily, but otherwise seemed to do no damage. It lunged forward and tried to slash at me with its claws, I jumped back and shot another fireball at it, only for it to catch the spell in its mouth. The flames turned green in its teeth and it then launched the spell right back at me, now a ball of Fel-fire, I teleported out of the way and stared at the beast in shock.

“I do NOT like this creepy-ass behemoth motherfucker!” I yelled.

{Hey, that’s actually a good name for it! A Fel Behemoth!} Conscio replied merrily.

The newly named Fel behemoth stood onto its hind legs and roared at me. I took this opportunity to fire a powerful bolt of lightning into its organ sack, one of the supposed lungs burst and the behemoth screeched loudly and fell onto its back, writhing in pain. It then rolled back onto four legs and went into a rage, charging at me with its maw wide open, Fel oozing out of the gland in its mouth.

{Another blast like that should finish the job!} Connie shouted with encouragement.

I teleported behind the creature to avoid the charge, it turned around and continued to stampede towards me, forcing me to constantly teleport away, I was wasting energy and needed another opportunity to reach its chest.
The behemoth jumped at me, and I slid onto my back and was able to escape the attack by mere inches, the beast collided with a stone pillar headfirst, dazing it. This was when I noticed the cave was glowing blue, instead of green. I looked at the mana well to see it was now halfway full with pure mana.

“Whoa…” I said, my mouth agape.

I was currently looking at the purest energy in the universe, it swirled around inside the well with different shades of blue, it was a marvel to witness.

{I hate to bother you, but this monster is still trying to kill us.} Conscio pointed out.

“Well how about you come up with a plan, smart-arse?” I retorted.

I faced the Fel behemoth and jumped back from another claw swipe, in response I let a jet of fire shoot from my horn and engulf its head. It hopped to the side and spun around, whipping me with its tail, I was flung a few metres back and gasped with pain as the attack had torn open my shoulder, exposing raw flesh and muscle. I gritted my teeth and stood up, my shoulder now stinging like a bitch.

{I have an idea!} Connie announced.

I teleported away from another attack, before hearing out his plan.

{Next time it charges, teleport behind it and put your horn on the ground, I’ll do the rest!} He ordered.

I shot a few bolts of electricity at the behemoth, angering it further; crouching low to the ground and growling, it began to speed towards me, with a flash, I was behind it and easily avoided the attack. Following the plan, I bent down and placed my horn against the ground; Conscio (literally) worked his magic, and a small purple ring appeared on the ground, about the size of a dinner plate.

{Now, lure him onto this spot.} He instructed.

I jumped over the purple ring and turned to face the behemoth, which was flexing its claws and preparing to attack me again.

“Come on, come to papa.” I growled, smirking at the monster.

{Technically it’s ‘come to mama’, being in Twilight’s body and all.} Conscio teased.

“I identify as a human male; my horse vagina means nothing!” I shouted back.

We both chuckled as the behemoth began thudding towards me, its mouth wide open. I remained perfectly still and let it approach me, when its chest was aligned above the ring, my horn began to glow.

{POP! GOES THE WEASEL!} Conscio sang merrily.

BOOM!

The sound of the explosion almost deafened me as the entire cave shook, I lost my balance and fell to the floor, covering my ears and closing my eyes. When I opened them again, I found the behemoth lying on its back, twitching. The entire organ sack was missing; but all around the area were tiny pieces of green flesh which suggested the sack had quite literally exploded. Where the purple ring once was, had been replaced with gaping hole in the rock, at least five feet deep.

“Conscio… What the fuck did you do?” I asked, shocked.

Laughing maniacally to himself, Conscio was unable to answer me, so I walked over to the behemoth to inspect the body. Inside the chest cavity were large fragments of blood-soaked rock, not a single organ remained, I could imagine the behemoth didn’t even feel the pain from this complete overkill.

“I’ll ask again, what did you do?” I repeated myself.

Conscio’s laughter died down into a chuckle as he answered me, sighing merrily.

{Similar to the shockwave earlier, but about a thousand times more powerful! The force shoots upwards with enough velocity to level a house, I tell you!} He explained.

“So you basically just made the world’s most powerful landmine?” I suggested.

{THAT, EXACTLY!} He cried, bursting into more laughter.

I too, began to laugh with him. Conscio, while intelligent and calculated, was an absolute nutter. His Scottish accent made him all the funnier with his random outbursts and one-liners.

{That always was my favourite spell!} Conscio wheezed, still laughing loudly.

“I beg your pardon?” I asked.

Conscio’s laughter stopped abruptly and he coughed.

{Never mind laddie, I’ve lost the plot.} He replied.

I hummed, uncertain as to what he meant; my attention was drawn away to the mana well as it finally filled to the top with pure mana, I approached the organ and stared into the magical fluid.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” I breathed.



“Quite…” A voice spoke.



A shiver ran down my spine as I recognised the deep, raspy tone. A voice rougher than sandpaper, and colder than ice. I turned around to face him, all eight of his glowing lifeless eyes were fixed on me.

“Nah’Lek.” I greeted him.

He removed his hooded cloak to reveal himself, which I rather he hadn’t; he was hideous. Most his body was lined with jet black chitin; his arachnid abdomen however, was made of dark grey flesh and was covered in charcoal fur, large spines protruded from random points on his back, which I could just see over his shoulders. Below his eyes was a huge spider’s mouth, his four enormous fangs were blacker than the coldest reaches of space itself. His two large swords sat at his waist, and on his back sat a very peculiar staff.
I won’t lie, he was utterly terrifying.

“Well, if it isn’t the sworn protector of the royal pets…” He hissed.

“You’re too late Nah’Lek, I’ve cured Twilight of the Fel, you can torture her no longer.” I told him.

“Pity.” He replied dryly.

He raised one of his arms and snapped his claws together, that’s when I heard footsteps, and the orc came around the corner, dragging Twilight with him by her wrist. She struggled defiantly, but didn’t have the strength to break free, even in my body. The moment she saw Nah’Lek, she dropped to her knees and started crying instantly, knowing her fate.

“As you can see, I can do no further damage; I have already broken her.” He spoke.

His voice put the most uncomfortable feeling over me, it felt like someone was dragging sharp fingernails up from the base of my spine, to my neck; it was beyond sickly. I remained vigilant and kept eye contact with him.

“She will recover.” I spat.

“Will she?” He replied.

His eyes glanced upwards to look at the mana well, I turned around and realised all the mana was leaving the organ through the various arteries, the light grew dim as the energy sapped away.

“You thought it would be that easy to cure the Fel?” Nah’Lek said mockingly.

My eyes widened with fear as the mana completely drained from the well, leaving us encased in darkness. Twilight continued to cry uncontrollably, spluttering and choking on her own mucus. I turned around to find the purple eyes still staring at me. My horn lit up and I created a large ball of bright light a few metres above me, allowing us to see clearly again.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” I growled.

He remained quiet, waiting for me to continue.

“The mana has simply gone to purify the rest of her body, the snow above us will be melting any minute now, and Twilight will begin to recover.” I spat.

“If you believe she will recover, then you underestimate the Fel. Twilight will be scarred for life. Every night, I have brought her to this place, and every night I have killed her; she now knows true suffering. Even without the Fel inside her body, she will never be the same again.” He replied.

I glanced at Twilight, who was on her knees, hugging the orc’s leg and sobbing, begging for it to kill her.

All this time, I had hated Twilight. She’d used and abused me, she’d made my life a misery, even during one of the most incredible adventures any man could experience. Being depressed was difficult enough without being constantly ridiculed and bullied. It hurt, it seriously fucking hurt.
Now I knew why she’d done it, I finally understood.
It wasn’t just the Fel. Nah’Lek had tortured her so badly, she was trying to find a way to let out the pain, she was desperately trying to find a coping mechanism to channel the torture. The only thing she could do was abuse me, she didn’t know how else to alleviate the agony she was enduring.



“Kill me! Just kill me! Please!” She begged.

The orc responded by punching her in the face, breaking her nose. I stepped towards Nah’Lek, my horn glowing brightly.

“You will never touch her again!” I yelled with rage.

I shot a bolt of electricity at him, it smacked into his chest and fizzled away, Nah’Lek was completely unaffected by the attack, and merely inspected one of his claws.

“How quaint.” He sighed.

In the blink of an eye, he was in front of me and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me into the air.

“Killing me… Is useless… This world is just… A dream...” I choked.

The Defiler held my face up to his, and then hummed, before dropping me. I fell onto my side and clutched my neck with both hooves, gasping for air.

“I’ll find you, soon enough.” He muttered.

“We’ll have gone long before you find us.” I coughed, standing up.

At this, Nah’Lek let out an amused chuckle.

“How do you plan on doing that, without any magic?” He mocked, stroking the mana well.

I looked at him, my eyes wide.

“Even without the Fel, it will take months for her mana well to recover.” He told me.

I gritted my teeth with frustration, my vision became fixed on Nah’Lek, I was unable to look away from his haunting eyes as they pierced mine.

“Without magic, you’re finished.” He hissed.



That was when the orc grunted loudly, and then fell face-first into the ground, that’s when I spotted the large spear of ice sticking out of his back.

“And who said anything about not having magic?” The tinny, robotic voice spoke.

With a flap of his wings, Hawnu Rey’eng whizzed from his hiding place and shoulder rammed Nah’Lek with all his might, sending the demi-god hurtling into a large pillar. The entire pillar smashed apart and buried him in a pile of stone. I rushed to Twilight and helped her to her feet, which was when Nah’Lek burst from the rubble in a rage, he sped towards us and seized Twilight by the throat.

“WHERE ARE YOU HIDING!?” He snarled.

Petrified, and a complete slave to Nah’Lek’s terror, Twilight began to stutter the letter P, I knew she was going to reveal we were currently in Portugal and I needed to stop her, without thinking, I fired all my remaining energy at Twilight in the form of a laser beam. It burned through her chest and she died in seconds, Nah’Lek dropped her limp body and turned to face me.

“You are beginning to irritate me.” He hissed.

He began to walk towards me, pulling the staff from his back and pointing it at me; I gulped as it began to glow green. That’s when Hawnu Rey’eng stepped in front of me, his hands glowing in a purple aura.

“That staff doesn’t belong to you.” He said calmly.

Nah’Lek responded by firing a ball of Fel-fire at him, who deflected it with a powerful blast of energy.

“You have no dominion here Nah’Lek, you should have stayed in Tartarus.” Hawnu Rey’eng sneered.

“I can’t wait to tear those wings from your back…”

The two rushed at one another and became locked in combat, both casting offensive spells and physically attacking one another, green and purple sparks ignited the cavern, I backed away as their showdown grew more and more violent. They appeared to be equally matched in combat, I took the opportunity to escape the cavern and made my way to the exit, I clambered up the small passageway, which now had water trickling down, the snow was beginning to melt.



I reached the exit and crawled into the remaining slush, from behind me was the sound of more magic and Hawnu Rey’eng burst out from the exit, he spiralled out of control and crashed into the ground close to me, seemingly unconscious. I was about to walk over to him when Nah’Lek crawled out of the hole, his staff radiating with a black smoke.

“Look around Nah’Lek, the forest is already healing; it’s over!” I growled.

Suddenly an excruciating pain radiated through my body and I was levitated into the air, it felt as if every square inch of my body was being stabbed with tiny needles, I gritted my teeth and glared at Nah’Lek, my eyes watering. He walked up to me and glared into my eyes, his deathly stare was sickening, his eyes were the embodiment of fear itself.

“It is far from over… In fact, I think I prefer it this way…” He hissed.

The pain grew even stronger; the needles became knifes as every nerve cell in my body was strangulated in his black magic. I refused to let him hear me scream, and clenched my jaw harder than ever.

“I always did prefer to stalk my prey; it makes the kill more… Pleasurable…”

{Well, everyone has their kinks I suppose… Don’t they Spindles?} Conscio teased.

Nah’Lek’s head tilted slightly, and to my horror, his amethyst eyes began to turn a bright crimson.

“YOU…” He spat.

Before I could react, Nah’Lek pierced my gut with his claws, there were no words to describe the agony as I felt my organs rupture as he dug right through my body, before grabbing my spine. Everything very quickly became blurry and numb as I went into shock, and my spinal cord was severed, I lost all feeling in my body and dropped to the ground unexpectedly.


The last thing I saw, was the blurry shape of Nah’Lek standing over me, holding my bloody spine, before cold and darkness surrounded me, and I was met with the embrace of death.