"Please, bring the boy in," the aging healer stepped away from his door and let his two visitors pass.... a woman and a young boy who's leg was held in a splint. He couldn't have been more than ten years old.
The healer looked out at the sky and squinted at the setting sun. It would be dark soon. Not that that meant anything in this part of the valley. No one bothered anyone else. It'd been so long since he'd treated a sword or knife wound that he'd almost forgotten how.

"It's my son," said the woman. "He fell from a horse and broke his leg. I bound it as best I could and came here immediately."

"And 'tis good you did, Emma" said Sejwan. "Come." He helped the woman get the boy to a bed near the window. Sejwan began undoing the splint, and the boy moaned in pain.

"Oh, Paul," said the woman. "It'll be okay."

"Mamma... mamma, it hurts, mamma..."

"Shhh," said Sejwan. He waves his hands over the boy's leg and murmured a few words. "Shhh.... does that feel better?"

The boy nodded.

"You healed him?" said the woman.

"Oho, no. Not quite that easy. I merely deadened the pain for a few moments. I have to take a look at the injury before I can heal it."

Sejwan walked over to a small wheeled table in the corner. He pulled it over to the bed and began searching through the numerous items and instruments that rested upon it.

"Where'd I put that lens... hmmm...."

Emma sat down on the edge of the bed and ran her fingers though her boy's head. A colorful plant on the window sill caught her eye. It was a single stalk with a number of multicolored leaves and a tiny bud at the very top.

"Is that a medicinal plant?"

"Eh? What?" He turned around to see what she was talking about. "Oh! Oh, yes. It's a rais-flower Helps pull poison from the body. Very rare, that. Usually don't grow in this climate, but I had a druid enchant that one so it'll grow anywhere. OH!" the doctor took a large flat lens from the table. "Here it is. If you'll excuse me, Emma."

Emma got up and stood by the doctor as he fixed the lens over his eye. He squinted at the boy's leg... and saw the bones as clearly, as if the skin and muscle weren't even there.

"Not a complete break," said Sejwan "But it'll need some time to heal. I can speed that up if you like."

"Will you, Sejwan? Please... please help my boy."

"All right then. It's a simple spell..."

Sejwan removed the lens and placed it back on the table amid the other instruments. He held his hands over the boy's leg at the spot where he'd seen the break.

"This might tickle a little bit, Paul."

The boy nodded bravely.

Sejwan concentrated. He repeated the healing words he'd been taught years ago... words to accelerate the healing of bones.

"Qieugdex Haeosyj Wigrumi Itlequ... Haeosyj Wigrumi... Wigrumi Itlequ..."

He felt the power flow into him. It was both cool and warm at the same time. It flowed down his arms and collected in his hands. More and more power gathered, and then it cascaded downward from his palms like a fine rain. A healing rain. It penetrated the boy's skin and sank into his bones, where it excited the natural healing process.

Paul squirmed on the bed. The numb-spell kept the pain from his mind, but he could still feel some of the movement of his bones... feel the cool warmth that was healing him. It didn't feel bad; it was just... strange.

Sejwan continued to chant...

"...Haeosyj Wigrumi Itlequ..."

Suddenly, a wave of energy washed over the entire cabin. It disturbed nothing on the physical plane, but the disruption still left deadly chaos in its wake. Sejwan felt his healing spell warp and change even as he tried to control it. The energy surged through him like a hurricane... fifty... a hundred... no, a THOUSAND times more powerful than it had been a mere instant before. It blasted through his body and down into the boy.

Paul gasped as the now-chaotic healing force hit him. He felt his bones creaking... then vibrating... then they were MOVING! GROWING!

"MAMMA! MAMMA MAMMA something's WRONG! IT HURTS!"

"Sejwan, what's happening!"

"I... I don't know!" Sejwan tried to cancel the spell, but he couldn't! "I CAN'T STOP IT!"

"MAMMAAAA!"

A jagged spike erupted from the boy's thigh, splattering blood everywhere. It was bone. And it was still growing.

"AIIEIIIIAAA!!" Paul screamed

"PAUL!"

"I CAN'T STOP IT!" The healer tried to move away from the boy, but the surge of power had him rooted to the spot!

The ugly shard of randomly-growing bone was quickly joined by others. They burst from his flesh two and three at a time, sticking out in all directions. At first the effect was confined to his injured leg, but soon the spikes burst from his arms and chest! His skin and muscle were shredded as his bones came alive within him!

"HELLLLLP!!!" Sejwan screamed. The boy had long since passed out, and Emma was too hysterical to even draw a full breath.

But the plant changed that.

The colorful plant on the sill shuddered violently, and then burst out of its clay pot. The leaves ballooned, swelling to more than fifty times their normal size. New stalks lashed out from the base... waving in the air like tentacles. They grew as well... as thick as a man's arm and still growing!

The flower-bud on the top erupted into a pair of snapping jaws... right in front of Sejwan's face.

The healer opened his mouth-

CRUNCH!

But the entire upper half of his body was gone before he could make a sound.

Emma screamed, which only seemed to draw the attention of the plant. Two tentacles shot towards her. She turned to run, but both of them caught her around the waist and pulled her off of her feet. It dragged her across the floor. She squirmed and fought, but more and more tentacles came for her. Behind her, the plant's roots had reached Paul's shredded body and were tunneling into it as if it were soil.

Emma's flailings upset the doctor's table. Instruments flew everywhere. She reached for a knife and started slicing the pulpy tentacles that held her. In the corner of her eye, she saw the doctor's enchanted lens... it was glowing. Glowing brightly. Glowing VERY brightly. Some of the other instruments were doing the same thing... pulsing with light.

Emma sliced enough of the tentacles away to free herself. Leaving what remained of the doctor and her son behind, she ran for the door.

Just then, glowing lens shattered-

Emma didn't even feel the explosion. The fireball incinerated the doctor's cabin, leaving nothing behind but a deep, charred crater...

---

"Damn. I knew I shoulda bought that map in the last town."

The burly adventurer stood at the edge of a high cliff and looked down at the valley far below him. His broad back was to the forest and the thin winding trail that had brought him here. Before him was a sheer drop of more feet than he cared to count. His clothes were torn and dusty from days of travel. He had ripped the sleeves from his shirt on purpose... it accentuated his muscular arms. All of the other tears and rips were less intentional. His skin was pale despite having spent many days on the road. It contrasted sharply with the short, jet black hair that topped his head and framed his face in the form of a scraggly goatee. He had a sword on his hip and a large pack slung across one bare shoulder. The leather sack held what remained of his rations, some rope, blankets, and various other camping supplies. Everything but a map. The sun was just setting in the western sky, giving him just enough light to see that he was completely and utterly lost. Again.

"Damn," he repeated. He kicked a loose stone off of the edge, and watched it disappear from sight.

Actually, Kultra knew exactly where he was, and he knew the exact location of his destination. It was below him. The oddly-named town of Xemlt was a major shipping port along the River Tayne. He could see it sprawled out along the river, stretching out on either side of the waterway like the wings of a resting butterfly.

Xemlt. Home of sailing and rock-climbing. And hopefully a few good taverns. Unfortunately, Kultra had no idea how to get there. The trail he'd been following meandered through the woods like a maze, and Kultra had been relying on his non-existent sense of direction to get him to the town. He looked down and saw the foolishness of that decision. He didn't have the slightest idea how to get from the cliffs to the town without jumping. And since he didn't happen to have wings at the moment, jumping wasn't an option.

"Guess I'll follow this trail back to the last branch," he sighed. The branch was several hours ago. It would be dark by the time he reached it. Kultra lit a torch and turned back the way he had come.

Darkness quickly descended, and Kultra started searching for a place to camp. He found a clearing not to far off of the trail, but before he could even shrug the heavy pack off of his shoulders, trouble found him.

There was a rustling in the woods. Far away, but getting closer.

Suddenly a blast of fire lit up the sky to the west. Someone screamed. Someone else shouted. A second blast of flame shattered the darkness... this one was lower, and it set the tops of a few trees aflame.

The rustling in the woods grew closer... and became SEVERAL rustlings. All headed towards him.

"What he hell!?!" said Kultra. With a smooth, fluid motion, he pulled his longsword from its sheath. He turned in the direction of the approaching... whatever...

"AAAAAAA!"

A man burst into the clearing. He was bloody from numerous sword wounds, and the upper left portion of his body was blistered and blackened with fresh burns. His face was so charred and bloody that Kultra could barely recognize it as human. He wore an empty scabbard on his belt, and instead of a sword, he was clasping a large scroll in his right hand. He had an arrow sticking out of his right shoulder.

Adrenaline and fear were the only things keeping the man alive... and those ran out less than a second after he entered the clearing. He collapsed, and Kultra ran to his side even as the noises in the woods drew closer.

"...help... me..." he gasped.

"Who are you? What's out there?"

"Take it.... " the man thrust the scroll up at Kultra. The parchment had somehow escaped being burnt by whatever had scorched the man carrying it. "please... north... northeast of town... rose... rose grove...path...through the rocks...embrace... embrace the stone... tell them.... tell..."

"What?" said Kultra. He took the scroll, but had no idea what the man was babbling about.

"...beware.... beware.... invisible...." the man died with a sigh.

"Huh?"

Suddenly three men emerged from the woods. They had swords drawn, and even in the dim moonlight, Kultra could tell that one of the blades had fresh blood on it. They had no armor, but each wore black pants a loose-fitting green shirt... both devoid of ensignia. Each was also wearing some kind of mask or rag tied around his head, concealing his face.

Kultra backed away from the dead man and glared at the newcomers. They certainly didn't appear friendly.

"You want a piece of me?" said Kultra. His eyes shifted from one to the other... watching for signs of a charge. "Three against one," he said. "That's almost fair odds."

One of the men glanced at the scroll in Kultra's hands. Then all three of them backed away towards the trees.

"Ahh.... my reputation precedes me," said Kultra. "I'm sure your families will appreciate your decis-"

"TORCH THE CLEARING!" shouted a female voice from the woods.

"OH SHI-"

FWWOOOOM!!!!!

Kultra had already been in motion when the fireball hit... if he hadn't been, the fiery explosion would have turned him to ashes. He threw himself to one side and rolled into the woods. Searing heat washed over him, blistering the skin on his back. Sword still clasped firmly in his hand, Kultra stood and ran... trying to distance himself from whatever mage was throwing fire at him.

Suddenly he remembered the arrow in the dead man's shoulder. Kultra quickly changed direction-

THUCK!

An arrow hit a tree just as he dodged past it. Kultra swerved again, and felt something whiz past his ear.

He didn't bother looking behind him. That would only earn him an arrow through the eye. Kultra heard movement to either side.... movement and shouting.

The swordsmen.

He could handle them, and maybe avoid getting skewered by the archer, but the addition of a mage of unknown ability swung the odds decidedly against him. As much as he'd been itching for a good fight recently, running was his best option now... at least until he figured out what he was up against.

Kultra threw his torch into the trees so the light wouldn't lead his pursuers to him. A second later, the area where he'd tossed the torch erupted into flame as a fireball hit it. Kultra couldn't see where it came from.

Whoever that mage is, he sure does like fire.

Running in the dark, Kultra came across the trail totally by accident. He picked a direction and ran as fast as he could, zigzagging at random to spoil the archer's aim. A green-shirted swordsman burst from the woods just behind him. He swung his sword, but Kultra was just out of reach. For a moment he thought about turning and fighting. Killing one of the swordsmen would even things up quite a bit... it would enable Kultra to use his own magic to deal with whoever was left. But he didn't know if it was five people or an entire army behind him. He couldn't risk it.

...thwip!

An arrow sailed past Kultra's arm, nicking his bare shoulder.

Kultra leapt back into the trees.

"THERE!" shouted the female voice. Kultra rolled to his feet and started running. He'd taken two steps when-

FWOOOOM!!!

Yet another fireball exploded just a few feet behind him. The rush of air and flames blew Kultra off of his feet and carried him forward several yards. The pack on his back shielded him from some of the fire's wrath, but now that pack... as well as Kultra's hair and pants... was on fire. His sword fell from his fingers as he hit the ground. He rolled several times to extinguish his burning garments. His blistered skin screamed in protest as the rough ground scraped against it. On his feet once more, Kultra ran through the trees. Branches slapped him. Every few steps an arrow whizzed past him. He could still hear swordsmen pursuing... and getting closer.

Kultra thought about the cliff merely in a silent hope that he wasn't running towards it.

Which happened to be exactly what he was doing.

He burst from the trees and barely skidded to a halt inches from the edge.

"Uh-oh!"

A swordsman erupted from the trees and swung his blade at Kultra's neck. Two more arrived as Kultra was dodging the first man's strike.

"Oh, well..." said Kultra. "Guess I'll be getting to town sooner than I thought."

As the swordsman slashed again, Kultra swiveled, caught the man's arm, turned and twisted the arm back behind the man. Then, shoving the swordsman before him, he ran... right over the cliff.

"AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" the swordsman screamed into the oncoming wind.

"Oh shut up!"

Kultra quickly snapped the man's neck, killing him.

As the man's soul left his body, the binding energy... the force that held body and soul together... flowed into Kultra. It flowed like ice-water in his veins. It soaked into his body... his muscles... his cells... energizing them. Rejuvenating them. And making them malleable.

As the ground rushed up towards him, Kultra formed a single image in his mind. His body responded instantly. His eyes darkened and enlarged, causing the landscape around him became as clear as day despite the darkness. The muscles on his back rippled and bulged. New tissue formed.... bone and cartilage. Tendon and skin.

Within a second of the swordsman's death, the transformation it caused was complete.

A pair of black, leathery wings sprouted from Kultra's back. Kultra kept the wings folded for several seconds, letting his fall carry him further away from the cliff. The ground got closer... and closer... He could make out every detail of the sharp rocks below him. Then, at the last minute, he spread his wings. They caught the rushing air, and Kultra took flight. He swooped across the rocky landscape like a hawk. The very tips of his toes touched the water as he soared over it. He arced upward to gain some altitude, and turned toward town. It was only a few minutes away; he'd reach it long before his wings got tired.

He felt the wind rustling something in his hand. The scroll. He'd managed to hold onto it through the chase, and despite the fireball that singed him, it was still unscathed. He stuffed the scroll into his pants and glanced up at the far, dark cliffs. Ordinarily he would have been unable to see a thing, but his new, supernaturally sharp eyes picked out three shapes standing on the edge... looking down... searching for him.

"I don't know what this was about," said Kultra as he cruised toward town. "But I think somebody just started a fight I'm gonna have to finish..."

---

---

Kultra strolled into crowded old tavern and waited in the doorway for his eyes to adjust to the light. He folded his wings close around his body, and to the casual observer, it looked as if he were wearing a large black, leather cloak. Of course, he got more than a few casual glances from the patrons. There were lots of them. The tavern was nearly full, and everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and watch him as he made his way to the only empty table. It was against the wall, well out of everyone's way.
"What'daya have?" said the overly-plump barmaid. Kultra pulled two coins from his money pouch. Fortunately his pouch hadn't been in his backpack, which was probably still smoldering in the woods far, far above them. A few gold coins, a dagger, and the half-burnt clothes on his body were the only belongings he had left. He tossed a single gold coin on the table.

"As much of your cheapest ale as that will buy," he said. "Bring it all at once... no need for you to be walking back and forth to the bar every two minutes."

"That ain't much," replied the barmaid as she picked up the coin.

"It'll do for now."

The waitress eyed Kultra's 'cloak,' and when she realized that they were actually wings, she gulped and shuffled away quickly. She vanished into the kitchen, and a second later a well-dressed man walked out into the tavern. At first Kultra thought the owner was coming to throw him out, but instead, the man walked to the opposite side of the room. There was a small raised stage there, and he stepped up onto it to address the crowd.

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." said the man in a loud, pompous voice.

"eh?" Kultra looked around. There weren't any ladies in the tavern besides the barmaids, and the only 'gentleman' he could see was the man on the stage. "Where does he think HE is?"

"...tonight, it is my pleasure to welcome our very own local talent.... Sanya!"

"Ahhh... a show." Kultra leaned back in his chair as the man left the stage. Some of the barmaids dimmed the lamps, reducing the light in the tavern by at least half. A single lute-player took a chair beside the stage and got ready to play.

And then SHE came in.

She must have entered through a back door, because she appeared next to the bar as if by magic. Her dress was tight and smooth... hugging her many, many curves as if it had been brushed onto her body by an artist. The cut was low and the split was high, and she fit it so perfectly that half the mouths in the tavern hung open with awe. She walked sloooooowly to the stage amid a hail of whistles and cat-calls. Her hips... perfectly shaped and sized... rocked back and forth with each step of her long, luscious legs. A few unruly men reached for her as she slid past their table, but like a woman of true class, she ooozed out of range at the last second, and walked onward as if it had never happened.

She stepped onto the stage like a goddess approaching her throne... reaching out with one long leg... pausing to show it off... and then stepping up with the other. She stood in the center and faced the crowd. Long golden hair fell around her face like a halo.

The place fell so silent that Kultra swore he could hear his hair growing.

No one, not even Kultra, took so much as a single breath from the minute she took to the stage.

Then the musician started strumming his lute... a slow, soulful melody.

The woman... Sanya... opened her lips and sang. It was a song Kultra had heard before, but he had never heard it sung so well... or seen it sung by someone so beautiful. The words radiated from her lips like sunshine. Kultra couldn't help but stare and listen with rapt attention.

"Here ya go," said the barmaid as she brought his drinks. Kultra was so enraptured that he didn't even notice that there were significantly fewer drinks than he had hoped.

"That woman," he said. "Who is she?"

"Sanya," replied the barmaid. "She's started singing here a few nights a week. Good thing, too... business is booming since she started entertaining."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Kultra downed a tankard of cheap, watery ale. He forgot the taste as soon as it was past his tongue... his mind and senses were already occupied by the beauty on the stage. He could have been drinking fine Champaign or warm dishwater and he wouldn't have noticed either way.

Sanya finished her song and sang two more. At the end of the last one, she smiled and waved at the crowd. Everyone in the place leapt to their feet and cheered. Kultra stood and started to make his way to the stage. He had to meet this woman.

"Hello there, stranger..." someone's hand clamped down on Kultra's shoulder. Kultra turned, and found himself looking at a tall, older man. He was wearing a sword on his hip, and stood like a fighter... loose but ready.

"Who are you?" said Kultra. He glanced at the stage. The woman was still there, chatting and graciously accepting tips from some of the patrons.

"Calloway," said the man. "I run the town guard around here. Noticed a new face, thought I'd welcome you to our town."

"Uh-huh," replied Kultra. "In other words, don't cause trouble. I get it."

"No, no... you misunderstand-"

"Riiiiight. I've been through enough towns to know the routine. With a town this size, scarin' strangers must be a full-time job, huh Calloway? Well don't worry. As long as nobody bothers me, I won't bother them," Kultra decided not to mention the 'trouble' he'd encountered on his way into town. At least not until he found out more of what was going on. That would have to wait until tomorrow, however. Kultra had other intentions for tonight. "If you'll excuse me..."

Kultra turned back to the stage, but it was now empty. Sanya was gone.

"Damn," mumbled Kultra.

"Gotta be quick to catch Sanya," said Calloway. "She's a fast one."

"You still here?"

"Just thought I'd let you know that there's an inn nearby. Down the street to the left. Cheap, but clean. Might want to give it a try if you're spending the night. Are you spending the night?"

"Who's askin?"

"Just trying to be friendly. Oh, and we've got lots of shops around. Most of 'em open at dawn. Might be able to find yourself some new clothes pretty cheap."

"eh?"

"Yours appear to be burnt."

"What? Oh. Oh, yeah. Got careless with the campfire."

"Didn't seem to burn your cloak, though. That's a very interesting cloak, by the way."

"Uh-huh." Kultra didn't trust Calloway. He asked too many questions. He figured it was best to get back to his drinks before Calloway made him hurt somebody... like Calloway. "I'd better get back to my beer before someone walks off with it."

"See ya around, stranger." said Calloway as Kultra walked back to his table.

"Yeah," grunted Kultra. He downed his drinks and watched Calloway leave the tavern. The place emptied out quickly after Sanya's number, and within a few minutes, Kultra was one of the few people left. He finished his ale and debated whether or not to order more. He decided against it. His gold was limited, and he wanted to sleep indoors in a comfortable bed instead of in a cold alley somewhere.

He left the tavern and wandered around until he found the inn that Calloway mentioned. The innkeeper was an old woman. Kultra thought it was unusual for her to be up so late, but he wasn't complaining. He paid for a room, and she gave him a tiny key.

"Upstairs, on the right," she said.

"eh?" Kultra looked down at the key. It was barely larger than his fingernail. "What kinda cheap locks you have that has a key this small?"

"Don't you know anything?" spat the old woman. "Locks are enchanted. Good magic, too. Got the guildmaster to do it himself."

"Guildmaster?"

"Yeah, Louis. Used to run the mages guild, back before his accident. That new fella they got over there don't know squat, if ya ask me."

"Hmmm..." Kultra thought back to his encounter in the woods. It was definitely a mage throwing fireballs at him.... but was there some connection to this town? Meanwhile, the old lady kept talking.

"That's why you're hear right? To study at the guild?" The woman eyed Kultra's wings and large, dark eyes with interest. "You're a mage, right? Come here ta study?"

"No," said Kultra. "Just passin through."

"Well.... g'night." The woman shuffled away.

Kultra walked up the stairs and found his room. The lock was a huge iron monstrosity, but all he had to do was touch it with the tiny key and it opened with a loud.

*CLUNK!*

He walked in and looked around. The furnishings were sparse. A bed. A table. One window. A chamberpot. And one strange lamp. The lamp was shaped like a common oil lamp, but it had no oil That didn't stop it from emitting enough light to fill the room, however. There was a ball of magical light just under the shade. When Kultra turned the tiny adjustment knob, the globe grew dim. Kultra turned it all the way down and it went out altogether.... he wouldn't need light thanks to his sensitive eyes. Even in the dark, everything looked as if it were daylight. True to Calloway's word, everything was spotless. Kultra closed and locked the door, and gave the latch a good, solid pull to test its sturdiness. It seemed more than strong enough to keep someone from forcing it open, and the door itself was of hard, thick oak. It didn't fit properly into the frame, though. It had a one inch gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

"Hell, it's not like anybody's getting' in through there."

Kultra undressed, and as he did, the scroll he'd received from the man in the woods fell out of his pants.

"Huh? Hmmm..."

Kultra picked it up and looked at it. The parchment was coated with some waxy substance, and somehow it felt thicker than it looked. It had survived being burned by the same fire that torched his clothes without so much as a scorch mark. Magic was obviously involved. Unfortunately, Kultra had no idea what was written on it. When he opened it, all he found was a jumble of unreadable symbols.

"Must be some kinda code." Kultra tossed the scroll over in a corner, and had forgotten about it before it even hit the floor. He lay down, pulled the sheets over him, and was fast asleep in just a few seconds.

Several hours later, all the beer Kultra had consumed finally caught up with him. His bladder was painfully full, and the urge to relieve himself grew stronger than his desire to remain asleep. He got up, did his business in the chamberpot, and had just got back into bed when he noticed a movement by the door. Actually, it was on the other side of the door... a shadow barely visible through the large gap at the bottom.

It looked like someone was standing outside... listening.

Kultra kept his eyes focused on the door while he reached for the dagger he'd stuffed under his pillow.

Whoever it was, they didn't move for a long time. Kultra was about to attribute the whole thing to a hallucination when the shadow vanished, then reappeared. It was different now... wider... covering almost the entire gap.

Like someone laying down to look under the door.

Kultra tightened his grip on the knife.


A hand appeared. Thanks to his light-sensitive eyes, Kultra could see it clearly. It was most definitely a hand... four male fingers thrusting under the door and reaching into the room.

What the hell? thought Kultra. What do they think they're doing?

The fingers wiggled and came further into the room. Kultra considered sneaking over to the door and pinning the intruding hand to the floor with his blade. He was on the verge of doing that very thing when he noticed something...

...the hand was still coming.

Now, an entire ARM was under the door! And it was quickly followed by what looked like a shoulder! The flesh stretched and contorted to fit through the one-inch opening. Whoever or whatever it was must have had no bones at all!

A second hand appeared not too far from the first, and soon it, and the arm that followed, were stretching across the floor like a snake. A hairy bulge oozed under the door... the beginnings of a human head!

This definitely looks like trouble, thought Kultra.

Knowing that this strange intruder could only be a thief or an assassin, Kultra sat up in the bed and prepared to pounce. His movements must have alerted the intruder. The flexible head thrust into the room and looked up at him... the neck still squeezing under the one-inch gap under the door.

Two normal-looking eyes glared at Kultra for an instant. Then, knowing that his element of surprise was spoiled, the intruder burst into the room, streaming through the door gap like... like nothing Kultra had ever seen before.

Kultra leapt and made a powerful downward stab with his dagger. He was trying to catch the man in the back, but he was too slow. The incredibly flexible intruder shot past him, and a long, spindly arm reached back and wrapped around Kultra's neck like a flesh-colored snake!

"WHA-!"

Kultra slashed with his dagger. The arm angled up and over the blade, and then looped around Kultra's arm like a rope. The arm drew tight, and suddenly Kultra couldn't breath or move his right arm. Kultra tossed the dagger into the air and caught it with his free hand. He tried again to cut himself a chunk of the intruder, but now the man's OTHER arm came for him.

Before he could blink twice, the arm had looped around his left wrist twice, and around his left ankle five or six times. The man's hand closed over Kultra's and started trying to pull his fingers away from the knife. Kultra's grip held firm. Then the intruders fingers started oozing between his own. As hard as he squeezed, he couldn't stop the man's gooey flesh from slipping in and prying his grip loose!

"...A-ACK!" Kultra struggled for breath. He twisted hard to the left, trying to throw his attacker off balance. It didn't work... the ropey arms just gave him more slack while still keeping a firm grip on his own appendages.

"UNGGGH!" Kultra felt the blade slipping from his hand... and he felt his consciousness slipping away entirely from lack of air. Suddenly, Kultra unfurled his black, leathery wings. Flying was out of the question in such a small place, but that wasn't what Kultra had in mind. The intruder was just within range... Kultra brought both wings around and smacked him as hard as he could!

At the same time, Kultra pulled hard with his left hand, hoping the surprise attack would loosen the attacker's grip. It worked! Kultra untangled his arm even as the man yanked Kultra's left leg from under him. He fell with a hard thud, and he felt the delicate bones in one of his wings snap. Ignoring it, Kultra slashed hard at his own throat. The sharp blade sliced a deep, long gouge along the man's arm.

"ARRRRGH!!!"


The limbs loosened further... and with a twist and a roll, Kultra was free!

Kultra rolled and kicked, bringing the heel of his foot to the man's head.

THUMP!

It was like kicking a loosely-packed sandbag, but the intruder felt the blow! The man reeled for a second, allowing Kultra to get to his feet. Kultra let loose with a series of kicks to the man's malleable body and head. The intruder stumbled backwards, but it was obvious that Kultra wasn't doing any serious damage. After all... the man had no bones to break!

The man ducked under one kick, spun, and made an amateurish punch. Kultra thrust his arm out instinctively to block it, and then counterstruck with his dagger. He realized his mistake even before the edge of his blocking hand contacted the man's rubbery flesh. The man's arm again looped around his forearm and drew tight. The dagger missed its mark entirely as the man's torso elongated and stretched out of the way at the last instant.

Caught by the wrist once more, Kultra pulled back hard, then rushed forward and plowed into the man. His momentum carried them into the wall, but by the time they hit, the intruder had stretched most of his body out from in front of Kultra..

"Ungh..." Kultra grunted as his forehead hit the wall. He saw nothing but stars for a moment, but he spun and slashed blindly anyway. The blade sliced through something.

"AHHG!"

Kultra's vision cleared... just in time to see a bloody fist hurtling toward his face.

THUD!

Kultra took the hit in stride. He transferred the knife to his free hand and stabbed... and missed. The man was stretching again... his body growing long an thin as it wrapped completely around him four... five... six times! Kultra managed to keep one arm from being pinned to his side, but that arm was quickly assaulted by both of the intruder's ropey appendages. Kultra slashed with the knife. Suddenly, the man's body grew tight around him.

"HHH!HH!!!!!!"

All the air rushed out of Kultra's lungs as the man squeezed him tight. Kultra kept trying to hit something with his blade, but it was like wrestling a coil of rope... the more he moved, the more his only free arm became entangled.

And... once again... he couldn't breath.

The man constricted again. Hard!

"NNNNNN!!!!"

Kultra hit the floor. The intruders head... suspended by a rubbery, finger-thin neck, appeared upside-down over Kultra's face. The man was ugly, and his breath reeked.

"Where is the scroll," he hissed.

"NNNN!!!"

He loosened his grip just a tiny bit. Kultra gasped for air.

"Where is the scroll!"

Kultra told the man to go fornicate with himself. Which, given his abilities, he was probably able to do quite well... if he was into that sort of thing.

"NNNN!!!" Kultra grunted as the man squeezed him once more.

"I can crack every bone in your body," said the man. "I can do it fast or slow. The choice is yours."

The grip loosened once more.

"The scroll. Where is it?"

Kultra repeated his earlier instructions about self-fornication. But this time, he rolled violently to the right. He ended up getting more and more tangled, but the squirming of the man's head as he rolled over on top of it brought a smile to Kultra's face.

It vanished however, when he felt the fingers oozing into his grip once again. This time, the man managed to dislodge Kultra's only weapon and toss it away.

"Now," said the man... after he'd pulled his head out from under Kultra. "You were about to tell me where that scro.... hmmmm..."

The man looked into a far corner of the room, where Kultra had thrown the scroll earlier.

"AHA!"

A single long, thin arm snaked across the floor towards the scroll. It left Kultra's arm a little less entangled.

"NNNNGGGGGRRRRRRAAAA!!!!" Kultra put all of his strength into one last effort. He flexed his muscles... even those in his wings. The man squeezed back, easily containing him. "NRRRRRRRRR!!!"

Kultra rolled again, carrying the man a bit further away from the scroll. It didn't make any difference, other than to momentarily free his arm and to bring Kultra face to face with the...

... chamberpot.

"C'MERE!"

Kultra grabbed the man's head-

SPLOOSH!

And stuffed it face-first into the full chamberpot.

Kultra's fist forced man's malleable head right the opening. Kultra braced himself as the intruder's body tightened around his.

"UNNNGH!"

But he kept his grip, and even forced the intruder's head and flexible neck even further into the pot.

SPLASH!!

It was now entirely submerged, and Kultra refused to let up even as his own bones groaned in protest. The pot's contents bubbled and splashed as the man struggled against Kultra's grip.

"RRRRRGHH!"

Neither man could breath, and they both struggled for life. A pair of hands appeared at Kultra's head and started clawing blindly at his face.

"RRRRRR!!!"

Kultra's face turned red. His ribs hurt. He ignored the man's increasingly desperate attempts to claw his face off. He had other things to worry about... He was suffocating even as he drowned the intruder. It was just a matter of who's body would give out first... who's lungs could hold the most air...

"RRRGRGRGRG!!" Kultra's muscles trembled.

Suddenly the man... who's body was wrapped around Kultra's like a giant boa constrictor... gave a single violent, crushing convulsion.

"NNNGH!!!"

Kultra felt something... several things... snap and pop in his body. But then the pressure vanished as the man went limp.

Kultra gasped, forcing air into his lungs despite the pain of his cracked ribs. He kept the stranger's head submerged, and was finally rewarded with a jolt of energy as the man expired. Kultra absorbed it, and used it to not only repair his broken bones and bruised muscles, but to change his body entirely. His skin turned a light shade of gray, becoming thick and tough like leather. The wings sank into his back and vanished. All over his body, muscles bulged and grew to two or even three times their previous size. Bones thickened to support the added weight, and lengthened to give Kultra more height. At the end, Kultra was a hulking 7' tall gray-skinned human with broad shoulders and arms like tree-trunks.

"Thanks for the recharge."

He quickly retrieved his belongings... including the scroll. He was naked, and his clothes wouldn't fit him any more, so he fashioned a crude robe from the bed-sheet. Before he left, he looked down at the intruder. He lay strewn across the floor like a coil of rope caught in a whirlwind. His head was still stuffed completely into the chamberpot.

"Guess he got pissed off," mumbled Kultra. "What a way to go."

He turned toward the door. Chances were, the intruder didn't come here alone. He probably had backup, and they were probably waiting in the hallway right outside that door.

Good.

"Time for Kultra to do what Kultra does best..."

WHAM!!

Kultra reduced the door to splinters with one kick.

He barged out into the hall and ducked as one swordsman tried to take his head off. Kultra buried his dagger in the man's throat even as the sword sank into the wall.

There were two more men in the hallway, and another just coming up the stairs. All were dressed like the swordsmen who'd chased him in the wood earlier... black pants, green shirts, and rags over their faces.

Kultra grabbed the dead man's sword and charged the two men. They rushed to meet him, thinking that since they outnumbered him, he'd be easy prey. Not so. With but one sword, Kultra blocked, parried, blocked again, and send one man stumbling backwards with a well-placed kick to the lower chest. Kultra spun and slashed the third man open from left shoulder to right kidney.

Now the first man charged, along with the man on the stairs. Kultra grabbed another sword and waded into their rain of strikes. Hard metal rang out as sword met sword, and the hallway sang with the sounds of combat.

"Two against one," said Kultra with a smile that grew wider with each swordstrike. "That's insanely unfair... to you!"

"BAH!" spat one of the men. Kultra thought the man may have been having trouble breathing, so he gave him a new mouth... opening a long slash in his throat with the tip of his sword. "ACK!" The man fell, leaving the final swordsman to fight alone.

"You and me," said Kultra. "Soon to be just me."

"DIE!" The man charged. It was a skillful, though foolish move. Kultra stepped to one side and blocked the three quick blow that followed. He parried, and the men danced apart for the merest second before closing on each other once more.

CLANK!

CLANK!

Kultra spun and slashed, expecting his opponent to block. The man complied, but Kultra's bulging muscles won out. The man's sword tumbled to the floor... the wrist that was holding it was now broken. Kultra grabbed the man's arm and brought his fist to the elbow in a hammer-fist strike. The elbow shattered like a cheap goblet.

"AAAAA!!!"

A twist and spin pinned the ruined arm to the man's back. Kultra shoved the man face-first into the sturdy wall... breaking the man's nose.

KRUNCH!

"Now, what the hell is this all about!" hissed Kultra.

"NEVER!"

Kultra yanked upwards on the broken arm.

"AARRRRRRGH!"

"You heard the question the first time, so I won't repeat it."

"Go to Hell!"

"Maybe one day-"

KRUNCH!

"But you'll be there long before me. What's so special about that scroll, eh?"

"You'll never know!"

KRUNCH!

"AAAA!" the man started screaming. Kultra thrust his huge arm across the man's throat and cut off his air supply.

"Okay, maybe you can tell me this," Kultra thought back to the man who'd given him the scroll. "Where the hell is the Rose Grove?"

Kultra loosened his grip just enough to allow the man to talk.

"You'll learn NOTHING from m-"

"Oh forget it!"

KRAK!

Kultra snapped the man's neck, and the last swordsman died. Again, Kultra absorbed the binding energy and used it to transform himself. While no one knew what this new body looked like, it was too large and bulky to move unnoticed. His bones and muscles shrank down to those of a normal man, though still larger than his regular form. His black hair became light brown, and his thick gray skin became that of a normal human.

At least he could fit into his own pants now.

Kultra searched the bodies, but found nothing of interest besides a few gold coins. He took a belt from one man and two scabbards from the last two he killed. Sheathing both his new swords, he checked to make sure he still had the scroll, and then headed downstairs.

"Hell... I'll get more sleep in an alley somewhere."

He checked the window, and saw a shadowy figure across the street. Or rather, the figure WOULD have been shadow if Kultra hadn't decided to keep his night-vision eyes from two bodies ago. Instead, Kultra clearly recognized the figure as Calloway, who appeared to be waiting impatiently for something. Or someone.

There didn't appear to be anyone else on the street.

"Hmmmm... guess I know who those guys worked for."

Kultra watched Calloway for perhaps a minute, then he stepped away from the window and made his way to the rear of the in. He found an unlocked store room, which had another door leading to the outside. He moved the few boxes that blocked the way, and then stepped out into the night air.

Kultra crept down one block, then over two, then back up one. He cut through an alley, and found himself approaching Calloway from behind.

The man was fidgeting nervously, but didn't appear worried about standing out in the street at night. Perhaps he was the leader of the town guard after all.

Not that that would save him.

Calloway must have heard Kultra coming, because he turned to see what was behind him. What he saw was the bottom of Kultra's foot-

KRACK!

He stumbled backwards and reached for his sword. Kultra already had his drawn. He opened a deep cut on Calloway's arm, cutting the muscle to the bone.

"ARRRRR-MMPH!"

Kultra grabbed Calloway, put his hand over his mouth, and yanked him back into the alley. Calloway tried to fight, but after Kultra rammed the back of the man's head into the building five or six times, all attempts at struggle ceased.

"Now. I'm gonna ask some questions, and you're gonna tell me some answers. Everything you say that isn't an answer to one of my questions... well... it's gonna hurt. A lot. Got it?"

Calloway nodded, and Kultra removed his hand. He still held Calloway by the throat, and had his sword ready.

"You with those guys that came for me?"

"Y-yes."

THUNK!

Kultra bashed the man's head against the wall once.

"Hey! I answered your question!"

"Sorry. That was just reflex... didn't expect you to answer me. Now what's this business with the scroll. What's it to you?"

"To me? Nothing."

THUNK!

THUNK!

"It's true!"

THUNK!

Calloway was bleeding profusely from the back of his head now.

"STOPPIT!"

THUNK!

"Please! I swear! I was just following orders!"

"From who?"

Calloway hesitated.

THUNK!

"Reyd! This was HIS job! He just wanted me to come along for lookout in case somebody yelled for the guard! I swear!"

"Reyd? Who the hell is that?"

"The man... the man inside..."

"Stretcho?"

"Y-yes."

"And who did HE work for?"

"D-did?"

THUNK!

"He stuck his head where it didn't belong. Or rather, I stuck it where it didn't belong. Now answer the question."

Calloway gulped and shivered.

THUNK!

"You heard me. Where did he get his orders!"

Calloway's lips quivered, but no answer passed through them.

Kultra placed the tip of his sword at the base of Calloway's throat.

"Answer the-"

Calloway lunged forward, impaling himself on Kultra's blade.

Kultra gaped.

Calloway fell to the ground... dead. He'd used Kultra's blade to commit suicide rather than answer Kultra's question.

"I'll be damned," said Kultra. He wiped the blood from his sword, sheathed it silently, and walked out of the alley as if nothing had happened.
---

Kultra found another deserted alley in which he could spend what remained of the night. He dozed lightly and awoke before dawn. As much as he wanted to stay and buy himself some new clothes... and some more beer... he knew that he had to get to the bottom of whatever he'd gotten himself involved in. Calloway and the stretching man from the inn were just pawns in something larger, and despite Kultra's change of appearance, he knew that someone else would be coming for him eventually. Of course, he could just hand the scroll over to the next person that asked, but somehow that didn't seem like a good idea.

But then, following the mysterious stranger's instructions concerning a path through the rocks seemed only marginally better.

Nevertheless, that's what Kultra found himself doing. By sunrise he was leaving the down behind him, heading northeast. There was a well-traveled road in that direction that appeared to go absolutely nowhere. The only thing ahead of him was a collection of increasingly larger hills... each one steeper and rockier than the one before it. The road wound through them like a drunken serpent... zigzagging and making sharp angles that seemed to defy reason.

He followed it for several hours before he came to the first indication that there was something there other than the path itself.

It was a crude wooden sign on the side of the road. It read "Rose Grove" and had a crude arrow pointing upwards and away from the road. There was nothing in that direction but huge rocks. He didn't know where the rest of the road went, but this was as far as he needed to go.

Kultra walked over to the rocks and looked up. It was a sheer climb, but there did appear to be a flat area not too far up... a ledge or plateau of some kind. He'd have to climb to get to it, though.

"Damn. If I'd have known I was going to be rock climbing I would have bought some boots. Or I would've kept the damned wings."

Indeed, Kultra's boots were made for walking on flat ground... and for fighting. Not for climbing rocks. Still, he managed. There were a surprising number of hand and foot holds... more than there should have been. He inspected a few, and the majority of them looked like they'd been carved with tools quite some time ago.

Kultra hauled himself up, and before long he reached the ledge.

"...gods..."

The 'ledge' was a large flat area covering two or three acres. It was dotted with huge boulders. Some were tall, like miniature mountains. Some lay flat like slumbering giants. And everywhere Kultra looked, there were roses. They grew out of the rocky soil... and some out of the sheer rock itself. The scent was enchanting, but the sight was breathtaking.

"Rose Grove," Kultra said. "Now what?"

Kultra wandered through the forest of rocks and roses, occasionally shoving on a boulder or pulling on what looked like a loose rock. He discovered nothing out of the ordinary.

Having searched the place thoroughly, he searched it again with the same results: nothing.

"Hell. Now what did that guy say I was supposed to do?" Kultra tried to remember. "Hmmm... path... rose grove... something about the stones."

Kultra looked around. He'd already put his hands on every rock in the place at least once, with no signs of any secret passages.

"What did he say? Embrace. Embrace the stone."

Though the words were just a light whisper, they were still loud enough to serve their purpose. There was a loud grinding noise, followed by a series of cracks. One of the rocks, a small boulder about twice the size of a man, suddenly stood up.

It was a stone golem. A HUGE stone golem, twelve feet tall at the very least. It had been sitting perfectly still near the edge of the grove, and in that position it looked like any other boulder. But now that it was awake, the thing was quite clearly something that did not belong. The golem turned toward Kultra and took a few lumbering steps towards him.

"Hmmmm..."

Kultra drew his sword and backed away.

"I hope I ain't expected to fight that thing.... because THAT just ain't gonna happen."

The golem took a few more steps, and then stopped. It raised its arms out to either side and stood there like a huge, stone scarecrow.

It didn't move.

Neither did Kultra.

For about five minutes, the two stared at each other. Kultra's dark eyes glaring into the twin shallow notches on the golem's face.

"Okaaaaayy..." said Kultra. He took a step back, and then something occurred to him.

He inched toward the golem. It didn't respond. He got a little closer... then a little closer.

Nothing.

Finally, he walked up to the thing and stood directly in front of it. His sword was still drawn, although he didn't know what it would do against the golem's solid stone hide.

Fighting didn't seem to be part of the plan, however.

Kultra reached out and placed the palm of his hand on the golem's stomach.

Nothing.

Finally, he sheathed his sword, stepped forward and grabbed the golem in a big bear hug... or as much of a hug as he could given the thing's size.

He embraced the stone.

The golem quickly closed its arms around him. Kultra pulled away, but the thing caught him in its arms and embraced him. Cursing himself for being so stupid, Kultra prepared for the bone-crunching squeeze that would end his life.

Instead, everything around him simply vanished.

The rocks, the roses, even the golem that had grabbed him all disappeared. So did the sky over his head and the ground under his feet. For the briefest instant, Kultra was nowhere.

And then he was somewhere else.

To say the place was huge would be an understatement. Kultra stood in an enormous cave... the largest he'd ever been in his life. The walls were dull metallic gray, and they stretched almost as far as he could see in every direction. Far above him, a huge ball of white light lit the entire area like a giant sun.

Kultra wasn't alone in the cave, either. The place was full of people, all of which appeared to be human. Their clothing ranged from mere tattered rags to royal garb.

There were clusters of activity everywhere. Some people were engaged in heated discussions around large tables, others sat classroom style in rows of chairs while a single person lectured to them. Still others were engaged in physical conditioning and weapons-training. There were groups of desks where people sat and worked, and benches where others could relax and think.

And then there were the dozen or so humans who were standing around him... glaring at him. A few of them carried weapons... which they had drawn and ready... but most were either casting spells or were already pointing at him with glowing, flaming, or otherwise magically-enhanced fingers. One man had a tiny globe of perfect inky darkness poised at the tip of his finger. Another had a magic wand of unknown effect pointed at Kultra's face. Kultra could hear the wand humming from several yards away. Yet another mage... a tall slender, woman with a nasty scowl on her face... held what looked like a miniature thunderstorm in the palm of her hand. Still another mage was staring at Kultra with glowing, purple eyes.

"Uhhh..." Kultra started. His fingers twitched near his sword... or rather, they would have twitched had Kultra been able to move. Kultra realized that, even though he was still standing up, he was paralyzed from the neck down. He couldn't move a single muscle, no matter how hard he tried. If these men intended to fight, then it would be a very short battle. "Ummmm.... okay... who's first?"

"Identify yourself," said the storm-wielder. Her eyes flashed in tune with the lightning from the storm

"Kultra. And you?"

"Tell us how you came to possess the knowledge of the golem-gate."

"And do not lie," said another mage. This one was pointing a glowing red sword at Kultra. "My blade can cleave truth from falsehood... as well as your head from your neck."

"Uhhh... Look-"

"We ARE looking," said the female storm-mage. "And we do not like what we see. Answer our questions."

"There was this guy in the woods. Last night. He gave me this scroll-" Kultra tried to retrieve the scroll, but the paralysis was still intact. "-well, he gave me a scroll and told me what to do. Then he died."

"By who's hand?" asked another man. He had a crossbow leveled at Kultra's head. The bolt in the bow was glowing green. "Yours?"

"No."

"He speaks true," said the swordsman. "So far. Ask him more."

"Uhh... that's about all I know about it-"

"FALSEHOOD!"

"Well, these guys did try to kill me. They worked for this guy named Reyd. I killed him. I think the leader of the town guard was involved. His name was Calloway. I killed him, too."

"FALSEHOOD!"

"Okay, he killed HIMSELF before I could find out who was running the show. THAT'S all I know."

"Hmmm... He speaks the truth. As far as he knows."

"Hey-"

"The scroll," said the storm-mage. "We will have it now."

"That'll be rather hard to do... unless one of ya reaches into my pants and grabs it. Just be careful what ya latch onto down there."

The mage with the glowing purple eyes frowned. His eyes changed from purple to orange, and Kultra's paralysis vanished. It was replaced with a rather peculiar type of slow effect. As long as Kultra made very slow, steady motions, then he could move freely. But if he made any sudden moves, all of his muscles locked up as before.

He slooooowwwwllllyyyy reached it his pants and retrieved the scroll. Holding the scroll, he stuck his hand out.

"I'll take that," said a new voice. It belonged to someone who had just arrived, a short, elderly man who nonetheless walked with power authority. Though he was the smallest man in the room, he was quite clearly the man in charge. The others backed away and allowed him to pass through.

"He calls himself Kultra," said the swordsman.

The newcomer motioned for him to be silent. He took the scroll from Kultra's outstretched hand. Obviously he understood the scribbles and symbols, for the man's face grew stern and worried. He waved at one of the glowing-eyed mage, and suddenly Kultra was free of the strange enchantment that was restricting his movements. The mages... or whatever they were... were still pointing various deadly-looking spells at him. Kultra didn't like the idea of so much magic aimed in his direction, but no one seemed ready to trust him yet. Not that HE would trust him in the same situation.

The older man showed the scroll to the storm-mage, who skimmed it quickly... then read it again more slowly, as if not believing what she'd seen the first time.

"Hmmm...."

"Bad news?" said Kultra.

"Good and bad," replied the short man. Kultra was shocked; he wasn't expecting an actual answer. "The death of an agent is always difficult. But your timely delivery of his last report places some vital information in our hands."

"Agent?" asked Kultra. "Who are you people."

The old man and the storm-mage traded glances.

"The rest of you may leave us," said the old man. All of the mages dispersed without so much as an acknowledgment or a backward glance. They quickly vanished into various corners and crowds. Kultra got the strange feeling that they could reappear just as quickly.

Kultra was left with the old man and the storm mage... who still had a tiny, raging thunderstorm churning in the air above her outstretched palm. Kultra wondered where the water from the rain was going, since the woman's hand wasn't wet. He also wondered what she looked like under that markedly unflattering robe she was wearing.

"My name is Greenem," said the old man. "My stormy associate here is Silvergold. Silvergold, do put that thing away."

The storm-mage released her spell with a wave of her hand, and the miniature thunderstorm vanished into thin air.

"Welcome to the Directorate," said Greenem.

"Huh? The what?"

"You've never heard of us. If you had, you'd most likely be dead already. It appears that the winds of fate brought you to us. Hopefully it is serendipity, and not an ill omen."

"Whatever. Still doesn't answer just what the hell you are."

"We are an organization that exists to protect Iffrean from magical threats. Our membership consists mostly of mages and magically-talented individuals... like yourself."

"Me? I'm not-"

"Your body was scryed upon arrival, Mr. Kultra. We know you have the innate ability to morph into whatever form you mind can conjure. A very powerful gift."

"It's a bit more complicated than that."

"We are aware of the conditions and limitations, as well," added Silvergold. "Probably more aware of them than you are. But that is not the topic of conversation."

"Yeah, yeah. Protect Iffrean from magical threats. Sure. What's that got to do with me? Why were those goons trying to kill me."

"Follow me," Greenem turned and started leading Silvergold and Kultra across the huge cave. Kultra had no idea where they were going, but the conversation continued as they walked.

"Peace and freedom have many enemies, Mr. Kultra. We suspected... and now we know for certain that one of them is currently engaged in operations in and around Xemlt."

"And you guys just happen to be right here to stop it, eh?"

"Oh, we are nowhere near Xemlt," said Greenem. "You were teleported here across a great distance."

"Well where are we, then?"

"If we told you that I'd have to kill you," said Silvergold. Kultra didn't like this woman. She had an annoying habit of threatening him.

"Weeks ago," continued Greenem, "we sent an agent to investigate some suspicious magical emanations in the area. He disappeared. The scroll you brought us is his first... and last... report. Obviously the forces responsible for his demise did not want the Directorate to receive that information. No doubt, they think that YOU are a Directorate agent sent to retrieve the missing report. That explains their actions against you."

"Uh-huh." Kultra eyed a group of scantily dressed females jog across their path. Judging from their muscles, they must have been warriors of some kind. "Uhhh.... Oh. Well, you guys got your information..." said Kultra. "You win. They loose. Now if you'll show me the door-"

"This headquarters HAS no door, Mr. Kultra. Our magic is the only way in or out... so you will not be leaving until we make it so."

"Well? What's keepin' ya? And where are we going?"

"We have a dead agent. We have a man with significant magical ability who has already exposed himself to the enemy...and proven himself to be their superior."

Kultra knew where this was leading. And he didn't want to take the scenic route to get there.

"Okay. Skip the formality... all I got is three questions: What is it you want me to do? How much money are you gonna pay if I do it? And what happens if I refuse?"

"We know that something is going on near Xemlt," said Greenem. "but we don't know what or where. There are a few clues in the report you delivered, however. Our agent had some suspicions concerning a man named Seveltine, who was somehow connected to the mage's guild. He was actively watching this man. Seek him out, find out what he knows, and follow up on any leads he gives you."

"Follow up," said Kultra. "Which means what, exactly?"

"Use your own discretion."

"What's discretion?"

"You know our objectives here, Mr. Kultra. We seek out magical threats and eliminate them. If you find such a threat... you do what you think should be done."

"For how much?"

"A very timely question," said Greenem. They had apparently arrived at their destination. They approached one of the far corners of the cave. It was taken up by six long tables and one small desk. The tables were crammed with various items... Kultra saw a few swords, some pieces of armor, jewelry, rings, loose gems, and clothing of almost every type. Seated at the desk was a single man, who stood when they approached. He looked even older than Greenem. With droopy red cheeks, puppy-dog eyes, and huge bushy eyebrows, the little man looked almost comical. "Allow me to introduce Wellyn, our Chief Quartermaster, among other things."

Kultra shook the man's hand. Wellyn had a firm grip for an old mage.

"Kultra has helped us considerably in the Xemlt matter," said Greenem. "His assistance is deserving of reward. We wish him to help us further, for which he should be compensated."

"Is that so," said Wellyn. He eyed Kultra. Kultra couldn't tell if the look was one of approval or sarcasm. "Well, let's get to it, then."

Wellyn walked over to the bare wall and opened a small safe, which Kultra was quite sure wasn't there before the man reached for it. Once he had it opened, the Wellyn reached in and pulled out a six-inch bar of what looked like gold.

"Since the Directorate operates in so many different kingdoms," said Greenem. "We find it simpler to deal in precious metals instead of official coinage."

"Pure gold," said Wellyn handed the bar to Kultra. Kultra hefted the bar, feeling the weight. "Yes, it's solid," added Wellyn. "And if you satisfy Greenem, you'll get four more just like it."

"Is that arrangement satisfactory?" Green asked.

"I'd prefer coins," said Kultra. "But this'll do." Actually, it was more money than Kultra had seen in a very long time. Assuming the gold was real, of course. "And all I gotta do is find this Seveltine guy-"

"And go wherever the facts take you."

"What if I refuse?"

"It's a simple matter, really," said Greenem. "We will erase your memory of us and teleport you back to Xemlt. You will have no recollection of ever having been here. Unfortunately we will also have to reclaim your reward."

"huh?" Kultra looked at the bar of gold in his hand.

"It's presence would be rather difficult to explain, would it not?" said Greenem.

"Hmph. All right, I'm in."

"Good!" said Greenem. "Wellyn, do give Mr. Kultra some equipment."

"Quite right," said Wellyn. He opened the top drawer to his desk and pulled out a miniature chest. When he opened it, Kultra saw a line of coins. Wellyn removed one and held it up. Both surfaces of the coin were completely blank. It wasn't a coin at all... just a smooth coin-shaped disk. "Now Pay attention. Osses."

Suddenly, the coin changed to a platinum royal mint.

"What?"

"An illusion. To the recipient, it will appear to be the highest denomination of official currency that he is familiar with. Lasts only a few minutes, however."

"How come I couldn't get paid in this?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Now, here..," Wellyn handed the coin to Kultra, and then backed away several steps. "Watch carefully. Ajix."

The coin vanished from Kultra's palm and reappeared in Wellyn's outstretched hand. It also became a plain disk once more.

"A coin of returning. It has a range of twenty yards. Use it to take care of your expenses and supplies. I trust you remember the activation words?"

"Yeah, yeah... gimme the coin."

Wellyn tossed Kultra the coin and then returned to his desk. He rummaged around until he found a small metal wire that had been twisted into an ornate, but totally meaningless shape.

"What's that?"

"Hold out your arm."

"Why?"

"Do you want the rune or not?"

"What rune?"

"Hold out your arm, Mr. Kultra," said Greenem.

"Hmmm...."

Kultra held out his arm, and Wellyn placed the metal object on his biceps, just above the elbow. The metal glowed bright green for a second, and then returned to normal. When Wellyn removed it, Kultra had a mark on his skin in the same shape as the wire.

"Temporary and painless," said Greenem. "It's an anti-tracking rune. Prevents anyone from scrying your location."

"Does that include you guys?"

"It will remain in place even if you change form," said Wellyn. "Now, follow me. There's one more thing. Something I want you to test for me."

"Huh? Test? Do I get paid extra for testing stuff?"

Wellyn started winding his way through the maze of tables. Kultra followed, with Green and Silvergold in the rear. Kultra eyed the rows of miscellaneous equipment and wondered what it was all for.

"What's all this stuff?" said Kultra.

"It's equipment," said Wellyn.

"Oh. Of course."

"Ahh... here we are." Wellyn stopped walking and picked up a pair of black cloth gloves.

"Gloves?" said Kultra.

"Gloves of Protection. Invulnerable to physical harm. Here... try them on."

Kultra donned the gloves. The fit was snug, but they covered about a forth of his forearm as well as his hand. He wiggled his fingers.

"These don't feel like-"

"The activation word is Thribe"

"Thribe? HEY!" Suddenly, the gloves hardened on Kultra's hands. They still looked and felt like ordinary cloth, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move his fingers. It was as if his hands were encased in solid rock. "Hey, I can't move! What kinda gloves are these!"

"As I said... wait... perhaps a demonstration would be better..."

There was a small hammer on the table next to where the gloves had been. Wellyn picked it up, and before Kultra could move out of the way, the mage swung the hammer at Kultra's left hand.

CLANG!

The hammer rebounded as if it had struck solid iron. Kultra didn't even feel the blow.

"Say the word again to release."

"Tribe!"

"It's 'Thribe.' Pay attention next time."

"Thribe!

The gloves returned to normal, and Kultra quickly took them off.


"Hell, what good are gloves if you can't move around in them?"

"I didn't say they were perfect," Wellyn spat. "Thus the need for you to test them in the field. I'm sure you'll find some use for them."

"Hmph. I don't think so.

"Good luck, Kultra," said Greenem. "I will now teleport you back to the path outside of Xemlt." He raised his hands and began casting a spell.

"And I expect my equipment to be returned when you're done!" added Wellyn.

"Gloves. Sure."

"And the coin of returning!"

"Damn."

Greenem completed his spell, and suddenly Kultra wasn't there anymore.

"Now that he's gone," said Silvergold. "What are we going to do about the scroll?"

Greenem unrolled the scroll once more and the three mages looked down at it.

"It gives the exact location of Octerno's lair, but unfortunately it gives no indication of what his plans are."

"Something unpleasant, no doubt," said Silvergold. Her eyes flashed.

"Whatever it is, it must be stopped. Once this buffoon has drawn sufficient attention to himself, we will send in a squad to neutralize Octerno."

"I will send two of our best mages as well," said Silvergold

"Excellent. With Octerno's forces focused on Kultra, our people should have no problem gaining entry and putting a stop to whatever that bastard is brewing."

"How will we know when to strike?"

"That rune I gave Kultra will enable us to track his activities," said Wellyn. "We'll know exactly when to make our move."

"Won't Octerno be able to make use of it as well?"

"Possibly," said Greenem. "But that just makes Kultra a better decoy."

"I'm not sure I like this idea," said Silvergold. "Using an amateur in such a way."

"Me neither," said Wellyn.

"We've already lost one of our experienced agents on this mission. Would you like to risk another just to preserve the life of a petty mercenary?"

"No. Never." replied Silvergold.

"Then we are all of one accord," said Greenem. "Let us make our plans. If my intuition is correct, the time to strike will come very soon. Very soon indeed."

Kultra appeared on the road at the bottom of Rose Grove. Constantly wondering what he'd gotten himself into, he followed the road back to town.

"I could take the gold, the coin, and the funky gloves and just disappear," he mused. "But somehow I don't think I'd get very far. Hell, I might as well go along with this. I ain't had any real excitement since... well... since the last town. Besides, I'm just itching to try out this coin."

It was mid-day when Kultra reached Xemlt, and he immediately set out on a shopping spree. However, using the magic coin was a bit more complicated than he first imagined. He quickly discovered that a single coin just wasn't that valuable. Even the maximum denomination was too small to buy anything of any great worth... like a ship or a mansion. He could have traded the gold bar he'd gotten from the Directorate, but he wasn't in the mood for spending any of his own money. At least not today. It took Kultra all of three seconds to figure a way around the problem. He went to the nearest fruit stand and picked out a nice, shiny apple.

"That'll be one copper," said the farmer who was selling his wares. One copper was a bit much for an apple, but Kultra didn't argue. He pulled the coin of returning from his pocket and handed it to the man.

"All I got is this Osses."

"A what? OH!" The disc in Kultra's hand appeared to be a regular gold coin. Apparently the farmer had never seen any coins of higher value. "I can make change for that." The farmer snatched the 'gold' coin and gave Kultra an assortment of silver and copper pieces.

"Thanks," said Kultra. He walked away and mumbled "Ajix" as soon as he was out of earshot. The plain disc reappeared in Kultra's hand. Now he had real money in addition to the fake coin. After about a dozen repetitions, Kultra had enough gold, silver, and copper to get started. His pack was missing, and his clothes were still singed. He replaced them, and added some high-quality leather boots to his wardrobe.

He still carried the two longswords he'd gotten from the men last night. To these, he added a nice, sharp hunting knife, which he strapped to his thigh. He paid for it with a single platinum eagle coin, which vanished from the storekeeper's money pouch as soon as Kultra was around the corner. He similarly 'purchased' some rope and various other adventuring supplies to replace what had been lost the night before.

When his shopping was complete, Kultra bought himself a hearty meal, and then set out to find the man called Seveltine. His luck in that matter was surprisingly good.

"Eh? Seveltine?" said the keeper of the tavern where Kultra had just finished eating. "You must mean Atmos Seveltine, high mucky-muck at the magic guild."

"Yes, that's the one," said Kultra.

"He's gotta place on the west side of town. Big place. Huge. Don't know who's gonna buy it once he leaves."

"Leaves?"

"Yeah, he just up and decides he doesn't like Xemlt no more. Don't know why. Been packing up every scrap of cloth and furniture in that big mansion of his and shipping it off down the river. Why you askin' about him?"

"Oh, I'm just... looking for work." said Kultra. "I heard this guy was moving and thought he might need a few extra hands. But I never did find out where he lived."

"West side," the man waved in a generally westward direction. "Can't miss it. But hell, most of the heavy movin' is done already. Don't know if he needs any more people."

"I figure I'll ask anyway. What's the harm, right?"

"Well... luck to ya."

Kultra paid for his meal and made his away across town. The Seveltine mansion was easy to spot... while it wasn't the largest house on that side of town, it was by far the most noticeable. It sat atop a large hill, where it looked down on the more elaborate estates and mansions that surrounded it. Lush green grass carpeted the grounds, and thick, perfectly pruned shrubbery lined the cobblestone walkway leading up to the front door.

Kultra wandered completely around the base of the hill, eyeing the mansion from all angles. It looked oversized and ostentatious no matter which way he viewed it. Care and upkeep of a place like that one required a lot of money. Seveltine obviously had more than enough. Kultra found an inconspicuous place from which he could watch the front entrance. After no one came or left for a half-hour, Kultra's impatience got the best of him.

"Screw this spy crap..." he mumbled as he started up the hill. He walked right up to the front door, grabbed the ornate brass knocker, and rapped it hard against the equally ornate brass plate. He expected a servant to answer, but when the door opened he found himself looking into the eyes of a beautiful woman.... the same beautiful woman who sang at the tavern last night. Sanya. She wore a simple brown dress that nevertheless fit her womanly curves perfectly. Those curves looked even better up close than they had across a crowded tavern. She stood in the doorway, and leaned invitingly against the frame.

"Whoa." said Kultra. He couldn't mask his surprise, but he quickly recovered. He cleared his throat and flashed a smile. Since this was obviously a woman of distinction, Kultra decided to be a bit more cultured and civilized than his normal self. He had to talk his way into the house somehow... and quite possibly into something else as well. "Hello Sanya."

Sanya's eyes widened most attractively when she heard her name pass his lips.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," she said in a soft, almost-musical voice. She returned his smile. Kultra watched her eyes travel over his physique, just as his were doing to hers.

"Kultra," he said. "I heard you sing at the tavern last night."

"Oh, really?"

"Quite enjoyable. And the singing was excellent as well."

"Thank you."

Kultra wasn't sure, but it almost seemed like she was blushing.

"You have a lovely voice. Fits very well with the rest of you."

Yes, definitely a blush.

"You're quite the charmer," she said. Actually, the mammoth attempt to be 'charming' was making Kultra's head hurt. He wasn't used to this. "But surely you didn't come all the way up here just to give me a compliment."

"Oh, I could give you several things... and compliments are usually a good place to start. But I'm actually here to see Seveltine."

"You're seeing one right now. I'm Sanya Seveltine"

"Don't tell me you're his wife."

"Don't be silly. I'm his daughter."

"Lucky me." Kultra winked. Sanya smiled.

"You're not local, are you? I don't recognize you."

"Just passing through. Had the pleasure of hearing you at the tavern last night, and this morning I set off to earn a few coins. I heard your father might be in need of some movers."

"You? A mover?" Her eyes ran over his form once more.

"And a very good one," said Kultra. "I've moved quite a few women... and I've never had any complaints about my work." Kultra winked.

"Lack of complaints doesn't necessarily make you good," Sanya replied with a smile. "Merely satisfactory."

"Perhaps you'd like to sample my work then? Is there anything you need moved? Maybe something delicate that you'd like treated with extra care?"

Sanya smiled.

"I'm afraid all the heavy things have gone out already." Sanya stepped aside, allowing Kultra a glimpse of the mansion's interior. Indeed, it was almost completely empty. There was no furniture that he could see, and even the white walls were devoid of paintings, tapestries, or decorations. "We're down to bare essentials."

"Bare?"

"Yes. Clothes... a few books... and beds, of course."

"Of course. I can help you move that."

"I'm... sure you can."

"Oh, I'm more than sure."

"But you'll have to speak with my father."

"Really?"

"He's handling all of the details himself."

"Not ALL of them, I'd bet. But perhaps I should speak with him. Is he in?"

"Yes... but he's very busy."

"I've got time. Can I wait insi-"

"He doesn't allow strangers in the house, either."

"If he's too busy to see me, then he's too busy to know I'm here."

"Good point," said Sanya. "But you'll still have to come back later. Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? But what about tonight?"

"What about it?"

"You're going to spend it alone in this empty mansion?"

"My father will be here... but I won't. I'm singing in the tavern later. In a few hours, in fact. Will I see you there?"

"Will we continue to discuss the movement of you bedroom furnishings?"

"Perhaps."

"Then I'll be there."

"I'll see you then... Kultra," said Sanya. She backed away into the house and slowly shut the door. Kultra stared at the door for several seconds before he remembered that he'd come here for another reason besides flirting with Sanya. It took several more seconds before he realized what that reason was.

"Oh! Damn. I hope she's not mixed up in this," said Kultra. "Be a shame to have to kill her." Kultra considered breaking into the house, but he knew nothing of Seveltine's security or what to expect on the inside. Seveltine was connected with the mage's guild... and mage's could set some of the deadliest traps of anyone he knew. Almost anyone.

Instead, Kultra walked back down to the street and found an inconspicuous place to watch the house. He couldn't see the entire estate, but if anyone headed into town, he'd know it. That included Sanya. Over the next hour, Kultra saw a few hired servants come and go... no one that looked worthy of his attention. The sky had just darkened to a nice shade of gray when the front door opened and a man emerged. He was dressed in a plain dark cloak, which he pulled tight around him. His hair was black, but it had a very noticeable streak of gray down each side. He walked down the hill and started into town. Kultra studied his body language. His movements were stiff, and practiced, and he looked around every few minutes. He was a man who was trying hard not to look nervous, but was failing miserably at it.

"Hmmm..." Kultra hummed as he stepped out of his hiding place. The man looked too young to be Sanya's father, but then, mages did have a habit of looking much younger than they actually were. "I'll bet that's Seveltine. And I'll bet he's going somewhere that I'll want to see."

Kultra followed the man. They headed into town, almost making a straight line for the merchant's area. Then the mysterious man veered north at the last minute and circled around the markets. He kept going until he reached the waterfront. Kultra let the man get a bit further ahead of him. He had a feeling that Seveltine was getting close to his destination, which could mean guards. With Kultra's keen eyesight he could still watch the man from a distance.

Seveltine walked to an old, deserted shipyard. The entire place was build on an elevated wooden dock, supported by huge poles jutting out of the river. A group of warehouses surrounded an open area, creating a penned-in space with the river on one side. Kultra kept his eyes open. He spotted the guards right away... well before they had a chance to spot him. They were dressed the same as the men from the woods and from the tavern... black pants, green shirts, and rags over their faces. There were six of them, each one stationed in an alley or around a corner from where Seveltine was now waiting.

Was it an ambush?

Kultra watched. A new man entered the scene. He was tall, thin, blonde youth who walked with an air of youthful cockiness. He emerged from one of the warehouses and headed for Seveltine. Seveltine and the young man greeted each other, but Kultra noticed the lack of a handshake or other form of respect. They started talking. Again, Kultra watched the body language... Seveltine was annoyed at something. Annoyed, but nervous just the same. He was afraid of the blond youth. He obviously didn't like what the boy was saying, but he was too scared to do anything about it. Unfortunately, Kultra couldn't hear a single word. He would have to get a little closer. Kultra eyed the guards. They were looking around, keeping an eye out for intruders... all except for one. One of them seemed to be paying more attention to Seveltine and the other man than the surrounding area.

Keeping to the shadows, Kultra circled around to one of the warehouses and cut through an alley. The guard just ahead of him. Kultra looked past the guard and saw Seveltine and the other man, and beyond THEM was the river. Kultra still couldn't hear anything, so he crept forward as quietly as he could. He didn't dare risk drawing his sword; the sound would give him away instantly. Instead, he got right behind the man and, with one fluid motion, reached out, grabbed him by the chin and the back of the head, and twisted. The man's neck broke with a muffled *snap,* and he went limp in Kultra's arms.

amateurs, Kultra thought. He absorbed the guard's life energy and used it to make a subtle change in his own body. It wasn't noticeable to the eye... the change was all contained in the delicate tissues of his ears. When it was done, Kultra's hearing was twice as sensitive as it had been before. The creaking of the old dock... the waves lapping at the poles far beneath him... everything was a clear as a thunderbolt on a silent night. That included the conversation that was taking place in front of the warehouse.

"... one day," said the blond youth. "That's all you've got.

"You're insane!" replied Seveltine. "I can't possibly complete my move by then!"

"Complete it or not, just don't be here when the final test begins. Not unless you want to live."

"By why!? Why this sudden change of schedule? He assured me that I'd have at least another week!"

"The last test was a success. There's no more work to be done... It's been perfected. Now, the boss wants a full scale test as soon as possible. Plus there's the matter of the Directorate spy."

"You said you killed him."

"We did. Now there's another one."

"Well handle it! That's what you people are for! Handle him and give me my week!"

"Oh, we'll handle it all right. He'll be dead two seconds after we find him. But another week will just give them time to send another... and another... and another. If we run the test sooner, then they won't have time to do anything but wonder what the hell happened."

"But I don't think I can do it. I've got-"

The boy stepped closer to Seveltine, and his voice grew stern.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear. The boss appreciates your cooperation and all your hard work on this project... but you are no longer needed. You are expendable. At noon tomorrow, this entire town will vanish. If you're still here worrying about a few sticks of furniture, then you and all your belongings will be just so much fine ash blowing in the wind. No deals. No special considerations. "

"But... but Sanya! My daughter-"

"I suggest you both leave tonight. Find a boat, get on it, and just sail away."

Seveltine sighed.

"You know I should have seen this coming-"

"HEEEEYYY!!!" one of the guard's shouted. Kultra looked up, and saw a guard perched on top of a warehouse. The guard was pointing straight at him! "GET THAT MAN!!!"

"DAMN!" Kultra spun and ran back the way he'd come. A guard appeared at the mouth of the alley and drew his sword. Kultra drew one of his own weapons and prepared to slice the man to ribbons... but six more guards gathered right behind the first one. "Where did all THESE guys come from!?!" Kultra blurted. He turned and ran back toward the front. Seveltine was gone, but the blonde youth was running straight for him... along with four more men. There were armed guards streaming out of two of the warehouses.

The blond man pointed at Kultra. Kultra didn't wait to see what happened next.

There was a window next to him, and Kultra jumped through it... rolling to his feet inside of the warehouse. The place was mostly empty, and lit very well by an array of glowing mage-globes placed on the high wooden ceiling. There were a few boxes piled against the far wall. Kultra didn't get a chance to take in any more details.

A swordsman leapt through the window after him. Kultra swung his sword. The man ducked and counterstruck. Kultra blocked, spun, and slashed. The man backed away from the whirling tip of Kultra's blade... just as another man came through the window.

The warehouse's main door flew open, and a squad of five sword-wielding green-shirts rushed in. Meanwhile, men were still pouring through the window like foam from a bottle of champagne.

Kultra was outnumbered.

He spun, and slashed at the nearest man, hoping to take his life and use the energy to change into something a little more useful than his current body. That wasn't going to happen. A second man blocked Kultra's blade, and a third tried to take his head. Kultra blocked, and, with both swords whirling, engaged the three men in combat even as more closed in on him.

All he had to do was kill one... just one...

WOOOSH!

Kultra slashed at one swordsman's head... missing it entirely as the man dodged at the last second. Another man tore a wicked gash down Kultra's arm. Kultra twirled and tried to cut one man's legs out from under him. Another failure. Metal met metal, the man blocked it with his sword... Kultra swung his second blade, but another man blocked it. And all the while, more men were closing in.

Kultra began casting around for an exit. Men were still climbing in the window, but the door way looked clear. But who knew how many men were waiting outside. Using both swords, Kultra blocked two strikes and kicked the third man in the side. The man staggered away... but now there were eight more to take his place!

They surrounded him.

"One at a time or all at once?" said Kultra. "Makes no difference to me."

The men just glared at him. Then they started to back away.

"I thought so," Kultra huffed. He knew he couldn't take all of them, and he had no idea why they were backing off, but he wasn't one to waste a good opportunity to boast. "I guess this batch had more brains than the last ones. Now you're gonna let me walk outta he-"

THWOCK!

"ARRRRGH!!!"

A bolt from a crossbow pierced Kultra's left shoulder. The bloody tip burst through his shirt, carrying a small chunk of Kultra's flesh with it. Pain raced down his arm, and the sword fell from his hand.

Even as he tried to run for cover, Kultra looked around for the archer. He failed at both. A second bolt whizzed past Kultra's eyes... missing him by less than an inch. And he had no idea who'd fired it. All he saw were the swordsmen, who were gathered around the walls like spectators to some new sport. None of them had a bow.

"Don't move," said a woman's voice. Kultra recognized it as the voice from the woods. But he couldn't tell where it was coming from. "You may think me a bad shot... but both of those bolts went exactly where I wanted them."

Kultra heard a tiny noise... the squeak of leather. Boot leather. And it wasn't from his boots. His eyes darted to the source of the noise, but there was nothing there.

Or was there?

His ears kept picking it up... the sound of stealthy footsteps circling him. The realization hit him just as the sound of another bolt being drawn reached his ears...

The archer was invisible.

"SHIT!"

Kultra threw himself to one side as a bolt sailed past him. It would have been another shoulder-shot, but thanks to his quick reflexes, the missile sank harmlessly into the warehouse wall.

Kultra swung his sword blindly, thinking that the woman may be charging. He hit nothing... but then...

CRUNCH!

A heavy, but invisible boot struck his hand. Kultra felt one of his fingers break, but he managed to keep the sword. He swung again at where he thought the foe might be-

WOOOSH!

-nothing. Then a blade slid along Kultra's right forearm, cutting him deep.

"ARRG!"

He made a futile kick, that struck nothing but air.

"Show yourself," Kultra hissed. His left arm was numb now, and he was loosing a lot of blood. The bolt had missed the major artery, but he could still bleed to death... if the invisible archer let him live that long.

Pain assaulted him, and a second deep cut appeared on Kultra's arm. Kultra spun and backed away. He kept moving, dodging and spinning... trying to keep away from something he couldn't see. Every few steps his sensitive ears would pick up a tell-tale footstep... a squeak of leather... but even with that, Kultra waltzed into as just as many slashes and kicks as he avoided. And each swing of his sword brought nothing but the hiss of the blade as it cut through empty air.

"Come ON!" said Kultra, looking around wildly. "Where are you!?" His right arm was in bloody shreds... but he still had his sword. That was what she wanted. She wanted him unarmed; but Kultra wasn't going to play that game. Not if he could help it.

He quickly found out that he could not.

He heard a footstep to one side. He turned-

WHAM!

The invisible fist caught him smack-dead in the face. A rapid-fire combination followed it... one punch to the gut, another to the face, a crushing blow to the knee, and a kick to the side of the head. Kultra had no hope of blocking any of them, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground. His sword skidded away from his weak grasp. He rolled away just as an invisible foot came down.

THUMP!

It barely missed his head. He reached for his sword, but something unseen kicked it into the shadows.

Kultra rolled the other way-

WHUMP!

And a kick to the gut sent him sprawling. Ignoring the pain and the dizziness... not the mention the blood that was draining out of him... Kultra scrambled to his feet. He thought about grabbing the hunting knife from his boot... but it would only be kicked out of his hand before he could use it.

"You still stand?" said the woman.

"Who are you," said Kultra. He tried to get a fix on the woman's position. She was to his left, well out of range of his knife. She was getting closer, though.... circling him again...

"Who am I? I am the wife of the man you killed. You killed my husband."

"I've killed a lot of husbands," said Kultra. "You'll have to be more specific."

"The inn."

"Who? Stretcho?"

"His name was Reyd."

"Hell, HE was trying to kill ME! It was self defense!"

"All he wanted was the scroll. All you had to do was give it to him."

"And all HE had to do was ASK! But instead, he comes slidin' under my door-"

"An unarmed man," said the woman. "Or did you even stop to notice that he had no weapons."

"Didn't stop him from putting the squeeze on me."

"Now you will die like him. Unarmed. And the last thing you see will be... nothing."

Kultra listened to her come for him. He knew exactly where she was now. She'd stopped circling and was creeping in for another surprise attack. He heard a rustle of cloth-

Kultra threw himself into a short backward roll, and yanked the blade from his boot as he came up. Just gripping it sent pain shooting up and down his arm. He dodged to one side, and felt the wind from the woman's punch as it missed him. Kultra jabbed with his knife-

A hit!

The woman hissed, but there was only a tiny trickle of blood. It was a superficial wound... if even that. She retaliated immediately.

CRACK!

The warehouse spun around him as more pain blossomed in his head.

THUD!

CRACK!

THUMP!

A rain of strong, professionally-placed blows poured down on him. The woman was an accomplished fighter. She knew what to hit and how hard to hit it. More than once, Kultra felt his own newly-dislodged teeth sliding down his throat on a current of fresh blood. Kultra knew that he was alive only because she wasn't through toying with him.

"UNGH!"

WHAM!

An invisible backfist spun Kultra completely around. He still had his knife, and he struck. The knife cut something... but this time there was no blood at all. He'd probably sliced a hole in her shirt.

There was silence for a while. Kultra listened... and was rewarded by the sound of rapid footsteps. A charge!

Kultra spun out of the way. He felt the woman fly past him, and his spinning backfist connected solidly!

"UNNN!!!" the woman grunted.

CRACK!

Her front snap kick removed another few teeth from Kultra's bleeding gums. He had no way to block it, or even know it was coming. Instinctively, Kultra jumped to one side. The spinning hook-kick missed him, but an unseen blade opened up his shirt and just missed disemboweling him. Kultra's world exploded in another series of punches and kicks. He was on the receiving end of all of them. The woman beat him mercilessly... landing three blows for every one that Kultra even attempted. And each time Kultra hit, it was more by accident than skill. He lost and regained his knife several times, only to have it kicked out of his hand each time by an invisible boot. He'd just retrieved it again when well-placed kick sent him flying head first into a pile of empty crates.

There was a muffled yelp from someone that was neither Kultra or the woman. A guard had been perched atop the boxes, and when Kultra collided with them, the entire stack collapsed, depositing the man right at Kultra's feet.

Kultra immediately thrust his knife into the man's chest. He expired with a grunt and a spurt of blood.

Kultra smiled.

The death-energy flowed into him. Wounds healed. Bruises vanished. Reflexes quickened. And most importantly, Kultra's eyes became a strange greenish color. They saw normally at first, but a tiny bit of concentration activated a new set of nerve endings within his eyes. Everything around him changed. Colors shifted, and the remaining guards began to glow with a reddish-orange light. It was heat. Kultra could see their body heat...

... even if they happened to be invisible.

Kultra saw the woman charging. He couldn't make out any details of her face or clothes, but the yellowish-orange outline was already attacking... her foot arcing towards him. Still crouching over the dead guard, Kultra blocked the kick and punched the woman in the gut. Hard. His fist encountered some kind of light leather padding, but the woman still gasped as the force from the blow bruised her insides. Kultra leapt up and spun away from her ridge hand strike... and caught her with a hammer-fist blow to her temple.

The woman quickly backed away. Kultra could see her looking down at herself, and then back up at him.

"Oh yeah, I can see you," Kultra hissed. He dropped into a tight fighting stance.

"Get OUT of here, you idiots!" she screamed to the guards. The guards quickly began to leave... lest they accidentally provide another life-saving recharge for Kultra. The woman's head turned to Kultra and nodded.

"Bring it on!" he growled. She was more than happy to comply.

They both charged towards each other... only NOW it was a fair fight. In a frenzy of attacks, they traded blows and blocks, kicks and punches. Every punch she threw was for nothing, as Kultra easily blocked it and countered with two more. It soon became apparent that the woman, while still an excellent fighter, had relied on her invisibility for far too long. She made mistakes... and Kultra moved in...

CRACK!

A straight punch connected to the woman's face. She'd thought it was a feint... but quickly found that it was real enough. Kultra stepped back and introduced the tip of his boot to the bottom of her chin. Then did the same for his heal and her left temple... and for his fist and her jaw. The woman jumped backwards before Kultra's foot could meet her forehead.

Kultra pressed on. He blocked her attacks and plowed through her blocks with sheer brute force... and anger.

"You know-"

Kultra's punch missed, but her punch was thrown aside by Kultra's block.

"I usually don't like to hit women-"

Punch-block-punch-block-KICK! The woman reeled...

"But YOU-"

Two kicks, both blocked by the woman... barely...

"I'm gonna really LOVE pulverizing YOU!"

Kultra punched. The woman blocked... which was a grave error. It was a setup. Kultra's second punch emptied her lungs when it hit her just below the chest. What followed was a gruesome series of punches to the woman's face, ending in an uppercut that lifted her up off of the wooden floor. On her way down, Kultra caught her with a spinning back kick-

WHAM!

The woman demolished more empty crates as she collided with them. Kultra ran to retrieve his knife from the dead guard's chest, and then charged the woman... moving in for the kill...

"YOU LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!"

"Huh?" Kultra spun. The blonde youth from earlier was standing in the doorway, flanked by guards on either side. He looked mad. Kultra would still have to fight his way out, but the guards were far too late to save the woman.

Unless...

Suddenly the blonde man raised his hands above his heads. The guards scattered. Kultra abandoned his attack and looked for a place to hide-

"FIRE ON!"

There was a bright burst of light. To Kultra's heat-sensitive vision it was like looking directly into the sun. Suddenly the blonde boy was no more... in his place was a man-shaped inferno. A human flame. Every inch of his body was on fire... even his clothes sprouted flames.

"Oh. Shit." Kultra gasped.

The man pointed a flaming limb at Kultra, and a jet of white-hot fire shot forth. Kultra was already in motion. He leapt to one side as the fireball demolished the floor behind him... tearing straight through the wood and leaving a gaping, flaming hole in its wake. Even at a distance of more than a yard, the residual heat was enough to singe Kultra's skin.

"AAAAH!!!"

"GET HIM!" the invisible woman shouted. Actually it was more of a mumbled grunt, but the flaming man responded just the same. He raised his hand and fired another blast... this time it was a continuous stream of fire that chased Kultra across the warehouse.

Kultra felt his clothes smoldering. He made flying leap... and sailed right through the flaming hole that the first fireball had left in the floor. The river was twenty feet below him.

SPLASH!

A second behind him was a stream of fire that evaporated the first three feet of water and boiled everything for yards around it. With his knife clasped firmly between his teeth, Kultra dove deep, and swam through the scalding water for all he was worth. His one-second head start was just enough to keep him from being boiled alive.

This is the second time I've had to run away from those two, he thought as he made for shore. No more surprises. Next time, it's to the finish...
---

Having nowhere else to go, Kultra eventually found himself at the bottom of the hill near the Seveltine mansion. It had been several hours since his encounter at the docks. His clothes were dry, but his skin still hurt from the near-boiling water swim he'd taken. Kultra had gone by the tavern only to find that Sanya's performance was over. He'd missed it by a half-hour. Kultra hurried back to the mansion and arrived just in time to see Sanya strolling up the hill towards her front door.

Kultra thought it odd that there were no escorts or guards accompanying her... but not odd enough to keep him away. He approached, and she seemed genuinely and pleasantly surprised when he emerged from the bushes.

"Kultra!" she gasped.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked.

"You did miss my performance. I thought maybe you'd moved on."

"Almost," said Kultra. "But I went for a swim instead."

"I see."

"I didn't. Not at first anyway. Things cleared up toward the end, though."

Sanya made a polite, but alluring smile. She had no idea what Kultra was talking about. She hesitated and then started walking toward the door.

"You're out by yourself tonight?" said Kultra.

"Tonight and every night. My father doesn't approve of my singing. Or of my being out so late."

"But you do both?"

"In enjoy singing. And walks in the moonlight. And I enjoy doing things my father doesn't want me to do." The reached the front door. "Are you coming inside?" she asked.

"I usually do," replied Kultra. "Unless you don't want me to."

Smiling, Sanya opened the door, revealing the empty interior of the house once again. The door opened into a short hallway, which led to a massive ballroom. It was cold and drafty, but it would have been quite inviting had it been furnished. From here, Sanya led him down another hallway to the right.

"I thought your father didn't like strangers in the house," said Kultra.

"He doesn't," Sanya replied.

"Tell me about him," said Kultra. "Your father."

"Whatever for?"

"Just curious about the man that's going to be running me out of his house later."

"Oh, I wouldn't fret about that. He's much too busy with mage's guild business. He's either asleep or so hard at work that he doesn't even know I'm back yet."

"Must be a pretty important man."

"He's the guildmaster, of course. He took over for Louis after..."

Sanya sighed and looked away.

"After what?"

"There was an accident. Louis was maimed, and had to retire."

Kultra picked up on the hint of sorrow in Sanya's voice.

"Were you and him close?"

"We were... friends."

"More than friends, I'd say."

"Louis Octerno was a brilliant man. Still is. We just had... problems afterwards. After the accident."

"Really? What sort of problems?"

"He changed. Became so involved in trying to continue his work... even though it was impossible given what had happened. But none of that matters now," said Sanya. "Poor Louis is long gone. He left the guild, and Xemlt. Never saw or heard from him again."

"Not a letter or anything?"

For some reason, that question upset Sanya. She shook her head rapidly and lowered her head.

"My apologies," said Kultra. He wondered about Sanya and this Octerno person. It sounded important, but he didn't know what to make of it. "So, why the move?" Kultra asked. "Things not going well at the guild?"

"I should say so. Father never talks about the guild. He just up and decided he wanted to be somewhere else one day. I wanted to stay, of course, but he'd have nothing of it. We argued, but it was to no avail."

"I'm sure he knows how that is," said Kultra.

"What?"

"I meant that he probably has good reason."

"Oh, he always does. But usually he keeps them to himself."

Sanya led him into a large sitting room, which still held a cozy sofa, a table, a fireplace, and a few tapestries on the wall. On the table was a magical lamp similar to the one in the inn. It was glowing brightly.

"Have a seat," Sanya waved him to the sofa while she walked over to the fireplace. It wasn't lit. She opened the fireplace doors.

"I'll do that for y-"

"Oh, hush," Sanya touched a metal plate on the wall next, and suddenly a roaring fire burst up from the bricks. Warmth flooded into the room. "This is a civilized house, Mr. Kultra. None of that bothering with logs and soot and ash."

"Being in the mage's guild must have its advantages, then."

"Oh, bah. Everyone has these. All of the houses have some kind of magic in them. All the modern conveniences"

"Magic is big in this town, eh? Must keep the guild pretty busy."

Sanya slinked across the room and sat down on the sofa... at the opposite end from Kultra.

"Enough about the guild," she said. "Tell me about you."

"Not much to say."

"What do you do?"

"Other than move furniture, you mean?"

"Oh, come now... you're much too handsome to be a common laborer."

"Once, I was a professional seducer of women, but I fell upon hard times. There were so few women worthy of my talents that I had to resort to manual labor."

Sanya laughed out loud. Kultra wondered what was so funny... his words hadn't been THAT amusing.

"Well, I hope you've found someone worthy in our little town."

"There is a certain woman that's caught my eye."

"Really? Tell me about her, then."

Kultra leaned forward and kissed Sanya. The kiss lasted far longer than he'd anticipated.

"Perhaps we should relocate?" said Kultra. "To the bedroom?"

"Right here is just fine," said Sanya. She reached behind her and extinguished the lamp. Now, only the flickering light of the fireplace lit the room. "For starters."

Kultra slid across the sofa and they kissed again.

Kultra awoke in the feathery softness of Sanya's bed. Her room was just down the hall from the sitting room, nestled in a corner where the hallway made a sharp right turn. Kultra vaguely remembered relocating there sometime during the night. He felt the warmth of Sanya's body next to him, and heard her soft, rhythmic breathing.

He also heard the quiet, stealthy footsteps in the hallway... and the gentle clink of metal as some idiot adjusted their sword. Kultra's sensitive ears picked up all of these sounds clearly... but that wasn't telling him what he was up against.

Kultra closed his eyes and activated the heat-sensitive vision he'd given himself last night. He peered at the wall, and saw four men... no, five. Their heat signatures were clearly visible through the relatively cool wall. They were methodically making their way down the hallway, each man stopping to carefully inspect a room.

Kultra nudged Sanya. She awoke, and Kultra motioned for her to be quiet.

"Men," he whispered. "Outside."

"What? I don't hear anyth-"

"Trust me."

Kultra rolled out of bed and got dressed as quickly and quietly as he could. Sanya did the same, but whereas Kultra was fully dressed, she'd only donned a sheer slip by the time the first man reached her bedroom door.

Kultra took a couple of seconds to ogle her fine womanly attributes, then returned his attention to the door.

Kultra saw the knob turning, and colorful outline of the man on the other side. He reached for his swords, but then remembered that they were in a warehouse on the other side of town. All he had was his knife.

"Hmph. Why should my luck change now?" he mumbled. He motioned for Sanya to step back against the wall. She did.

The bedroom door creaked open-

"What's going on here!" came a shout from the hallway. "WHO- WHAT are you doing here!? Get away from my daughter's bedroom!"

It was Seveltine!

"You betrayed us!" someone answered. Kultra didn't recognize the voice. "You're harboring a Directorate spy!"

"What? What are you talking about!"

Sanya pulled the door open and ran out into the hall before Kultra could stop her.

"FATHER!" she screamed "WHO are these men!"

"The boss has no tolerance for treachery," said another armed man. "Especially from someone who he once considered a friend."

Kultra looked at their heat signatures through the wall. Seveltine was speaking with three of the men while the other two stood back and waited. Sanya was approaching them... but so was another person. That person was creeping up from the opposite end of the hall.

The shape was female, and she walked with a definite limp. None of the others in the hallway even noticed she was there. She paused a short distance from the others, raised her hands, and pointed something at them.

"Uh-oh." said Kultra. He prepared to move.

"You men get OUT of my house!" said Seveltine.

"Not until we search the place."

"No! You get out right NO- URCK!"

The cross-bow bolt exploded from the front of Seveltine's neck, and he collapsed. Even if he hadn't been looking the other way, he never would have seen it coming. But Kultra had, and he was ready to act. Before Seveltine's body hit the floor... while Sanya was drawing her breath to scream... Kultra burst from the bedroom and ran straight for the ballroom at the end of the hall. He threw his arm around Sanya as he passed her, and together they were past the armed men before the men even knew what was happening.

"AAAAAAA!!!" she finally screamed.

"THERE HE IS!" shouted the invisible archer. "GET THEM BOTH!"

The would-be assassins ran after them. A single man jumped out of one of the rooms just as Kultra was running past.

Kultra saw blond hair, and knew that this was one man who had to die right NOW! He released Sanya and struck with his knife. The man dodged at the last minute, and Kultra's blade sank to the hilt in his shoulder instead of his heart.

"ARRGH!" The man backed away, but not before-

CRACK!


Kultra punched the man in the face. He collapsed.

"Flaming wimp."

Suddenly, Kultra remembered the archer. He threw himself backwards, knocking Sanya against the wall just as a bolt whizzed past his face. The other swordsmen were closing fast. Once again, there was no time to go for the kill.

"Come on!"

Kultra grabbed Sanya, and at that exact moment, the entire house shook. There was a loud crashing noise at the front door. Kultra didn't know what it was, but he was about to find out. The house continued to shake as if rocked by a series of explosions-

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

"What the hell!"

"DIIIE!"

The first swordsman reached him. Kultra dodged, drove his boot into the man's crotch, and snatched the sword from his hand all in one fluid motion.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Whatever it was was getting CLOSER!

CLANK!

A second swordsman was on the attack. Kultra blocked his first blow and the two began to fight.

"Sanya! Run for the door while I hold them back!" Kultra shouted. More swordsman arrived just as Sanya turned and ran for the end of the hall. Kultra found himself fighting two... then three... then four men. Kultra blocked a downward slash and kicked a second man out of the way. He took a deep cut along his thigh from a third man, but the fourth caught Kultra's fist in the left temple. The men re-grouped and charged again. Kultra spun, blocked, slashed, and backed away. He saw the archer at the end of the hall, but she couldn't get a good shot with all of her men in the way. But the flaming man would probably regain consciousness any second now.

And all the while, the damned BOOMING noise was getting closer and closer.

"EEEEEEEEE!!!!!" Sanya screeched. She ran back down the hall toward Kultra.

"What the HELL!?! I thought I told you to-"

There was something HUGE right behind her. It filled the entire hallway from top to bottom, and it's powerful shoulders scraped the walls as it followed her in.

It looked like a hulking giant... nine feet tall at the least. His body was made out of huge coal-black rocks. Each of its footsteps shook the walls and left cracks in the marble floor.

BOOM!

BOOM!

"Grim!" the archer yelled. "CRUSH HIM!"

"CONSIDER HIM CRUSHED!" roared the rock-man. He stormed down the hallway.

"Great," Kultra hissed. "That's just great."

Kultra ducked under a swordstrike and took advantage of one swordsman's preoccupation with the approaching behemoth.

"URKKK!" Kultra's sword pierced his heart. Death energy flowed into him, and his body began to change. Bones lengthened. Muscles bulged. Clothes ripped and fell from his body. Kultra's skin thickened and hardened into a stony carapace. In mid-change, Kultra took a sword-strike from one of the men... the blade just drew sparks from his rocky hide. Now in the form of a gray stone giant... Kultra drew himself up to his full nine-foot height.

Predictably, the swordsmen fled.

"Get behind me," he said to Sanya... who was staring at him with wild, panic-filled eyes. "We're goin' right THROUGH that guy-"

Kultra grabbed his pack from where it had fallen, and charged the black giant,

The two collided.

KRA-BOOM!

The shockwaves knocked everyone off of their feet... except for Kultra and Grim. The two giants stood toe to toe and eye to eye. Neither one was the least bit fazed.

"Yer pretty strong," said Grim. "But not stronger than me."

"We'll see about that!"

The two grabbed each other and began to wrestle... throwing each other into walls and pummeling each other with huge rocky fists. Grim was right, not only was he the stronger of the two, but his hide could take more punishment that Kultra's gray exoskeleton. After only a few hits, red blood was trickling down Kultra's stony skin in quite a few places.

But Kultra was clearly the better fighter. He moved back as Grim charged, and caught the giant with a side kick.

BOOM!

"RRRRGGG!!!"

Grim stumbled back out into the ballroom, and Kultra was right behind him. He let loose with a combination of kicks and punches that spun his opponent around and sent him careening into a wall. Now Grim was bleeding. But he was also mad!

Grim charged once more. Kultra jumped to one side and brought his knee up into Grim's lower chest. It hurt Kultra's knee more than it hurt his opponent.

"OUCH!"

Grim spun and threw a surprisingly fast backfist strike. For a split second, Kultra had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Grim reminded him with another punch. Everything went black for an instant, and then Kultra opened his eyes and saw Grim's rocky foot descending towards his head. Kultra rolled, and the foot demolished the floor where he'd been laying. Grim charged. Kultra raised both of his legs and thrust his feet into the giant's chest with as much force as he could muster.

THOOOOM!!!

Grim hit the far wall with enough force to dislodge a section of the ceiling.... which immediately crashed down on top of him, burying him in rubble.

"Sanya!" Kultra bellowed. "Where are y-"

"RAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!!"

Grim emerged from the pile of rock and charged. There was berserk rage in his eyes. Kultra dodged and struck at the man's neck with the ridge of his hand.

"HA!"

"UNGH!"

An ordinary man's neck would have snapped, but Grim just got even madder.

"What the hell was THAT supposed to be!?" he bellowed. He lunged at Kultra, and the two hit the ground. They rolled around once... twice... finally Grim got one hand around Kultra's neck and began pounding Kultra's face with the other.

Kultra tired to push the giant off of him, but he couldn't dislodge the incredibly strong... and heavy... giant.

"You leave him alone!" Sanya yelled. She ran up to Grim and began hitting him. Her tiny fists did absolutely no damage to the black, rocky giant. Kultra doubted that he could even feel her blows, but he backhanded her nonetheless. Sanya sailed across the room and collapsed near the door. Kultra took advantage of the momentary distraction to bring both his fists together in front of him... one each side of Grim's head

THOOOM!!

"OOOOWWWW!"

Kultra shoved Grim back and quickly got to his feet. He threw a kick that sent Grim staggering sideways. Another kick put him on the ground, but Grim was right back up before Kultra could strike again. They found themselves wrestling once more... each one trying to choke, punch, or otherwise injure the other. Kultra shoved Grim away and tagged him with a rabbit punch that cracked Grim's jaw AND Kultra's hand.

"Grim GET DOWN!" came a shout. The blonde boy had recovered, and his interference would give Kultra just what he needed to get away. "FIRE ON!"

Kultra leapt for Grim, grabbed him and spun him around...

"ARRRRIIEEEEEE!!!" The searing flames struck Grim full-on. Portions of his rocky chest melted, while some small pieces flew off in all directions. As he ran for the door, Kultra noticed with much amusement that Grim screamed like a woman. He grabbed his pack, and then Sanya, and was outside before the human flame even realized he'd torched the wrong giant.

There were swordsmen outside. Kultra threw Sanya over his left shoulder and plowed right through the men as he ran for the street. Sanya woke up and started screaming. Kultra looked back, and saw that he was being followed.

"Damn...he an FLY TOO!?!?!"

The human flame was now airborne. He wasn't truly flying, merely hovering fifteen feet off of the ground... held aloft on a plume of superheated air. The second Kultra saw him, the flaming man shot a thin stream of fire straight at him.

Kultra tried to twist out of the way, but the flames caught his right shoulder.

"ARRRGGGH!!"

Kultra felt the searing heat, and smelled his flesh cooking.

"Damn!" Still holding Sanya, Kultra leapt into the bushes. He didn't stop... he kept right on running through the shrubs, changing directions at random to make it harder to get a good shoot at him. Flames erupted all around him. He knew he couldn't keep this up forever.

Kultra grabbed a rock and threw it at the man, but it was vaporized before it even got close.

"HAHAHAHAAAA!!" the flaming man laughed. "You can't touch me! But I can CERTAINLY reach out and touch YOU!"

Flames shot towards Kultra. Again he dodged, and this time managed to get away without getting more flesh seared from his bones. He found a huge bush and ducked under it. He put Sanya on the ground.

"You run for town," he said. "I'll draw his attention!"

"But-"

Kultra was already gone. He ran out into the open, and a plume of fire chased him across the landscape. He dove into another patch of shrubbery, then emerged and ran another direction an instant before the entire patch went up in flames.

"There!"

Two swordsmen were searching the grounds for him, and they quickly pointed him out. The hovering flame-man moved in their direction.

"Damn!"

Kultra went back the other direction and dove back through the flaming bushes. He snatched one up and threw it at the guards. The human flame incinerated it, and then tried to do the same to Kultra.

"AAAAA!"

Even the near-miss hurt like hell. He had to find a way to put this guy down, but there was nothing that could get close to him without getting vaporized.

"Wait a minute..."

Kultra looked around, and fist-sized rock a few yards away. He ran for it. More flame came at him. Kultra rolled past the rock and snatched it up along the way. Another plume of fire shot over his back... missing him by inches.

"ARRRGH!"

Kultra reached into his pack and pulled out one of Wellyn's gloves. He stuffed the rock inside it, and balled the glove up around it.

"Thribe!" he said. The glove became stiff an immobile, trapping the heavy rock inside of it.

Kultra stepped out and spotted the flaming man.

"HEEEEYYY!!!" he yelled. The man turned towards him. Hefting the gloved-rock in one hand, Kultra drew back and threw it as hard as he could

"HAHAHA!" the man laughed as the rock sailed towards him. "You never learn do y-"

KLUD!

The rock... wrapped up tightly in the indestructible glove... hit the man in the head like a hammer.

The flaming man sailed high into the air and descended rapidly.... his flaming body tore a scorched gouge in the ground as he skidded to a halt. When he rose, he was no longer aflame, and his blonde hair was soaked with blood.

"You... how..." he collapsed.

Kultra heard Sanya scream from not far away.

"Hmmm.... kill fire-boy, or go help the woman? Oh, hell..."

Kultra turned and ran in the direction of the scream.

"HEELLLLPPPP!!!"

Three guards were carrying her back towards the mansion. Four if one counted the invisible archer that was with them. Kultra ran straight for them.

As soon as he emerged from the bushes, the woman turned and fired her crossbow. It was a perfect shot, but the bolt barely nicked Kultra's stone skin. Two men drew their swords and charged, while the woman and the man holding Sanya ran for the mansion.

"BAH!"

Kultra batted both swordsmen away and ran after Sanya. He was two steps away from the door when something large and black demolished the wall. Grim's chest was melted, scorched, and altogether ruined... but he was still very much alive. And not in a good mood. Grim threw a piece of the wall at Kultra.

"OOOF!"

Kultra landed several yards behind where he had been standing. There was huge slab of granite resting on his chest. Kultra coughed up a mouthful of blood, then gingerly tossed the granite chunk away and got to his feet. He sidestepped Grim's wild punch, then threw grabbed the rocky green arm while it was extended. Kultra threw his weight into Grim and flipped the heavy monster over his shoulder...

BOOM!

He landed on top of the granite slab, shattering it like so much glass. Next, Kultra drove his fist straight down into Grim's wounded chest, and was rewarded with the crunch of rock as it yielded under his fist.

Grim gasped as whatever he had for ribs shattered.

"End of the line for you, buddy," said Kultra. He raised his hand for the killing blow. Grim's hand shot upward into Kultra's gut.

"Ungh!"

"Not quite!" Grim got to his feet and leapt for Kultra, who was leaping for him at the same time. They collided and hit the ground... then began rolling downhill, flattening the burning shrubs on their way to the street below. They battered each other all the way down, and when they stopped, both Grim and Kultra were bloodied and dizzy.

It was now a race to see who could stagger to their feet first...

---

"Who ARE you people!" Sanya screamed. Two men were holding her in the ballroom, while several others were running from room to room, destroying whatever they could find. Sanya had just seen Kultra and the huge black rock-thing go rolling down the hill, and she could even hear the thunder of their blows in the distance. Meanwhile, the men where just holding her. No one asked her any questions, and no one answered any of her own.

"We're not finding anything," said one of them. Sanya had no idea who he was talking to. "No scroll. No unusual enchantments."

"Damn," replied a female voice from near the center of the room. Sanya looked but there was no one standing there. "Perhaps he wasn't a traitor after all."

"WHO ARE YOU!?!?"

"SHUT UP!"

An unseen hand slapped Sanya hard across the lips. A trickle of blood ran down her chin.

"...who... who are you..." Sanya mumbled.

There was a shimmer in the air, and then there was someone standing there. A woman, with short blonde hair. She looked like she'd lost a particularly bad fight not too long ago, yet she still commanded respect from the others. She was obviously the one in charge.

"Perhaps YOU are the traitor. After all, the spy WAS in your bedroom."

"Spy? What are you talking about?"

"Didn't find anything in her room either," said another swordsman.

"Hmmm... and where is my half-wit brother?"

"Right here." Another man was stumbling into the room. He was blonde just like the woman, and was bleeding profusely from a fresh wound on his forehead. There was quite a family resemblance, even considering the bruises both of them wore.

"Jon, you idiot. You almost killed Grim, and THEN you let that bastard get the better of you."

"Doesn't matter. Grim's handling it now. What about her?" Jon pointed at Sanya.

"We'll take her back to the boss and let him sort it out."

"No! I'm not going anywh-"

"I said SHUT UP!"

The woman slapped her again.

A red handprint now blossomed on Sanya's cheek.

"The boss won't like that, Suze" said Jon. "He said he wanted her unharmed."

"She IS unharmed," Suze hissed. "Especially considering what's about to happen to this town. A few bruises is nothing. Go check on Grim. On the odd chance that this Directorate spy gets the better of him, I want YOU to take care of it."

"Right, sis." Jon turned to leave, but then Grim lumbered into the room. His rocky hide was cracked and battered, and he carried Kultra's pack like a trophy. "Speak of the devil."

"Ahhh," said Suze.

"What about it, Grim?" said Jon. "Is he dead?"

Grim nodded.

"Noooooo!!!" cried Sanya.

Suze looked like she was about to slap Sanya a third time, but she decided against it.

"You got his pack," said Jon. "Good. Maybe whatever information he had was in there. Not that is matters; the Directorate can't stop us now anyway." He walked toward Grim with the intention of taking Kultra's pack and searching through it.

"Why didn't you bring the body?" asked Suze. "We should search that as well."

Grim shrugged, and looked at Jon.

"Hmmm...." Suze frowned.

"Knowing Grim, I doubt there's much left to search," said Jon. "Probably just a red smear and a few lumps. Right big guy?"

"Jon. Stop where you are," ordered Suze.

"What? Huh?"

"Grim was bleeding before. Notice the blood on the floor from when he left."

"eh?"

"Notice that Grim does not appear to be bleeding now."

"I don't-"

"Do I have to SPELL IT OUT! That ISN'T GRIM! GET HIM!"

Suddenly Grim leapt for Jon, but the blond youth scrambled out of the way... moving quite fast for someone with a concussion.

"What the HELL'S going on!?!" Jon shouted

"Sorry guys," said Kultra, who was now doing a perfect imitation of the now-deceased Grim. "Your boy didn't make it.

"KILL HIM!" Suze vanished as her body turned invisible.

Several swordsmen charged.

"FIRE ON!" shouted Jon as burst into flame. His head injury interfered with his concentration, however, His fire form flickered and wavered... and finally extinguished altogether, returning Jon to normal human form. "Damn."

That was more than enough time for Kultra. He plowed through the swordsmen and snatched Sanya up into his arms. He ran for the western wall.

"AHA!" yelled Jon. He'd turned to fire-form once again and managed to stabilize himself. "Time to FRY!"

BOOM!

Kultra punched a large hole in the wall, then leapt to the side as Jon's fireball widened it for him.

"Thanks!" said Kultra. He leapt through the hole and landed on the grass outside. A few confused swordsman scattered and ran for cover. Kultra quickly dodged to his right as a second fireball sailed over his left shoulder. "We need some breathing room. Hang on for a second!" Kultra set Sanya down and turned to the wall he'd just come through. He placed both rocky hands on it's granite surface and gave a mighty shove "nnnnNNNNGGGRRAAAAA!!!!"

The wall... already weakened by Kultra's violent exit... gave way under Kultra's strength. It crumbled and fell inward with a loud-

KRA-BOOM!!

Kultra heard a few quick screams as those on the other side were crushed. Unfortunately, the removal of the wall was too much for the rest of the mansion to bear. The entire western side of the house crumbled and collapsed. Kultra and Sanya were already halfway down the hill by the time the ground stopped shaking.

A confused swordsman ran up to them.

"What happened!?!" he yelled. He was obviously unaware that Kultra wasn't Grim.

"You wanna know what happened?" said Kultra. "C'mere... it went something like this-"

Kultra grabbed the man and crushed his skull. He used the resulting energy to change into his standard human form.


"Now, lets get out of here," said Kultra.

"You came back for me!" replied Sanya.

"Actually I figured they'd already killed you. I came back to kick that little fire-throwing brat's ass."

"But how did you beat that other giant?"

"HA! A one on one fight with Kultra is suicide no matter HOW big and strong you are. Guess he found that out the hard way."

"Do you think they're all dead?"

As if in answer to the question, a huge plume of fire erupted form the wreckage of the Seveltine mansion. It shot skyward, throwing rock and flaming debris in all directions

"Looks like at least one of 'em made it. We need to find a safe place to put you. Then I'm going back to finish this."

"I know just the place," said Sanya.

Meanwhile, a nearby mountiantop was under siege.

Ten men... eight experienced soldiers and two powerful mages... ascended the rocky slope with minimal resistance. Any guards they encountered quickly fell under an assault of arrows and spells. The traps, of which there were dozens, were avoided with the skill of men who had done this kind of thing many times before. As they had planned, most of the enemy personnel were dealing with their decoy in town. This would at least buy them enough time to get inside and find out what was going on.

"Got more guards coming," said Xeryar, one of the mages. He had both eyes closed, and was instead seeing through a magic eye... an invisible glowing orb that was floating above them, far ahead of their position. The spell was common, but the additional enchantment that made it virtually undetectable was Xeryar's own contribution. "Six men up ahead. They know we're coming. They're spreading out in an arc and getting into position for an ambush."

"Any sign of any more serious opposition?," asked Giptyl, the mage in charge of the operation.

"None so far."

"Let's go then."

With a series of hand-motions, Giptyl signaled the rest of the squad to stand ready. Swords were drawn. Spells were prepared. And, thanks to the silencing amulets they all wore around their necks, and not a single sound traveled beyond their immediate area. The men spread out and crept forward a few feet... then they paused.

"Right there..." Xeryar pointed to a large rock directly ahead of them. Giptyl cast a spell of penetrating vision, and suddenly he could see right through the huge boulder. Two men crouched behind it. More men among the rocks further up the mountainside.

"They know we're here. We know they're here," Giptyl said. He whispered even though it was completely unnecessary. "So lets get on with it."

He gave another hand signal, which ended with him pointing out the positions of the hiding swordsmen.

Six of his own swordsman leapt from their hiding places and charged. At the same time, two archers activated their rings of flight and soared into the air. Giptyl stood and, with another gesture, sent a lightning bolt arcing towards the boulder ahead of them. The huge rock shattered, and the explosion threw two scorched enemy soldiers flying to either side.

Nine enemy swordsmen burst from their hiding places and charged.

"ARCHERS!" Xeryar yelled... of course, with the silencing amulets in place, only Giptyl was close enough to hear him. Xeryar pointed to a rocky outcropping up ahead. Three archers stood and leveled their crossbows at Gyptal's men.

"Our men are on it," said Giptyl. Giptyl's two flying archers had already loosed their first volley. Each arrow became a fist-sized fireball as it sailed towards its target, and each fireball exploded on impact, throwing tentacles of fire in all directions

"Aeeeee-" Their screams lasted less than a second.

Meanwhile, the two teams of swordsmen clashed. Metal met metal, and the heavily enchanted swords of Giptyl's men sliced cleanly through the enemy's common weapons. The small team of enemy soldiers were put out of their misery quickly and efficiently.

The entire battle, from the time Giptyl gave the first signal to the time the last swordsman fell, had taken just under one minute. Not a single one of Giptyl's men had received so much as a scratch. Giptyl surveyed the area, and then, satisfied that there weren't any more soldiers to kill, he canceled his spell of vision.

"We'd better get moving," said Giptyl. "As much as I'd like the rest of this mission to be that easy, I don't think that-"

"Sir, something's coming!"

"What?"

Without warning, the steady trickle of information from Xeryar's magic eye-globe became a roaring flood of white-hot energy. Xeryar didn't have a prayer of canceling the spell before the feedback hit him...

"AAAAAIIIIIIIEE!!!" Xeryar's eyes burst into flames and cooked in their sockets. A split- second later, the vision center of his brain exploded with enough force reduce everything inside his skull to a thin gray soup, which leaked form his ears and nose as he fell.

"Xeryar!"

Then the distortion wave hit the main body of the squad. Invisible and intangible, it washed over them silently, leaving chaos in it's wake. Every ounce of magic that it touched was distorted and magnified over a thousand times. The silencing amulets grew white-hot and burned holes in the soldier's clothing... and their skin. The archers shot up into the air as their rings of flight went out of control. Within seconds they were lost in the clouds... and then incinerated as their enchanted arrows exploded. The enchanted swords glowed red hot in the soldier's hands. But even before the men could drop them, the weapons exploded, sending shards of white-hot metal in all directions... shredding the men who had wielded them. Giptyl tore the amulet from around his neck and threw it into the air, where it burst into a shower of hot sparks. Desperate, he tried to cast a teleportation spell, but the magic he summoned went horribly awry, with gruesome results. His hands shriveled and turned black... ravaged from within by the uncontrollable magic. They fell from his arms like old, dry leaves.

Giptyl screamed. He felt a searing pain on his upper arm... that's when he remembered the anti-tracking rune. The tiny tattoo was glowing like a star!

"NOOOOO-"

The explosion swallowed Giptyal's final cry, and incinerated all trace of him.
---

"So you're really a spy?" said Sanya as she reclined on the small bed. She and Kultra had broken into a large boat at the docks, and were using it to rest and regroup. Sanya claimed she knew the owner and said that he wouldn't be back for a while. Kultra believed her, but it really didn't make any difference. Another fight would suit him just fine.

They were below decks, in the boat's only sleeping quarters. It was cramped. Sanya was on the bed, and Kultra was sitting in an uncomfortable chair in the corner. He was glad he'd managed to get out of the Grim-duplicate body... he doubted it would have even fit into the cabin.

"No," replied Kultra. "Well... maybe. I'm a mercenary by trade."

"A mercenary? What is all this about? Who hired you?"

"I don't think I'm supposed to answer that last one. But the first one is what I'm supposed to be figuring out."

"Well?"

"Damned if I know. I'm new to this spy game... I usually just smash stuff. I'm very good at that part... as you've seen."

"A hired sword." Sanya gave a disappointed sigh. "I should have known better."

"Better than what? I'm just a guy you did to make your father mad, remember?"

Sanya gasped.

"I may be just a hired sword, but I was smart enough to figure that out. Not that I'm complaining. Plus, I saved your ass just now."

"You didn't to a lot for my father."

"Your father was involved in something that got him killed. It's going to get a lot of people killed, I think... whatever 'IT' is."

"What are you talking about?"

"Whoever killed your father plans to destroy this town. Your father was working with them-"

"No, he would never-"

"-so he got advanced warning. That's why you were moving. He was clearing out before the big... whatever."

"I don't believe you. YOU were the one that got my father killed! Those men were there looking for YOU!"

"Yeah, that's another thing. Your father didn't know I was there. How did they find me? I'm sure no one followed me from the docks."

"The docks?"

"I followed your father there last night. He had a nice conversation with the same people that killed him this morning. I was spotted, but I got away. I was careful not to be followed back to your father's house."

"My father didn't leave the house last night."

"You were at the tavern. You wouldn't know WHAT your father was doing while you were gone. But I saw him."

"I don't believe that either."

"That's your choice, but your father was up to something."

"He would never do anything like that."

"Maybe he was forced to. Blackmail. Or a threat."

"He wouldn't hurt anyone to save his own life."

"What about yours?"

Sanya had no answer for that.

"That still doesn't tell us who's behind it," said Kultra. "Who could get to your father? Or more exactly... who could get to YOU even if your father knew you were in danger. Who has the money to hire all these men?"

Sanya shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

"What?" said Kultra.

"I... think it could be Louis."

"Louis who?"

"Octerno. The old guildmaster."

"Your old boyfriend?"

"I told you he changed after his accident. He grew cold and... different. Sometimes he'd say little things... make cruel little comments about people. That wasn't like him at all. And he said he was working on something important even after the accident. "

"And what was that?"

"An experimental kind of spell. I have no idea what it was, but something went wrong... and he lost his hands."

"Huh? How the hell did THAT happen?"

Sanya shrugged.

"He never talked about it. Most of the guild turned their back on him later. They said he was reckless and dangerous. They were right to a certain extent. He grew bitter and finally he left the guild. He said he could do better alone. He appointed my father as guildmaster over several more qualified people. I think is was because of me."

"Or it could have been a bribe to get your father's loyalty. So where is this Octerno now?"

"I don't know. I never heard from him again after he left."

"Yeah, but I bet your father has."

"That simply can't be. Besides... if Octerno was after us, we'd never be able to hide. He could scry our location no matter where-"

"Nah. I got this thing here, see..." Kultra rolled up his sleeve and showed Sanya his anti-tracking rune. The pale design was barely visible on his skin. "Nobody can use magic to track us."

Sanya looked at it and frowned.

"What?" said Kultra.

"I won't ask where you got it.. but are you sure that's an anti-tracking rune?"

"Uhhh... yeah. Why?"

"Because it looks an awful lot like a scrying ward."

"Huh?"

"My father used to do them for the town guard. They'd put them on suspects and follow their movements. This looks a lot like one of those wards."

"Those BASTARDS! They set me up!"

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter now. I've got to get this thing offa me!"

"But it's branded onto you. How are you gonna-"

Kultra pulled a knife out of his pack and placed the blade against his skin.

"Hope this thing doesn't go too deep."

"No wai- uggh... I'm gonna be sick."

Using the knife, Kultra cut a shallow circle around the rune. Then he stuck the knife under the section of skin and began saw it gently back and forth, slicing away the branded skin When he was done, Kultra had successfully excised the ward, and left a small, shallow hole in his upper arm. He found a rag and tied it tight around the area, covering the bleeding wound.

"Ugh," said Sanya. "Didn't that hurt?"

"What do YOU think? Don't worry. I'll heal the next time I shape-shift. Right now, I've got to get rid of this thing." Kultra held up the bloody scrap of skin he'd just cut away. Sanya's stomach turned. "You think it still works now that I've cut-"

Suddenly, the boat rocked violently. There was a loud BOOM! from above, and the entire top section of the boat vanished... sliced away by a fiery plume. The rest of the boat began to burn. Kultra looked up and saw the sky... and the flaming human figure hovering just to the right of the boat.

"Weeee're BAAAACK!!!" Jon laughed.

"DAMN!"

"Killing Grim and dropping a building on us wasn't very nice," said Jon. "But if you hand over the girl now, I'll forget all about that and incinerate you quickly and painlessly."

Sanya screamed, right on cue.

"Uhhh..." Kultra looked around. The boat was on fire. He had nothing to fight with. "Sanya... I think we're screwed."

"We'll go with you!" Sanya shouted. "Take us to Octerno!"

"Huh? Sanya?"

"Perhaps you weren't too clear on things," said Jon. "The spy dies here, and YOU are coming with us regardless."

"Us?"

Sanya screamed again, this time it ended in a muffled grunt.

Kultra looked back. Sanya was moving rapidly toward one of the burning edges of the ruined boat... but not under her own power. Something invisible was yanking her away. Through the smoke, Kultra could see a small rowboat floating along side the doomed vessel.

"Hey!"

"I'm clear!" as familiar female voice shouted.

Kultra didn't waste the time to curse or scream. He made a running leap...

FWWWOOOOOMMMM!!!!!

A single fireball demolished the starboard side of the boat. The fire was so hot that the flaming debris was already burnt to ash by the time it hit the water. The burning port side tilted and quickly sank into the water as the rowboat sped away... propelled by some unknown magic.

A second fireball began boiling the water over a large area surrounding the wreckage. For the second time in less than a day, Kultra found himself swimming through hot water... diving down as far as he could to get away from the heat. Fortunately the water was murky, and he doubted that Jon or anyone else could see exactly where he was. He swam as far and as fast as he could. When lack of air forced him to the surface, he was a good distance away. There was no sign of the human flame, or of the small rowboat carrying Sanya and the invisible woman. The area where the boat once floated was shrouded in a thick cloud of steam, which was slowly dissipating as it drifted toward the shore.

Kultra's skin was as red as a lobster, and almost every inch of it throbbed with the pain of first degree burns.

"Okay," said Kultra. "Screw the Directorate. This is personal now."

---

Kultra plowed through the dense undergrowth and fought his way up the steep slope. Weeds and branches slapped his already sore face, but he didn't care. It was a few hours from noon. He had a woman to rescue, a town to save, and more importantly... some asses to kick.

"Don't know why I didn't think of this sooner," he grunted. "Hell, these evil geniuses always forget the simple stuff." Kultra used his knife to chop his way through a particularly tough knot of shrubbery. He was close to where it all began; he'd already found the huge burnt area where the strange man had given him the scroll. He found several more areas like it, as well as paths where the running swordsmen had torn through the woods like stampeding animals. No one had bothered to come back and erase the evidence of that pursuit. Kultra wasn't a tracker by any means, but even a blind man could follow the trail. Everything led uphill, toward wherever the human flame and associated henchmen had come from on that fateful night when Kultra first encountered them.

Just as Kultra was wondering if he had a prayer of making it in time, the woods began to thin. The ground became rocky, the soil too thin to support more than a few tufts of grass. Not far ahead was mountainous hill that jutted from the ground like a giant fist of rock.

"I guess this would be the place."

Kultra started climbing.

It was easy going at first. Then he set off the first trap. It was a trip-wire connected to a heavy stone. Kultra stepped on the rock, it shifted, and a huge shelf of rock began to give way... sliding down the mountain right towards him. With quick reflexes and a bit of luck, Kultra made it out of the path of the falling rocks just in time. He curled into a ball and tucked his head under as the avalanche passed. A few fist-sized stones bounced off of his back, scoring some moderately painful bruises, but nothing more.

Kultra knew that the rock-slide was discourager... a non-lethal trap meant make people think the rocks were unstable. Any merely curious climber who encountered it would quickly decide to climb somewhere else. The dangerous traps would be further up. Kultra continued his ascent. He moved just as fast as before... but he paid close attention to where he placed his hands and feet.

The traps became more numerous the higher he got. He was heading in the right direction.

After twenty minutes of climbing, Kultra found something strange.

Blood. Blood and chunks of thoroughly cooked flesh... along with tiny shards of metal and some pieces of burnt clothing. Some of the rocks looked like it had been blasted away by an explosion. By several explosions. Several large explosions.

The burnt rocks were still warm.

"Looks like flame-boy's been busy," said Kultra. He picked up a chunk of twisted metal and examined it. He had no idea what it was, but it did seem like it had been a part of something else. "Hmmm..."

Kultra noticed a strange quality to the air. Not so much a scent as a feeling... a charged, rarefied sensation as if lightning had just struck the area. Or was ABOUT to strike.

Kultra suddenly felt vulnerable and exposed. This was the perfect place for an ambush, and it looked as if one had already happened recently. He decided to move on, so he tossed the metal shard away... the shard bounced off of a small rock, and a trap door swung open, revealing a large, dark pit.

"WHOA!"

Kultra hit the ground, in case any arrows, spears, poisoned darts, rocks, or other projectiles were headed his direction. No further threats presented themselves, but Kultra felt less and less secure about where he was.

Moving quickly and silently, he removed the coil of rope from his pack and tied it to a sturdy rock. He knotted it every few feet, and threw it into the pit.

"Down we go..." he mumbled as he climbed down. Some sunlight filtered into the pit from above, and after a short distance Kultra could see what lay below. At the bottom of the pit was a grid of huge, upward-pointing metal spikes, each one set about one foot apart from its neighbor. Kultra didn't want to think about what would have happened had he fallen straight down.

Kultra climbed a bit lower, and more details came into focus. There was a dark rectangle cut into one of the walls. It clearly wasn't natural, so it must have been a passage of some kind. There was also a thin rim of clear floor surrounding the spikes. A walkway. Kultra's rope ran out about ten feet from the tip of the spikes. It was still a long way down, but it was a survivable fall, assuming he could avoid the spikes that were directly below him. Kultra started swinging back and forth until he could reach the wall with his feet. Then he shoved off as hard as he could and let go of the rope. He soared over the deadly spikes and hit the far wall. He slid down, landing on the clear walkway just to the right of the rectangular passage.

He looked up at the pit's opening, some sixty feet above him. He hoped this passage went somewhere, because climbing back up would probably take more time than he had.

Kultra darted down the passage, and found that, after a few feet the ceiling began to emit a dim glow. It got brighter the further he went, and pretty soon it was like daylight. He could see an intersection ahead. The passage he was on ended, but there were branches going to the right and left. Kultra jogged toward the intersection, then suddenly stopped.

Footsteps. Lots of them, coming from the left passage.

Uh-oh.

The footsteps stopped, and there was nothing but silence for a few agonizing seconds. Kultra crept to the edge of the passage and peered around the corner...

... where he looked right into the face of a guard who was preparing to do the same thing. Their noses were about an inch apart.

"AAAAAA!!" they both yelled in surprise. The twenty guards standing behind the first one just drew their weapons and charged.

Kultra ran. He knew the way he'd just come was a dead end, so he took the only way that remained... the right passage. There was a single open room at the end. Kultra headed for it, intending to turn and stab the first person that followed him in and use the death energy to change into something that could deal with twenty armed guards. This was going to be fun.

He burst into the room. There was an exit opposite the entrance, but Kultra didn't give it more than a passing glance. He turned to face the guards, knife drawn and ready.

The guards yelled... not in challenge, but in frantic panicked attempt to stop running before they entered the room after Kultra. They all managed to stop in time, and Kultra found himself looking at a the guards through the doorway... and they just looked back.

"What the hell?" Kultra took a step back...

CLICK!

"Damn!"

THOOOM!

Thick metal plates slid down over both exits, sealing Kultra away from the guards, but also trapping him in the room.

"OhhhhhhHELL! What NOW!?"

SCHLING!!

Three foot-long iron spikes emerged from the ceiling. There was a low, grinding noise, and the ceiling began to descend towards him...

"GRR! I HATE these things!" spat Kultra. He ran across the room to the other doorway and began to pull on the metal plate that was sealed the exit. Just as he thought, it wouldn't budge. The spikes were about five feet above him now.

Kultra went back to the other door, and began searching the floor for the touch-plate that had activated the trap. He found it... a loose stone that was just a hair lower than the rest of the floor. He tried to pry it up... hoping that he could 'un-trip' the trap before it killed him. It wouldn't budge.

"Dammit!"

The spikes were four feet from his head.

Kultra pounded on the plate with the handle of his knife. The handle cracked and fell apart.

"GREAT!"

Kultra unslung his pack and started searching for something he could use.

"AHA!"

He pulled out the one glove remaining from the pair that Wellyn had given him. He slipped it onto his right hand and made a tight fist.

"Thribe!"

The glove became iron-hard.

The spikes were three feet above him.

Kultra knelt down and began pounding on the plate with all the strength he could muster. Sparks flew as the glove hit the stone over and over... like a hammer on an anvil. The first few hits had no effect. But the sixth blow cracked the plate in half.

The pointed spikes were a little over two feet overhead now.

Kultra removed the glove and pulled the shattered rock out of the way. He looked down into the tripping mechanism. There was a tiny lever, which was in the down position. Kultra reached in and pulled the lever up.

CLICK!

The ceiling stopped its descent. Somewhere within the walls, he could hear some machine slowly winding down.

"Whew!"

Kultra assumed the doors would open momentarily. He stood up, but as soon as he released the lever-

CLICK!

The ceiling started down again.

"DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!"

Kultra reached down and pulled the lever...

CLICK!

It stopped.

He let it go.

CLICK!

It started again.

"Ooookayyy..."

Kultra rummaged through his pack once more, trying to find something small enough to wedge under the lever. Amazingly enough... he couldn't find a single thing.

The tip of the spikes were less than a foot from Kultra's head. He got down on his hands and knees and peered into the trip mechanism again, looking for some kind of latch or hook. He saw nothing of the sort.

"Not good."

Then an idea came to him. Kultra reached into his pocket and pulled out the blank coin the Directorate had given him. He jammed it under the lever, and it fit perfectly!

The spikes halted. Kultra stood up, and the spikes were about an inch above his head.

Somewhere nearby, the machinery wound down and halted.

CLANG!

Both of the metal plates slid back into the walls. Surprised guards peered into the room. Kultra waved at them as he left through the opposite exit.

"AFTER HIM!" one guard ordered. Men streamed into the room.

Kultra stopped to watch. When the first man leapt for the door in front of Kultra, Kultra shouted said a single word:

"Ajix."

CLICK!

The coin... which had been the only thing keeping the trap from springing... appeared in the palm of Kultra's hand.

THOOOM!

The metal plates slammed down once more, trapping over half of the guards in the room.

"I wonder if Octerno teaches his men how do disarm traps," Kultra mused. He waited....

"AIIIEIIIIIIIIIIIAARRRGGGHH-"

CRACK!

CRUNCH!

SNAP!

"I guess not."

Kultra turned and started down the new corridor. It made an "L," and he had just turned the corner when he walked headlong into the teleporter trap.

There was a flash of light... and suddenly Kultra was somewhere else.

The 'where' wasn't very important. Kultra's attention was mainly focused on the ring of eight, grim-faced archers that now surrounded him. Each one had a crossbow aimed at one of his vital organs, and they were all safely out of his reach. Just beyond the archers stood a cocky blonde youth... sporting a black eye and quite a few bruises. The boy's arm from the elbow down was a plume of fire... and it was pointed right at Kultra's head.

"Don't move," said Jon.

"Hi there," said Kultra. His mind raced... but he couldn't think of a single way out other than praying that every archer in the room had exceptionally bad aim.

"You've been expected, Mr. Kultra." Jon sneered. He clearly wanted to incinerate Kultra on the spot, but for some reason, he didn't. Kultra wasn't complaining.

"Really?"

"Yes. Much to my dismay, Octerno has decided that you're worth keeping alive... even if only for a few minutes."

"I'm not complaining," said Kultra. He eyed the archers. They eyed him back.

"You will," said Jon. "Men..."

The archers parted, and Jon made a circular motion with his hand. Three rings of fire leapt from his fingertip and circled Kultra. They hovered in mid air... one at the knees, one at the waist, and one at his chest. At each height, Kultra had barely a foot of space between him and the flames.

"Those rings go where I want them to," said Jon. "If you don't want to be immolated, I suggest you do the same."

"Immolated. That's a big word for such a little snot-nosed punk."

The top two rings suddenly shrank, leaving a mere three inches of freedom.

"My apologies," said Jon with a sarcastic grin. "Now, follow me."

The rings started moving forward, floating towards a corridor behind Jon. At first Kultra didn't budge, but when he felt the heat searing his skin, he moved along.

The walked down the corridor. Jon was in front, then Kultra, then all eight archers. The archers had their weapons trained on Kultra's back.

"Where are we going?" said Kultra.

"You'll see soon enough," replied Jon.

"What about Sanya? Where is she?"

The fiery rings shrank once more. They were almost touching Kultra's body now. He could smell the smoke as his clothing began to singe from the heat. His skin was blistering.

"Not big on questions, eh?" said Kultra.

"No."

The procession approached a large metal door. Jon placed his hand on a glowing plate in the wall, and the door slid open, revealing the enormous chamber beyond.

"Zounds," Kultra gasped as the flames ushered him inside.

The room was a giant cone, fifty yards across at the base, with walls sloping inward to a point at least two hundred feet above the floor. The walls and floor were coated with a dull metal... undeniably lead. The metal was perfectly smooth; There were no breaks, cracks or seams of any kind.

In the center of the room was what looked like a giant egg, at least eighty feet from top to bottom. It was lead as well, similarly seamless, though at its peak was a clear, pyramid-shaped crystal that seemed to sprout from the metal as if it had grown there. The pyramid glowed with an ominous light that pulsed ever so slowly, and the entire egg-contraption hummed with such vigor that the entire room vibrated.

Large arcane designs... wards of containment and control... covered the walls and floor of the room, as well as the surface of the egg-thing. Some wards were several times larger than a man, others were small enough to be covered with a single fingertip. Each one glowed with its own sinister light... some a fiery orange, others a malicious red, and couple seemed to emit pure coal-black darkness. The air literally sizzled with energy. Every few minutes a huge spark would leap from the surface of the egg to the lead-lined walls, where the containment wards would absorb the energy like a sponge. The wards would glow extremely bright for a second, and then everything would settle back into its own sinister equilibrium... only to erupt again a few minutes later.

In front of the egg was a small pedestal. It was four feet high... truly tiny in comparison to everything else in the room. Atop the pedestal was a crystal globe the size of a man's head. It pulsed in conjunction with the giant crystal on the egg.

There were also men in the room. Silent, unarmed, and dressed in simple robes, they wandered around the rim of the room, making notes on little scrolls and generally keeping as far back from the egg and the wards as possible. All except for one.

One man... one mage... hovered near the top of the egg, where the strange crystal merged with the metal. He hung motionless in the air as if standing on solid ground. He wore black boots, black velvet pants, and a burgundy cape that fell around him like a shroud. He had thick metal gauntlets on his hands, but the rest of his body seemed unprotected from the chaotic energy that flared around him. Lightning-like bolts of power surged past him, yet he ignored them completely as he worked. He pointed one gauntlet-clad hand at the surface of the egg, and a bright arc of power leapt from the metal fingertip and played along the base of the crystal. The lead glowed red hot and flowed around the crystal... welding it in place. A brilliant shower of sparks cascaded down the egg. Then, apparently satisfied with whatever he'd been doing, the mage floated around to another spot and repeated the process... blasting the crystal/metal juncture with a bolt of power from his fingertip.

He continued in this manner for several minutes, while Kultra and his captors just watched. Finally, the man looked down at them. He smiled a sinister smile and began to descend, floating toward them at a leisurely pace. As he got closer, Kultra could make out a few more details. The man's short, dark brown hair was peppered with gray. His face was rugged and pockmarked, but was framed by a neatly trimmed goatee and mustache that put Kultra's rough scraggle to shame.

Then Kultra looked at the man's hands. What he had originally assumed were gauntlets were actually artificial hands... crafted and assembled from fine steel. They looked like they could crush rock, yet appeared delicate enough for the most detailed work.

The man halted his descent some ten feet above them and hovered in the air just as he had done near the top of the egg. He peered down at Kultra and nodded graciously.

"Octerno, I presume," said Kultra.

"You presume correctly," said Louis Octerno. "You must be the annoying thorn that has been pricking at my heels as of late."

"I guess that'd be me."

"Let's have a look at you."

Octerno pointed the little finger of his right hand at Kultra, and Kultra felt himself rising up into the air. Jon's fire-rings vanished, but before Kultra could do anything, he was hovering seven feet from the ground. Octerno was still above him, but everyone else's heads were below Kultra's feet.

"What an unassuming little curr," said Octerno. "And yet you've managed to kill my private messenger and one of my best henchmen."

"Who? Rock-face? HE was one of your best? Well I hate to tell you this, but if he was one of your best then, whatever you've got planned here, you're screwed already."

"Ahahaha! And brackish sense of humor as well! That will make torturing you all the more enjoyable."

"Torture? What's with the torture? You wanna know somethin,' why don't you just ask?"

"All right," Octerno chuckled. "Tell me the location of the Directorate."

"Oops. Sorry. Can't help you there."

Octerno floated slightly lower, but still remained out of Kultra's reach.

"You waste my time," he said. "And as you can no doubt see, I have very little of it to spare. I have the destruction of a town to oversee."

"With what? With THAT thing? All I see is big egg and a guy with no hands. I'm really not impressed." Kultra lied. He was quite impressed. "What is this stuff?"

"This 'stuff,'" said Octerno. "is the culmination of years of research. Research that began with the destruction of my hands and my career." Octerno raised on metal gauntlet for emphasis. "They said I was reckless, but my incident wasn't a foolish, failed experiment... it was a triumph!"

"So you torched your own hands on purpose?"

"A minor sacrifice. Inconsequential in comparison to what I discovered."

"And what's that?"

"Modern magic has no name for it. The fools don't even know it exists. Yet. But I call it the Chaos Wave... a force that destabilizes and amplifies whatever magic it touches. It renders all spells violently uncontrollable... and in most cases highly explosive."

"Doesn't sound like such a big deal to me."

"I'm sure the Directorate squad that tried to infiltrate this earlier mountain would disagree. If they were still alive."

"What are you talking about?"

"Steadfast to the end, eh? Deny all knowledge of the Directorate and its activities, is that it?"

"Ummm...."

"No matter. I will extract their location from you... and then they will join you in whatever afterlife awaits fools like yourself. Within this containment vessel is a magical chain reaction that is constantly producing my chaos energy. Only the purest lead can contain it, and this vessels walls are over two feet thick! Once the energy reaches a critical threshold, I can direct it in a beam to whatever place I wish. Cities can be devastated from afar! We can hold entire KINGDOMS hostage! NATIONS will quiver in fear before the power of the Chaos Wave! But, after this final test on Xemlt, our FIRST target will be the Directorate itself! Then there will be NO ONE to stop us!"

"Who is 'us'?"

"Ahahaaa! As if you don't already know!"

"Uhh..."

"NOW! The Directorate! Where are they!"

"Can't help you. I teleported in... they could be anywhere."

Octerno chuckled and shook his head.

"Take this fool to the library and hold him there. The final test is less than an hour away... I shall deal with him afterwards."

Octerno made a fist... and Kultra fell from the air like a stone. He hit the ground hard. He leapt to his feet, but the flaming rings were in place before he could take a single step.

"You're not gonna get away with this!" shouted Kultra as Jon and the archers led him away. He had no idea why he yelled such a ridiculous phrase... it just seemed appropriate at the time.

"Oh, but I already HAVE!" replied Octerno. The maniacal mage was already rising into the air to continue his work.

"I'll stop you! Or SOMEBODY will... eventually!"

Octerno just laughed.

Jon led Kultra through a maze of magically-lit hallways to a small room. There was a translucent energy barrier over the doorway. Once again, Jon touched a plate on the outside wall. The energy barrier vanished. The rings escorted Kultra into the library... a small room with one long, rectangular table, some chairs, and some bookshelves lining two of the walls. The barrier returned just as the rings vanished.

"I do hope you try to escape," said Jon. He pointed at the barrier that sealed the room. "Your screams will echo throughout the complex... music to my ears."

Kultra spat at Jon through the barrier. The wad of phlegm sizzled and evaporated as soon as it hit the energy field.

Jon laughed and walked away. The archers followed.

"Hmmm..."

"Kultra!"

It was Sanya. She was sitting in a chair in the corner of the small library. She didn't look as if she'd been harmed. At least not where Kultra could see. "I suppose you've come to rescue me?"

"Among other things. Your boyfriend's crazy, you know. He's gonna blow up the town with that chaos-egg-thingy he has."

"I know."

"Let me guess... he wanted you and him to pick up where you left off, you declined, and he stuffed you in here until you changed your mind."

"Something like that, yes."

"Typical. We've got to find a way out of here."

"I've looked. There's nothing."

"Bah... I've escaped from tougher places than this. There's ALWAYS a way out. Maybe the bookshelves-"

"NO!"

Kultra reached for one of the shelves, but when his finger was about an inch away, a bolt of lighting leapt from the shelf and blasted Kultra across the room. Kultra hit the wall and slid down to the floor.

"Unnng..." Kultra opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. His right arm felt like it was on fire.

No... it WAS on fire!

"HEY!"

Sanya patted the flames out, revealing a track of burnt flesh where the bolt had traveled up his arm.

"Ouch."

Kultra made several attempts to stand. His forth attempt succeeded. He shook the dizziness from his head.

"Louis doesn't want anyone but himself reading his books," said Sanya. "He was like that even before he went mad."

"And I guess I'll get more of the same if I just tried to walk out of this room."

"Probably."

"Okay... lets test that out." Kultra looked around the room. He assumed the chairs were safe, since Sanya had been sitting in one when he arrived. He picked up one sturdy oak chair and tossed it out of the room.

The flash and explosion were so loud that Kultra couldn't see or hear for several seconds. When his vision returned, he saw that a few charred pieces had made it through the barrier, but they were now on fire and rapidly turning to ash. The bulk of the chair itself was floating in the air in the form of smoke and dust.

"Running through the doorway isn't an option. I wonder if I pushed the... table.... through..." Kultra's words trailed off.

"What?"

Kultra closed his eyes, and opened them again. He looked at the corner of the room... by the door.

"What is it?" asked Sanya.

"Put a guard in the cell with the prisoners, eh?" said Kultra.

"What are you talking about?"

"Not talking to you. I'm talking to HER!" Kultra pointed at the corner. "Might as well show yourself. I can see your heat signature as clear as day!"

The air shimmered, and Suze appeared. She had a crossbow leveled at Kultra's chest.

"Well done, spy," she said.

"I'm not the one hiding in a corner."

"But you will be the one leaking blood all over the floor."

"Uh-uh. Your boss wants me alive, remember. My guess is that you're just in here to make sure we don't escape."

"Sit down. Both of you."

Sanya backed away and sat down in one of the remaining chairs. Kultra didn't budge.

"You test my patience."

"Might as well. I already tested your fighting skills... you failed that one."

Suze glared at him. Kultra took a step forward.

"I will kill you," Suze sneered.

"I'll bet." Kultra took another two steps forward. "Still mad about your husband, eh? I would be too. You wanna know how I killed him? See, there was this chamberpot in the room-"

Kultra had his eyes fixed on Suze's hand, and when she pulled the trigger on the crossbow, he was already dodging. He twisted to one side and kicked the weapon out of Suze's hand. The crossbow flew into the energy field and exploded into a spray of ash and flaming splinters. The flash blinded Kultra for an instant, but, since Suze had her back to the door, she was unaffected. She immediately pulled a long, sharp dagger and charged.

Kultra heard her coming. He jumped backwards... and tripped over a chair. He went down just as Suze's blade sliced the air where his neck was. Kultra's vision cleared. He made a leg sweep, trying to trip up his attacker. At the same time, he grabbed the chair he'd just tripped over. She leapt over his leg... and Kultra tagged her in the midsection with the chair.

WHAM!

"UNGH!"

Kultra jumped to his feet and swung the chair again, at her head this time.

"Hiii-YYA!!"

Suze executed a block-punch combination that shattered the sturdy chair. She went on the attack, slashing at Kultra with her knife while blocking his punches with her free hand.

Kultra's right arm was still weak from the burns, and Suze knew it. She planned her attacks so try to take advantage of it. She scored a few hits. Blood trickled from new slash-wounds on Kultra's right arm. Kultra ignored it.

Suze moved in for another strike. Kultra leapt into the air and twisted hard at the waist... throwing a powerful kick at the side of her head. She blocked and slashed at his leg, scoring another shallow hit, but completely missing the front kick hurtling toward her face.

It didn't miss her, however.

CRACK!

"UNGH!!" Several teeth hit the floor. Suze staggered backwards. Kultra threw a spinning back kick that propelled her towards the door. Suze regained her balance at the last second... then she charged. Kultra leapt to the side. Suze spun and slashed, opening a bleeding gash across Kultra's lower chest. Kultra grabbed her arm. Suze punched him in the side just as his backfist connected with the side of her head.

Both combatants jumped apart... paused... and leapt for one another again. Suze slashed. Kultra blocked, kicked, and threw a punch intended to crush her windpipe. Suze blocked and slashed at Kultra's eyes. He ducked, and punched her hard in the stomach. He followed with a powerful uppercut, and then a spinning back-fist. All connected, and Suze was staggering backwards once more. She narrowly avoided a painful collision with one of Octerno's boobytrapped bookcases.

Kultra moved in, but she wasn't as injured as she appeared. She caught him with a surprise kick to the chin. She lunged with the dagger, but Kultra caught her wrist and twisted it as hard as he could. The delicate bones snapped, and the dagger hit the floor. With her free hand, Suze raked her fingernails down the side of Kultra's face. He stepped away and tagged her with another backfist. He leaned hard to one side, and her boot whizzed past his ear. He jumped back, and threw a kick that drew her attention away from his next punch. She blocked both, but a spinning back kick propelled her right into the bookcase-

FZAM!

She flew across the room just as Kultra had done earlier. She hit the wall, but didn't drop. No matter. Kultra grabbed her and slung her across the room. She collided with the table and fell across it.

"RRRRRAAA-"

Kultra brought his fist down. Suze rolled away, and Kultra's blow knocked a chuck out of the table. Suze's foot thumped against Kultra's chest... but the kick was weak and ineffective. The one that followed wasn't... an it knocked Kultra back across the table. He rolled to the other side and they began to circle each other with the table between them.

"Give up yet?" said Kultra.

"I'll STILL kill you!"

"Yeah, whatever."

Suze grabbed the table and, with a surprising show of strength, shoved it and Kultra across the room... right towards the deadly energy field. Kultra pushed back... stopping the table's progress just before he was incinerated. He then leapt on top of it. He threw a kick. Suze blocked it and jumped onto the table with him... or at least she tried to.

Kultra caught her with a kick that knocked her to the floor.

"Now THAT was embarrassing," Kultra taunted her. "Here you are trying to do your fancy 'flip up onto the table' move and I lay you out like a pile of dirty laundry! HA!"

Suze got to her feet and charged. Kultra blocked everything she threw at him then stunned her with a rabbit-punch to the nose. Then he grabbed her by the shirt, picked her up, and slammed her face-down onto the table.

"I'll bet you always wanted to go out with a bang, huh?" With one hand on the back of her neck and the other grasping her belt, Kultra gave Suze a hard shove... sending her sliding down the length of the table... right into the energy field.

"NOOOOOOOAIIIIIIIII!-"

BZZAAAM!

Suze vanished in a spray of blood and flaming chunks of flesh.

"You killed her!" Sanya screamed. Until now, she'd been standing in a corner, away from the action.

"Yeah? So?"

"She murdered my father in cold blood. I wanted to kill her."

"Oh. Sorry. Too late now; maybe I'll let you do the next one. We need to get out of here, if that scream doesn't bring the guards running, I don't know what will."

"I've got an idea! That table is just long enough to reach from that last bookcase to the doorway."

"So?"

"I'm no mage, but I know a little about magic. If you activate both those things at once, you're bound to get some kind of feedback."

"It's worth a try." Kultra pulled the table... which was covered in sizzling gore... back from the doorway. He arranged it so that, with one shove, one corner of it would touch the bookcase while another would hit the energy field surrounding the door. "Get down and cover your head!"

With a mighty heave, Kultra pushed the table forward. It slid across the floor, and hit the wall exactly where Kultra had planned.

The thunderclap knocked Kultra backwards, throwing him on top of Sanya. When the smoke and ash cleared, the table was no more. The energy field still shimmered over the doorway, but where the bookcases once stood was smoking hole in the wall.

"All RIGHT! We're outta here!" yelled Kultra.

"You're welcome."

"Welcome, hell... YOUR ass is on the line here, too! Let's go!"

Kultra ran out into the hall with Sanya right behind him. Around the corner was the library's entrance... where some pieces of Suze were still smoking on the floor just outside the energy field. Kultra picked up something that looked like a charred arm.

"That's disgusting," said Sanya.

"I think I know the way back to Octerno's play-pen. We'll need this to get in."

"An arm?"

"You'll see."

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

"Guards!" said Sanya. A group of four guards were running towards them with swords drawn. One stopped and raised a crossbow.

"Heh, heh! Catch us if you can!"

Kultra grabbed Sanya and yanked her down the hall. They rounded a corner just as the archer's bolt sailed past. Kultra stopped.

"What!"

The first guard rounded the corner. He obviously wasn't expecting an ambush. Kultra grabbed him, yanked him forward, and snapped his neck with a twist.

"Idiots," Kultra hissed. Death energy flowed into him.. repairing his wounds and adding forty...fifty.. sixty pounds of hard muscle to his already powerful frame. He snatched up the dead guard's sword and charged the guards. Swords clashed. Kultra took a few of wounds as he went on the offensive. He was outnumbered, but with each guard he downed, Kultra became bigger... stronger... faster. The battle was over just a few minutes after it began.

Now armed with two swords, Kultra dragged Sanya down the hallway once again. He could hear more guards coming. And in the distance he heard a single, agonized scream:

"SUUZE! NOOOOO!!!"

"Heh, heh... I guess fire-boy found what was left of his sister. He'll be coming after us now. Come on, this way!"

They turned another corner, reached the end of the hall, and came to the large lead door leading to Octerno's lab. As they approached, the walls and floor began to vibrate. In fact, the whole mountain seemed to be humming.

"What's going on!?" said Sanya.

"It's almost noon. Looks like Octerno is ahead of schedule."

Barely audible over the ominous hum of power was the sound of guards approaching them. Lots of guards.

Kultra pressed Suze's charred hand against the metal plate in the wall. Nothing happed for a second or two, but then there the door slid open.

"Hey Ocky!" said Kultra as he rushed into he massive chamber. "I forgot something last time I was in here... I forgot to KICK YOUR...uhhh...."

Kultra gulped.

It was like an indoor thunderstorm.

The massive egg he'd seen earlier was now floating in the center of the room, high above his head. It was spinning rapidly, and the speed seemed to be increasing every second. The spinning caused a strong wind to circulate through the room... so strong that it nearly knocked Sanya off of her feet when she followed Kultra in. What was once a steady hum of power was now the chaotic roar of some gigantic beast. The crystal on top of the egg wasn't pulsing slowly any more... it was glowing continuously... as bright as the sun. Continuous streams of multicolored lightning arced between the spinning object and the room's lead walls. All the wards and runes on the walls were crackling with energy.

It looked like all hell was about to break loose.

Octerno was standing before the small pedestal, peering into the brightly glowing crystal globe. His back was to the door when Kultra entered, but the mage quickly spun to face him.

"YOU!" he shouted

"ME!" Kultra replied.

"Louis, what are you doing!" Sanya screamed. "This is INSANE! You can't DO this!"

"Eh?" said Kultra. "Oh, this is the part where we try to reason with evil villain? Well that never works so let's just skip it!"

With both swords held ready, Kultra charged. Octerno raised his right hand and pointed the middle finger at Kultra. A bolt of lightning crackled from the tip. Kultra had been expecting it. He leapt to one side and the blast sailed past him. Kultra threw himself to the ground and rolled to the right as a second bold came flying at him. He got up and ran for Octerno. The mage pointed a different finger at him.

Kultra hit the ground as a ball of fire flew overhead.

"Nice gloves ya got there!" said Kultra. "No match for quick reflexes, though!"

Kultra rolled to his feet, twisted away from a third lightning blast, and swung his sword at Octerno... who was just barely in range.

CLANG!

Octerno blocked the blade with this right hand. Kultra was already swinging his other blade. The mage blocked that one as well, but he never saw Kultra's boot sailing towards his chest.

"UNGH!"

The mage grunted and backed away.

"KULTRA THERE ARE GUARDS COMING!" Sanya yelled.

"No matter," said Octerno. "This whelp will be dead before they arrive!" Octerno fired a thin green ray from a finger on his left hand. Kultra barely managed to block it with his sword. The ray had no effect on the metal, but Kultra wondered what it would have done had it hit him.

"Or maybe not!" said Kultra. "SANYA! FIND a way to block that door!"

Kultra swung both swords at different targets on Octerno's body. The mage blocked them both and made a grab for Kultra's arm. Kultra twisted away and jumped back. He slashed once more.

CLANG!

Metal met metal, and the men began circling one another, searching for openings as the Chaos Egg spun faster and faster above them.

Meanwhile, Sanya was frantically inspecting the array of runes beside the door. Being the daughter of a guildmaster, she could read most of them... but she feared that trying to making sense out of the different combinations would require more time than she had. She could hear the guards coming...

CLANG!

Kultra and Octerno danced apart. Kultra made a slash with one sword while he lunged with the other. Octerno quickly backed away... then he leapt into the air and flew over Kultra's head.

"ENOUGH of this foolishness!" he bellowed. Safe from Kultra's swords, Octerno began to fire lightning bolts and fireballs as the defenseless Kultra. Kultra ran for cover... only to find that there was none.

"Oh, HELL!"

He ducked, dodged, and ran, knowing that it was only a matter of time before something hit him.

"Got it!" Sanya touched a sequenced of runes and he heavy metal door began to slide closed. An instant before it shut, a single guard leapt into the chamber. It was Jon. He saw Octerno and Kultra .

"MURDERING BASTARD!" he screamed. He pointed a finger at Kultra, who was so busy dodging Octerno's attacks that he didn't even see the new threat. "FIRE O- OOOF!"

Suddenly weak and nauseous, Jon dropped to his knees. Sanya had kicked him in the crotch as hard as she could. She punched him in the face, doing more damage to her own dainty fist than to Jon's head. Still, he fell over, and she began kicking him furiously.

Outside, the guards began pounding on the massive lead door, but they couldn't get in.

ZAP!

Octerno fired a volley of magic missiles... hot, arrow-like projectiles of pure magic. One pierced Kultra's shoulder, and another shot right through his thigh. Both were non-lethal wounds, but they hurt like hell.

Kultra rolled under a miniature lightning-bolt and came to his feet next to the pedestal holding the crystal globe. Thinking he could use it to throw at or otherwise distract Octerno, Kultra grabbed the glowing crystal, but it wouldn't budge.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Octerno screamed. He pointed a glowing metal finger at Kultra, but no fireballs, lightning bolts, or other deadly spells came shooting towards him.

"Oh yeah!?!" Kultra stepped back and swung his sword at the globe.

CLINK!

The blade bounced harmlessly off of the crystal.

"huh?"

"Fool!" Still airborne, Octerno swung around to one side and fired another dozen magic missiles at Kultra. They all missed the globe, but four hit Kultra. Bleeding from arm, leg, and chest wounds, Kultra went down.

"And now, we end this..."

"Get OFF of me!" still on the receiving end of Sanya's food, Jon grabbed the woman's leg and yanked her off balance. She fell, and her head hit the hard floor. Jon got up on his knees and pointed at Kultra once again. At the last second, Sanya kicked at his arm, causing it to jerk sideways just at the flames were released.

"Damn you!" Jon pushed Sanya down. This time she hit her head hard enough to knock her out.

The stream of fire shot past Kultra, and hit the glowing orb on the pedestal. More intense lightning flared above them. The egg spun faster and wobbled off-balance. The room shook as if the entire chamber was about to tear itself apart.

"YOU FOOL!" Octerno bellowed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?"

"I'm SORRY!"

"STOP THROWING FIRE LIKE AN IDIOT! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!"

Octerno swooped down out of the sky and landed in front of the pedestal. He placed both metal hands on the glowing crystal and began rubbing his fingers across it's surface in intricate patterns. The spinning Chaos-Egg stabilized. The lightning abated, though the runes on the walls still glowed with the excess energy they'd absorbed.

Kultra had taken those precious few seconds to get to his feet. He charged Octerno, swinging both blades in wild arcs. The mage grabbed one of the blades, but was so preoccupied with stabilizing the egg that he didn't see the second blade until almost too late. The sharp sword bit deep into his side.

"ARRRGH! You insignificant FLEA!" Octerno clamped down on Kultra's sword, and the hardened metal weapon snapped in half like a toothpick. With his other hand he smacked Kultra across the jaw, sending Kultra spinning away. Octerno turned to Jon. "INCINERATE that fool! But BE CAREFUL!"

"Right!" Jon burst into flame and leapt into the air. He soared toward where Kultra was just picking himself up off of the floor. He swooped down-

"WHOA!" Kultra, now sporting a fresh black bruise on his face from Octerno's blow, ducked as Jon flew overhead. The heat he left in his wake was enough to make Kultra's skin sting.

Jon sank to the ground and approached on foot. His flaming body left scorch marks on the lead floor.

"I shall embrace you," he said. He spread his flaming arms wide.

"The HELL you will!"

Kultra struck out with his sword. Jon twirled out of the way. The sword missed him, but the metal still grew warm in Kultra's hands.

"You can't touch me," said Jon. "You can't even get close to me without immolating yourself."

"There's that word again."

"Time to die!"

Jon charged, his flaming body trailing sparks and embers as he leapt.

"Almost there!" Octerno cackled. He ignored the bleeding wound on his side, and instead focused all of his attention on the control globe. His metal fingers traced dizzying paths across its surface. "Critical Mass! Now the FINAL TEST begins! Xemlt and its ridiculous mage's guild is finished!"

"...louis..." Sanya pulled herself across the floor towards her former lover. "Louis, don't do this..."

"The time for base sentimentality is long passed, woman! You HAD your chance... now behold HISTORY in the making!"

Octerno pressed a series of spots on the globe and the entire chamber shuddered. Far above them, the tip of the conical chamber started to open, revealing the sky...

"Stand still!" hissed Jon. He chased Kultra across the shuddering room, and Kultra ran as fast as he could. Then Kultra halted and spun, sword in hand. The tip of the sword passed within inches of Jon's side, but half of the blade grew red hot!

"ARRGH!"

Kultra resisted the urge to drop the hot weapon... it was the only thing he could used to keep the flaming boy away from him.

"I shall sear each layer of flesh from your bones one at a time... slooowwwlllyyy."

Kultra swung the sword once more as Jon approached. The blade sliced the air, then he and hit the lead wall beside him... the tip contacted one of the white containment runes, cutting a tiny nick in the arcane ward-

"ARRRRRGHHH!!!"

Stored energy erupted from the point of contact. Thick ropes of crackling power shot in all directions. Some traveled down the length of the sword and into Kultra's body. Some arced out into the air like rivers of lightning. Kultra's jerked and tried to pull away. Each movement sent the arcs of power flying in a new direction. A single bolt struck Jon in the chest-

"AIIIIIIII!!!!"

The blast threw Jon's flaming body back several yards. When he landed, the boy was no longer aflame, but there was a charred crater in his chest.

Kultra yanked the sword away. His entire body was smoking. He could barely even feel his arms, and what he did feel... hurt!

A high-pitch screech pierced the air. It was the chaos-egg. The crystal at the top of it was opening like a giant flower. Xemlt's destruction was imminent.

Thinking quickly, Kultra reached into his pack and donned Wellyn's glove. He clasped the sword tightly in his gloved hand and activated the enchantment. His grip became permanent and immovable. Hopefully it would protect him from what he was about to do...

He stepped back and swung the sword. He hit the rune once more, and again the power leapt forth. Lightning arced across the room. Kultra didn't feel a thing through the glove. Keeping the blade in contact with the rune, he twisted and turned the sword different ways, trying to direct the energy.

"STOP!" Octerno yelled. "WHAT ARE YOU-"

Kultra finally got one sizzling blast to go where he wanted... right into the control globe.

"NOOOOOO!!!"

The crystal globe shattered into a million glowing shards, most of which imbedded themselves in Octerno's chest, neck, and face.

"ARRRGGHH!!!" Octerno soared backwards into the air and began zooming around the room in a blind dance of agony... blood trailing from thousands of cuts.

The effect on the Chaos Egg was instantaneous. The rotating egg halted in mid-spin, as if some invisible giant had reached out and grabbed it. The energy of its momentum spun off of it in spirals of lightning that lashed the lead walls, obliterating the runes that could never even hope to contain that much power. The egg dropped from the air like a stone. Its struck its mad creator on the way down, and Octerno was still half-underneath it when it hit the lead floor.

To say that the room shook would be an understatement. The floor undulated like a stormy sea... Kultra hit the ground, was thrown into the air, and then hit the ground again. He bounced several more times before the vibrations settled. It was still several more seconds before he could get to his feet.

He looked around.

Half of the containment runes were just charred designs on the wall. The other half were glowing as bright as several suns. The Chaos Egg was laying on its side, and Octerno was pinned underneath. His left arm and both legs were crushed beneath the thing... but enough of him was still intact to allow him to feel the agony. He tried to scream, but all he could do was cough up blood. His one remaining limb was pounding weakly on the metal floor. It was going to be a long, slow death.

Kultra snickered.

Then he laughed.

Then he laughed REALLY loud.

"...Kultra!"

"Huh?"

Sanya was just getting to her feet.

"We've got to get out of here," she gasped. "That thing... that thing could be damaged." She pointed at the egg.

"Oh, if it isn't now, then it's GONNA be!"

"Kultra what are you going to do!"

"I'm gonna put your boyfriend out of his misery."

Kultra raised his sword. Sanya turned her head.

CHUNK!

"ARRRGH!"

Kultra had chopped off Octerno's metal hand. He picked it up and handed it to Sanya.

"That thing has spells build into it. I saw him using one to weld that crystal to that egg. It was this finger here."

"So?"

"So figure out how to turn it on. It'll melt a hole right through that egg and release whatever's inside. According to 'stumpy' down there, it should destroy this whole place."

"But what about us?"

"I'll take care of that. Don't worry... suicide wasn't in my plans."

In protest, Louis Octerno coughed up a few blood clots. Kultra kicked him lightly in the head as he walked over to where Jon was laying.

The human flame was still alive... barely. His breathing was irregular. In truth, he only had one lung left... the other had a hole burnt through it. Given proper treatment, he had a slim chance of survival... but that wasn't in Kultra's plans either.

"I've GOT it!" Sanya called. She held up the severed metal hand.

"And I've got this," Kultra smacked Jon lightly across the face with the flat of his sword. "Wake up, punk."

Jon's eyes fluttered open. Well... one of them did.

"You awake? Good. I just wanted you to see this coming-"

With a flourish, Kultra spun, raised his sword and brought it down across Jon's eyes... cleanly slicing off the top of his head. The last thing Jon's one good eye saw was the edge of Kultra's blade coming straight down towards it.

Death-energy flowed. Kultra healed his wounds and disposed of a few dozen pounds of unneeded muscle. In it's place, he added the thick, leathery wings he'd worn when he first arrived at Xemlt.

With a few powerful flaps of his new wings, Kultra was airborne. He flew over to Sanya and landed beside her.

"Turn it on," he said.

Sanya reached inside the artificial hand and did something Kultra couldn't see. A white beam shot forth from the tip of the index finger. Kultra took the hand and, using the rest of the fingers, propped it up so that the beam struck the side of the Chaos Egg. It immediately began to burn through the lead casing.

"...n...no...noooo..." Octerno gasped.

"Looks like you'll live just long enough to experience what you intended for Xemlt," said Sanya.

"Yeah," said Kultra. "And when ya get to hell, tell 'em Kultra sent ya."

Kultra grabbed Sanya around her waist and flapped his wings. Together they soared up over the Chaos Egg and out through the open space at the top of the chamber. They flew over the majestic mountains, and away from Octerno's hidden lair.

Back in the chamber, Octerno's genius mind raced as he tried to find a way to save himself. He could see the beam cutting through the shell of the chaos egg. Molten lead poured out of the hole as the beam melted its way to the chaos-energy deep inside. There had to be a way to stop it. There HAD to be!

Finally an idea came to him. Yes! If he could only just-

criiiiIIIIIIAIAAAACK!!!!

The lead casing of the Chaos Egg broke. The Chaos-energy roared out of the tiny hole, cracking it open and radiating out into the chamber.

"no! NOOOOO-"

All of the remaining containment wards suddenly pulsed so brightly that their light filled the huge room. Octerno could see it even with his eyes closed...

The explosion blew the top off of the small mountain, sending tons of rock flying in every direction. Dust poured into the sky, creating a black, starless night out of the noon sky. The shockwave demolished acres of forest, and shook the ground several towns away. The closest town, Xemlt, was shaken so badly that half of the houses had to be rebuilt. Amazingly enough, except for a few bruises and scratches, not a single person was harmed. For years afterward, sages and wizards would argue about just what it was. Some would say it was a volcano, even though it was common knowledge that the mountain range was not volcanic. Others would call it an act of the gods. A few... a small minority... would keep and open mind, and just wonder silently to themselves...

---

Silvergold peered the scrying globe and saw nothing but flashing, chaotic lights.

"I've almost got him," she said. She frowned and continued to fine-tune the spell with waves of her delicate fingers.

"I hear your mercenary did an excellent job," said Wellyn. The elderly gentleman shuffled towards Greenem's desk, where Greenem and Silvergold were still putting the finishing touches on the remote-viewing spell.

"So it would appear," said Greenem.

"Bah..." Silvergold grunted. "Luck of the stupid. And he destroyed everything... now we'll NEVER know what Octerno was up to."

"I know one thing," said Wellyn. "MALICE won't be happy about losing one of their top mages. They'll go after the boy, no doubt about that. Wherever he is, he's in terrible danger. Very bad. Very, very bad. "

"True enough," replied Greenem.

"THERE!" Sivergold stepped back and held up the scrying globe. There was a clear image floating in its depths. The three mages peered into it.

Wellyn's face turned bright red.

Greenem cleared his throat and suddenly wondered where he'd put his glass of cold water.

Silvergold raised an eyebrow, and a slight smile graced her lips... if only for a second.

"Ahem," said Greenem.

"Oh my," said Wellyn.

"Well, I guess he DOES have SOME talent," said Sivergold. "I haven't seen technique like that in... quite a while. Let's hear what they're saying..." With a wave of her hand, she activated the sound that accompanied the image...

"Ohhhh, Kultraa.... mmmm....."

"That's one of the fringe benefits of being a shape-shifter, darlin.'"

"...I never would have imagined!"

"You don't have to use your imagination, 'cause I'm right here. Hold on..."

"Ohhhhhh!!!"

"Silvergold, cut that out!" said Wellyn. "Leave them to their privacy..." Wellyn snatched the globe from Silvergold's hand. The image and accompanying sound winked out, leaving the globe cloudy and blank.

"Hmph," said Silvergold. "I guess now we know why he hasn't come back yet."

"So should we tell him about MALICE?" said Wellyn.

"Let him have his fun," said Greenem. "He'll find out soon enough. Soon enough indeed..."

The End.