| "It is just a matter of time," Zerm explains to his phantom friends.
"It's what is called for, really. Frankly, I've done similar things before
with others-hide in the last place they'd expect. When they least expect
it, I come and finish the game! So will I when the 'heroes' finally get
around to shutting down the slipgates. Their remaining Crystallics will
be drained of their magic, turning those magical items into glass baubles."<
P>
With the Crystallics, his adversaries were worrisome. He, Zerm, might
lose to that rabble! No, this was a waiting game….that would end within
a day. That done, it was time to go about setting things more as his heart
desired.
Zerm and his friends didn't want Terra to be exploited by neither the
Golems nor the Lizards. Nor did these dark mages want to see Terra destroyed
by the slipgates!
They didn't want Terra exploited by the Golems and/or Lizard for THAT
was their job. No jumped upped upstarts from another plane of existence
would stop Zerm and his ghostly friends from running things from the shadows….through
the Black Market Cult!
This all runs through Turoc-Kith's and Zerm's mind just before their
mechanically/magically incline friend speaks.
"Initially, I had thought that you should have taken refuge in a spell
tower such as mine," ghostly Dr. Vincent chuckles mirthlessly. "With enough
wards, who could break my sanctuary? I only let in those who I wish, and
ONLY under tightly controlled conditions! And if they somehow manage to
worm their way in by magically teleporting, they faced a gauntlet of traps
and tricks. They were out to get me, but I was ready. I was sure secure
in there, so prepared that I even was able to even capture all of the holders
of the Crystallics. I had five of them in my hands, but…"
"You allowed yourself to be distracted by your treacherous brother,"
Turoc-Kith said in a soothing voice. It was obvious that in reality what
had actually happened, but neither Zerm or Turoc would actually correct
the eccentric (but decidedly brilliant) scientist/mage.
Their friend had gotten greedy in wanting a body that had been the ultimate
in his dreams. The female golem had been a blend of Terran magic and the
otherworldly science of the Golems. He had initially wanted to steal a
human body, possess it, and make it his own so he could again enjoy the
joys of life. It probably would have been the one young knight that he'd
captured, but then again….our dead doctor was more than a bit unpredictable,
even to his friends. He then noticed, after his brother had pointed it
out, that the one female Golem was actually a golem in truth.
It was perfect! He would be able to assume his life again and carry
out his dreams and ambitions AND be the embodiment of his beloved art:
a fusion of magic and science. However, he had been ignorant of one important
fact, and it had cost him dearly.
He should have possessed the MALE Golem, and then crafted a holding
vessel from a gem later.
You CAN NOT possess a golem the way you'd possess a human body, nothing
would happen beyond a searing headache from the attempting possessing entity.
The entity within the holding vessel was too magically entrenched! Somehow,
this Golem/golem had even managed to somehow HURT Vincent and drive him
off! Not only that, Vincent's entire memory of what he'd learned from the
people he'd read the minds of with his strange devices….was muddied beyond
redemption. Finally, there was his tendency to……
"They blew up my lovely tower," Dr. Vincent, ghost, begins to cry. "They
even stole my Bobo….those 10010101001010 F-00101011101!"
The ghostly Dr. Vincent now had a tendency to babble binary. Zerm and
Kith had done what they could for the good doctor, and they had at least
been able to cure him of his binary affliction enough so everything he
said wasn't in ones and zeroes. As long as Dr. Vincent remained calm, he
was fine….but for any battle with the would be "heroes" he'd be useless.
The stress of battle would make him make a binary bungle of verbal spell
components and…….
He still had a few more years to go before he was put to right. Zerm
would see to it that he'd be help, though. Vincent was one of the few friends
that he had, and as such….was something that the villain treasured dearly.
People he trusted were few and far between. People he could trust and
like….even rarer.
Turoc-Kith sighed and ushered Vincent into a laboratory in the back
for yet another day of magical speech therapy. Today it was the ghostly
necromancers turn.
Zerm sighed contentedly as he sat down upon his throne, and stroked
one of his trophies raven black hair. The woman, an amazon warrior who'd
killed one of his more inspired pupils, made a fine statement of his power.
Often, in the 85 years that he'd had her, he'd toyed with the idea of releasing
her from stasis long enough to play with her. Torturing and humiliating
her might have proven interesting, ended with a final shifting of her form
into some animal type…..a lioness perhaps?
Zerm never had, and for he had plans. Zerm had planned to use her as
a bargaining chip in gaining some items he had come to notice within the
borders of Aqualaria.. Perhaps, he could even use his dear and brave Helena
as a means to gain the throne in Aqualaria. He could use her by enchanting
her to be ever so pliant to his desires, and rule through her. It had worked
within Malbacton (though people barely-interestingly enough-noticed anything
different about the corrupt king), so if he ever got interested enough……he'd
make his move on Aqualaria. Just how to do it with this anachronism was
the challenge that Zerm played with from time to time.
The Crimson King would rule the world, when his fancy finally moved
towards that goal….slowly. Piece by piece.
If nothing else, the fall of Atlantis had taught Zerm that recklessness
would be disastrous. Recklessness, and lack of loyalty. He was slowly building
something that he could trust, within the BMC. The BMC was still in it's
first stages.
He then looks at the unexpected visitors from the Otherworlds, and then
frowns slightly.
While away playing the Crimson King in a particularly bloody, and slightly
challenging, coupe within the BMC he had received these visitors. The three
visitors had nothing to say, nor had they made his lair a shambles with
their looking around. You see, they were in stasis just like their sister,
and magical examinations and long distance scryings revealed matching Matrix
origins from several Astra analogs. Whatever the case, dressed in little
to nothing at all, they had made excellent statues to brighten his throne
room.
If ONLY that damn lizard who'd somehow found his uncle's Crystallic-an
item that Zerm had for centuries had dismissed as have been destroyed with
Uncle Tesla's death-hadn't made a mess of things by cracking the dome!
It had been nice that first the "heroes" (with remotely cast spell)
had stopped the flooding. It had even been better when the Golem's had
sent their automations to build a vast dome made of a clear substance that
was harder than any material that Zerm was familiar with. He'd be ever
so annoyed to find his long time hide away bolt hole had been destroyed
by sea water!
-
 Shouts
of dismay bring Zerm back to the present! He rushes into the laboratory
that his friends should be in.…and finds nothing.
Go Back
|