The Dark Temptress’ Tale

Johansson stood up, she took a step forward and suddenly stopped; she felt something pass close to her. She took out her customized Coral Axe and assumed a defensive stance. Her eyes swayed from one direction to the other, but saw nothing. She heard a creak behind her; she turned but again found nothing. The Promethean closed her eyes, and concentrated. Some lights in her suit activated, a sign reading “freedom” appeared on her screen. When she opened her eyes again, Johansson, saw some kind of psyfields circling her. The fields were rectangular shaped, and moved in wavy patterns, reacting to how she moved, “They’ll slice me if I am not careful,” thought Johansson, who then took a deep breath, and jumped to the right; as expected the psyfields moved to the right to cut her, but the Promethean countered this by activating celerity. Just as the fields were about to cut her in half, Johansson managed to dive to the ground, used her axe as a pole, and jumped many metres forward. The psyfields rapidly gave her chase; some metres close to landing the Promethean saw an engraving on the wall, “That’s the ritual,” she said to herself, and threw her axe towards it. Her weapon managed to crack the wall and damage the engraving, which released a red energy, which quickly evaporated. Johansson’s strike had been accurate but not fast enough, before disintegrating, the psyfields had managed to cut her torso. The Promethean quickly pressed some buttons; the wound began to close, the blood to disappear, “Too close a call,” she said with relief.

Velvet Johansson had been in labyrinth for three days at least, she didn’t exactly know; the Councillor of Shadows had told her that being so close to the Tomb of Ramiel made psytech unreliable at times when he gave briefed her on her mission. “You must descend into the labyrinth, and recuperate the Amethyst Key and the new Doomcorp prototype, and before you wonder why you? I will explain it: as an ex-member of Toshiro Konrad’s first platoon you know how to battle against Myrmidon type “mechas” (The Shadow Councillor loved to use Promethean terms to describe weapons) and the other reason is that no Unliving is allowed to fight another so close to the holiest sanctum, and none dare break this sacrament.”

 Nothing more was explained to her, but she knew that’s how the Unliving worked, they kept the chatting to the minimum except when they were close to a kill. She had learned this just hours after joining the Grand Alliance and fighting under Lady Shadowscream until they placed the Prince of Silence on the throne.  This occurred thirty years ago; the founding of the Empire, a golden era for the dark arts, which was the reason why Unlivings like the Councillor of Shadows had returned to the spotlight after aeons of reclusive study of the arcane. Velvet Johansson had joined them because she knew that they were the only force in the Outworld that could stop Konrad when he finally decides to carry out his final plan. All of this these things passed through the Promethean’s mind as she entered the Labyrinth of Ramiel.

After resting some moments to make sure the wound mended nicely, Johansson carried on with her mission. The part in which she was know was different to the outer tunnels of the maze, for one thing the walls were now made from a dark alloy mixed with body parts and all bound by Unliving (Johansson never understood how they managed to channel it via rituals) rituals and lore. The Promethean could swear that the walls were conscious, like a brute basic organism that was merely aware of its existence but could do little else.

She arrived at a part where the tunnel split in two, forming a y. There was a sign on the middle, she got closer to and noticed it was made from mummified flesh, and the letters were made from sowed maggots, this is the part she disliked about Unliving technology. The sign read: “East to the Beast, West to the Rest”. “Another riddle,” the Promethean thought, “Why are they so obsessed with them? What’s wrong with a mathematical formula?” she thought as she put on her Hunter Face Mask, which revealed a slight track, which lead to the right, “so the Beast it is,” Johansson thought.

Johansson had lost the scent, and her equipment wasn’t working properly, just as the Councillor of Shadows had predicted. She knew she had descended for an hour at least, and then walked until the tunnels had changed again, becoming much wider and taller. Usually she would have thanked the greater manoeuvring space, but this time she resented it. The walls sensed if one started at them for prolonged periods of time, when this happened the allow changed and became liquid like, Johansson saw how some ripples had started to form, she felt an urge to touch the wall. Conflict brewed inside her, her impulse told her to touch the walls, but something inside her told her otherwise. Her arms and hands stretched to touch them, step after step she got closer to the walls, which now gave the sensation of not being walls, but a huge open space, a black and sinister place which called out to her. Remembering her training in the Fields of Mars, Johansson gathered her will and activated her Freedom protocol. The moment it was activated the Promethean regained control of her body; she looked around and noticed an opening that lead outside this tunnel. Without any hesitation she started to run towards this opening. The tunnel started to vibrate, and one by one the walls started to crumble. Just as she was centimetres away from the opening, the last wall began to fall; Johansson closed her eyes and jumped.

The Promethean opened her eyes, darkness surrounded her, she couldn’t see anything; had she not heard her own heartbeat she would have thought she was dead. She activated her night vision; she saw that the opening she had used was now closed off by rubble, “lucky,” she said to herself. She gathered herself, the tunnel is which she was now in didn’t feel as enclosed at the past one had done. As she recuperated her senses, she became aware of sounds, metal striking metal, “Fighting,” she said out loud.  She turned in the direction the sound was coming from; a bright light shone at the distance, the Promethean took out her axe, and stealthily made her way to the light.

Johansson couldn’t believe what took place in front of her. A machine, if that word could be used to describe it for it had little metal and was mostly made up of carcasses and strange elements, was fighting against 5 Greater Demon Beasts, “So that’s the Doomcorp?” Velvet Johansson wondered.

The beasts were huge, the same size of the Unliving mecha almost, which bravely battled the five foes at the same time. One of the beasts had raised its goat head and lion head and looked in the direction of Johansson. The promethean gave 10 steps forward into the gigantic chamber where the struggle was taking place, the beast charged towards her, Johansson raised her axe in the Posta di Falcone stance and stood her ground, the beast jumped, Johansson stood still, and just as the foe was centimetres away she swayed her axe. The promethean was covered in black blood, the beast landed behind her, it turned to face her again, Johansson turned; the wound the beast had started to heal rapidly, “Shit, this is a strong opponent,” the Promethean thought. The beast charged her again, and swung its paw, Johansson parried the attack, but the other paw struck her; she activated her dodge, but her psytech was spent, the claws penetrated her armour but she had reacted soon enough to avoid any major damage. The dust lifted from the ground as both the creature’s frontal paws hit the ground, it turned and faced Johansson once more, “Heretics must be annihilated” the creature growled, the Promethean turned and stood ready once more, “It’s strong,” she pointed out to herself. The creature attacked once more, Johansson without thinking twice threw her axe with all her might towards the beast, which not expecting such a suicidal attack was caught by surprise as the axe landed in the middle of the goat’s head, killing it instantly. The lion’s head eyes became lit with rage; it placed its jaw on the axe, and began to crush it. Johansson couldn’t believe her eyes; that axe had resisted many battles, but the foe that stood before her crushed it as easily as a twig. An inner rage gathered inside the Promethean; she charged the animal, which raised its paws and struck, Johansson, who had recuperated some of her energy used her celerity, and dodged the paws and landed in front of the lion’s head, the beast’s red eyes were fixed on her; the Promethean placed one foot on the upper part of the beast’s jaw and began to force it open; thunder roared inside the chamber as the Promethean battled the Demon, the Beast’s fangs started to close, but Johansson refused to give up and pushed even harder; a loud crack was heard as she broke the lion’s head jaw. The beast backed away in pain and Johansson grabbed her axe. By the time the demon opened its eyes, Johansson was in the air, with her last ounce of strength she swung her axe for the final time. A loud crunch was heard as the axe cracked the beast’s skull open. The beast let out a low growl, and dropped dead.

Exhausted, Johansson landed on her knees, the beast lay motionless on the ground and a profound silence had enthralled the chamber. The Promethean took a deep breath; and in a slow movement she turned towards where the other fight had been taking place.

The Doomcorp was standing on top of the Beasts’ bodies. The head began to turn towards Johansson, who barely managed to stand up and face the new enemy. The huge mecha started to move towards the Promethean, who bravely raised her damaged axe, “In the name of the empire I command you, return the Amethyst Key and return the Doomcorp,” she said. Her voice denoted fatigue and the Doomcorp hadn’t stopped, “Shit, I’ve used all my psytech,” Johansson thought. And she wondered on what strategy to take she noticed that the Doomcorp was struggling to walk, its legs were seriously damaged, and one of its arms was missing, “It’s hurt as well...” she realized, and prepared to launch her axe. Comprehending her intention, the Doomcorp lifted its remaining arm and aimed for Johansson, who understanding that it was her last chance, threw her axe at the mecha. The axe shattered after hitting the Doomcorp’s arm, which broke off. Johansson smiled, and tumbled to the ground. The machine did not stop advancing until it was next to Johansson. The Promethean, raised her eyes, the Doomcorp’s foot was raised above the ground and was ready to crush her head, “I’ve failed,” whispered Johansson. As she finished uttering this a flash of grey energy lit the chamber, and 1 second afterwards a loud explosion occurred. When the light faded, the Promethean saw that the Doomcorp’s torso had been blown off; she smiled and closed her eyes.

Velvet Johansson handed the Amethyst key to the Shadow Councillor, “Well done heretic. The Empire will see that you are properly rewarded,” the vampire uttered in amusement. Without saying anything else he turned and started to walk away.

Johansson restrain herself any longer and spoke, “Sir, I thought Unlivings could not battle in the Labyrinth.” The Councillor of Shadows stopped, and without turning replied, “They cannot Promethean.” “I see,” Johansson replied, “well thanks for you help.” The old vampire turned around and looked at her in the eyes, “What do you mean?” he enquired. “Well, the blast sir, I was on the ground at the mercy of the Doomcorp, and this grey energy blast…” The Shadow Councillor gestured her to stop, he stepped towards her until he was a head away, “Did you say Grey energy?” he asked her. This was the first time that the Promethean sensed certain unease from an Unliving, she nodded. The Vampire turned and walked away once more, “Get your rest, for we’ll be fighting more than the Incarnas.” Having said this the door of closed behind the old vampire. Johansson crossed her arms, “More than the Incarnas?”

By J. Zandi