C210: Tower Defense
Alt Title teaser: Sneaky Servitor
Date published: 4/18/2025.
next chapter will be end of this arc before we, dear readers, enter the true finale of this story, FATE. to help this transition, i cut this chapter a tiny bit shorter than my 3k usual. Ill try to return to my current standard but to do so, I will likely not follow the 3 days chapter uploads, I am trying to increase the quality of the story (even if only a handful of people even get this far in the story due to how I messed up early on).
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Expelling a deep putrid breath and looking up at Khorne and his throne, Axel only says one thing.
"What's next?"
The Demonic overlord has a grin on his face as he knocks his spear butt to the ground to initiate the next battle already.
Seeing that the next set of on this episodes of 'creature feature', Axel is quite disappointed, he decides to raise the stakes himself. From his chest, a white orb begins to flow out. The orb quickly grows until it's equal to Axel's height. Many demon spawn can sense the intense psychic energy originating from the orb.
"Let me explain what this is. You all know who the Imperium is and that Mortarion has likely been the bane in many demons sides. Many know of his ever increasing strength since he was discovered by their beloved emperor. I had the pleasure of meeting them both before coming here and we fought a little bit. But did you know that his funky little mark came from me in the first place?" He can feel the fear that his words imply from the demons in the audience as well as those entering the arena. They warily encircle him as he continues speaking.
"This orb here contains 500 years of Mortarions conquests and pillaging of power from demons like you all. I also added in all the physical and psychic power I've gathered from the few months worth of fighting i've done in this universe. The challenge I offer you all is this: you do not have to fight me. My object is to prevent you all from touching this orb. I can not move it and have to stop you in any way I can. Anyone can come and join the arena to acquire this power, It can be perfectly integrated into any living being be it you or me." his words rile up the demons as even the weakest gargoyle and fanatic can take on power that could send daemon princes flying with a wave of their hand. The audience goes quiet before hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of feet move, a stampede of sorts occurs as all rush to the arena. Some use their stealth abilities to sneak around the enemy demons while others bulldoze their way through. Hundreds of deaths occur in this mad rush for the orb of power.
"Ye foul demons, come and claim this bounty if you can but know that I will try my best to add your own power to it."
Bloodletters, flesh hounds, Juggernauts, Bloodcrushers, and Heralds of Khorne (all lesser daemons). Plenty of Bloodthirsters and daemon princes, even a vast array of daemon engines controlled by the lesser demons arrive, all these creatures rush to the arena, surrounding Axel from all sides as he remains in the center of the arena with the orb beside him. His scythe morphs into a set of bow and arrows.
The daemon performed a complete enclosure around Axel. All their eyes focused not on Axel but the orb next to him that gives them all a chance to reach a state far beyond what they could ever wish for. Effectively becoming second to just the lord of skulls themselves, that means freedom from the warp, free to claim territory and resources to continue their growth and endless possibilities to curry favor with their lord.
All remain still, a tense pressure lays claim to the arena area, some double check their weapons, others scan their surroundings to make sure there is nothing to sabotage them. It's only when the foot of a bloodthirster twitches an ever so small inch forward that Axel begins his onslaught.
Compressing arrows of destruction energy (hodgepodge of different energy types combined for pure destruction-Rebecca's divinity), the arrows are let loose from the energy bow as it causes a quintessential explosion of sharp steel shredding armor and flesh, fire to burn flesh and shatter the chariots into molten puddles. The final bit is the power of lightning in the arrows which was given a special little task.
Conductor, the lightning energy itself acted as a conductor for the heat of the fire to extend the range of the damage while also magnetizing some demons so the steel shards home in like a certain blue skinned aliens whistling arrow.
With the first arrow, the demons all rush at Axel, tens of cannon balls and fireballs come hurtling at him. Many of the few psykers that reside within the blood gods domain unleash a flurry of psychic attacks as well.
The cannon balls are shot out of the arrow with ease by normal steel arrows while the magical projectiles are struck by spectral arrows as Axel's whole body begins to shift about as if multiple afterimages are firing arrows while the main body itself shoots the giant explosive arrows to wipe out chunks of enemies. Sometimes the explosive arrows have new elements mixed in to create a variety in the ways that these demons die. There is light which acts like the metal to simply give an unseen death as some of them just fall over from the miniscule beams of light shredding them. Another is the gift of the beast goddess (Gorgon) and the demons turn to petrified stone and then shatter from the light beams.
(Alt POV)
Ever so quietly, step by step, shift by shift, 'I will get it, I will never have to hide ever again', these are the thoughts of a corrupted demon who unlike all others who rush towards Axel and to their doom, had taken a passive stance and had been sticking to others, letting them pull this corrupted servitor along. When one demon who it connected to died, it would connect to another nearby, it and it's surroundings had luckily not been a victim of the explosive shots, otherwise it could only cry oil and blood from the lost opportunity.
20m. 15m. 10m. Ever so close,maintain the camo at the right moments to ensure that nobody could see it or the ones that do fall victim to arrows, perhaps it might even trip a demon or two. The servitor understands that it's actions are cowardly before the lord of skulls but it's purpose is set in stone to rise to grander heights, such that even a typical daemon engine like the two fiends that fought before become no more than simple toys to it's tendrils.
8m, 5m, 'So beautiful, so glorious, so powerful.' the corrupted mechanicus repair skulls beady eyes gaze unflinchingly at the orb of energy that the challenger had expelled from himself.
Yet it's movement falters as the challengers arrows slow down, a swirl of black energy akin to a tornado in the midst of a storm is compressed in his hand. He slams the tornado into the ground and from there, a burst of black mist spreads out, the servitor quickly notices that it's energy reserves are quickly sinking whilst also noticing something that brings horror to the floating skull.
'The orb is growing bigger' As the pulse of black energy returns to Axel, he waves his hand and the orb nearly doubles in size, but most that head reached within 10m had been drained of power, forcing them to their knees but they rise once more under their persistence. The skull itself is forced to lie on the ground akin to a pathetic discarded trinket. It must regain some energy from the nearby heat so that it may continue its trek. It will simply attach itself to whoever gets closest, an inch a minute is better than simply sitting idle.
Upon reaching the 3m mark its senses seem to go haywire, it sometimes feels full of energy while other times it feels completely lethargic, unbelievable strength and impossible weakness. The servitor could only attribute all this to the orb and the swirling black mist around the challenger's feet. Luckily it had regained its camo energy reserves to continue its silent trek forward.
As it finally reaches the orb, it's eyes absorbed into the blue grander of the orb, it's own cutter extends yet a shocked expression crosses it's robotic skull body.
"This is…"Tink
A barrier around the orb that prevents the anticipated contact that would deliver onto it, endless glory. The skull had hoped to announce it's glorious victory but was met with this unholy shell that denies it's great desire. The sound of the claw coming in contact with the shell is unheard by any other except for one. The shell's owner quickly identifies that intruder and stomps his foot.
(3rd POV)
A wave of earth erupts from him as a spike stabs right through the servitor and kills it, many others instead are pushed far back to the 10m line as the archery restarts once more.
More and more pulses originate from Axel as the surrounding corpses are drained of all their energy and that is channeled into the orb. Soon enough it reaches 10 ft tall in height and 8 ft in width, akin to a larger blue Baymax.
Many demons have been felled and all that remains is a few mechanical creations like the Maulerfiend who have been expertly dodging Axels explosive shots while the regular arrows targeted those who got closer. The other half of the creatures is a few daemon princes and bloodthristers who are greatly injuried as they were too bulky to dodge the explosive shots.
Due to the orbs' size, the barrier around it is now visible to all as they realize that there is another step to reaching this insurmountable power. A minimum power is required to shatter the barrier and lay claim to the orb, a select few recognize the servitor that had nearly claimed this grand power and could only mock it for its fantasies as they too struggle to reach it. A benefit for the demons that does arise is that Axel has to move around more himself to properly defend the ever growing orb yet his own endurance is unimpacted.
While the strange odds are still technically in their favor, they cant help but have second thoughts of retreat but knowing that any attempt to do so will just end them up in the Skull lords personal dungeon where they shall rest for the rest of eternity or join the skull throne themselves.
Their fear only seems to mount along with the incrementally increasing gravity the closer they get. This means the closer they get, the more chances that Axel has to properly take them down as he circles the glowing orb.
The remaining constructs and demons do not last long before they too fall. The previously rambunctious arena now falls to silence as every demon that was watching is now a corpse either in the hallways as they crushed each other here or in the arena itself as they fell to the onslaught of arrows from Axel. One Versus 300,000 thousand, give or take as there are tens of thousands of different types of lesser demons who watched the match.
The sole survivor remains as the announcer itself who has fear in it's expression before a shift in Khornes hand and the hovering device of the announcer too falls into the arena and receives an arrow in the middle of it's head, slumping over as it's body becomes a twig due to it's siphoned strength into the orb.
Axel looks up at Khorne, the sole demon left in the building. Said demon god now rises from his seat as he spreads his arms out, "Magnificent, a true bloodthirsty fight for power and glory. Did you not enjoy this spectacle?" he does not say more, war, blood and battle are his only policies, he needs not worry about anything else. Yet what he faces is a creature unlike any other he has witnessed before, a proper anomaly that the four gods and emperor had originally agreed that shouldn't exist to not tip the scales in any which way. All five know about Axel yet instead of trying to kill him (except for Nurgle), they sought to bring him to their folds.
"I wasn't really pushed to my limits but I can probably say the same about you." Axel offers his brief response which does have a small bit of interest after the hard fought battle yet the attitude of leaving still remains.
Khorne frowns at the response but his 'morals' pull through as he upholds his word to allow Axel to leave. "I grant you passage out of my realm yet I ask that you depart with this orb here. It is the culmination of all my warriors, my army is now barren, it requires a jumpstart to reignite the passion of my demons."
"Sure…you can have it" Axel extends his hand to the orb and the barrier dissipates but before the orb could fly up to Khorne, Axel grabs it and condenses it into an arrow.
All that power, for just one arrow, now aimed at Khorne himself.
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Alt Title: Delicious Prize, Sneaky Servitor, How the Tables Turn
Word count: 2223
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.