General: Man it is good to be back

Jinx: Where have you been? All these loyal readers have been left hanging

General: Calm yourself my dear, I was hoping to get some reviews but it appears this people didn't review at all. I told them the less reviews the longer it would be till I updated

Jinx: Just do the disclaimer already

General: I do not own this story or the characters, all credit goes to Sunjinjo on deviantart

Ancient power, new purpose

"Follow me, Scourge of Nature!"

Sayron sighed as he painfully scaled a slide of rubble. As he arrived at the top, the elf was gone already.

Traveling with Florian Greenheart wasn´t as easy as he´d thought. The elf was quick as lightning, and though the Overlord would have easily been able to beat him in battle, it was deadly tiring to follow him constantly.

A day had passed since they´d left the Hive Bastion. They´d spent a night in the elf´s company, who´d been staring at them suspiciously until they´d fallen asleep. After that, he´d probably been staring at the nightshifts one by one. The next day, Florian's mood betrayed he´d gotten little sleep.

Of course, the downsides of traveling with an elf were topped by the area itself. There was even more ooze than they´d run into before, and there were moments the blues had to show their talent every few steps – something which drained them, too. Jinx cared for the six healers every now and then, and she´d noticed the contact with the sick magic gave them stinging headaches. Soaker kept tough, but as he did most of the work, he was weakened the most as well. The only one seemingly not affected at all was Goudvis – the Minion with the black-lined eyes. This surprised Jinx less than it should have. At times she´d stare at him as he jumped for a new ooze pool, far more cheerfully than the rest of his clan. Sometimes he´d look back, with eyes saying ´What am I doing wrong?´

In the black skies above, even blacker birds with tattered wings soared overhead. No one was looking forward to the moment when those would take an interest in them. Gnarl told them stories about the Ruborian vultures that made even Sayron hope furiously these weren´t their mutated offspring.

Around midday, the Overlord raised his gaze from the crumbling, cracked ground. His eyes fell upon a light shining up to the black clouds from between the clawed rocks in front of them. It was of a stinging cyan, and he knew what caused it. He´d also seen it shining up from the ooze sea, a few days earlier.

"Where are you leading us, elf?" he spoke, wearily.

Florian jumped atop a tall rock and looked back. "A place where I know a few shards to be."

"How long have you been here?" asked Miko, a blue Minion who´d been chosen by Soaker and Zap as one of the first. He didn´t talk much and was so disciplined Jinx was convinced he´d been a general of sorts in a past life.

The elf looked at them with sharp eyes. "Longer than I ever wanted," he said, bitterness in his voice. Then he flashed forward, in the direction of the blue light.

The light turned out to be rising from some sort of bowl between jagged mountainsides, that would need climbing first. This was quite a challenge for the Overlord and his followers; even apart from the steep, crumbling slopes, there were multiple flows of ooze coming down, testing the blues even further. The blue clan had never been the strongest of the four, and the six were slowly beginning to get exhausted – save for Goudvis. Then Jinx, Stripe and Aches, the strongest browns now Gloob seemed to weaken further and further, took them on their backs in turns.

Jinx looked back in worry. She now started doubting her decision to hide Gloob´s injury – the succubus´ bite seemed to tighten its grip with every passing hour.

Then, surprisingly abrupt, Sayron reached the top of the mountainside and joined Florian, crouched atop a boulder at the top of the slope. The horde spread out around them and they stared down.

A blinding blue plain of ooze, caught between the mountainsides. It´d been the perfect place to build a Tower, but instead, it´d just become a lake of twisted magic. Sayron turned to Florian, and his eyes flared weakly. "This is the place you think to find shards? Look at my blues! They´re exhausted!"

Soaker came forward, shambling slightly. "It´s alright," he spoke, his breathlessness hidden well. "We´ll be okay, Master." He didn´t pay heed as Stabbit launched himself off the mountain cheering and giggling, straight for the ooze, and he didn´t react either as Goudvis ran after him tirelessly to prevent him from slamming into the poisonous lake. Sayron didn´t seem to find it odd either. The unusual behaviour of the Minions with the strange eyes had slowly become normal among the hordes. Fever did look at them shaking his head wearily, peering between his fingers and tightly closing his eyes as the two bounced to the ground, Goudvis keeping ahead of Stabbit so the insane green Minion landed on rock instead of ooze. The duo was behaving like happy toddlers…

Then suddenly they came sprinting back. Sayron narrowed his eyes; it seemed as if a bulbous piece of ooze had come loose. "Slugs," he said, suddenly alert. "Follow me! We´ll lose them if we aren´t quick!"

Faster than they´d liked, the rest of the horde descended the mountain, some of them swearing at Goudvis and Stabbit. Tripping, and in some cases barely avoiding small puddles of ooze, they ran down and waited at the edge of the ooze lake until Jinx, Stripe and Aches with the blues on their backs had caught up with them and the blue horde was complete – save for Goudvis, who came running for them with Stabbit in hot pursuit, and the slugs behind him.

Florian had jumped for a jutting rock above the ooze lake and was now hatefully looking down on both the slugs and the Overlord with his horde.

"Squash them! I mean, usher them gently to the next world. Come on, we all know how good you are at destroying things!"

Sayron kept his dignity and didn´t look up as he went for the slugs in an ooze-free arena, kept intact by the blues. What kind of elf was Florian, anyway? He seemed to be far more vicious than his tree-hugging kin.

The greens were exceptionally useful in this fight. Their strong legs made them capable of jumping almost as high and far as the elf, and when they were atop a slug, it was a matter of slicing through the rubbery skin and jumping back with dripping claw knives, or further to a next victim. Jagged was jumping from slug to slug as if they were trampolines, along a path taking him deep into the lake. The green horde leader eventually came back across the corpses and put his claws to solid ground again. There, he could immediately grab Stabbit´s wrist as he was about to lick his knives as he always did. "Stabbit," he spoke in warning. "Wouldn´t." His horde member yelped briefly and then let his knives hang limply.

"Scout the lake," Florian´s voice resounded from the tall rock. "I´m sure there are shards below the ooze here."

Sayron nodded grumpily, offended by the command.

What followed was an exhausting search across the lake. The blues were at the front, slowly and carefully in a wide group to cover as much terrain as was possible. The greens directly followed, ready to jump over them to possible enemies. The reds had stayed behind and now circled the mountainsides to search for a pearly light amidst the blinding cyan from above.

Jinx and the browns were also keeping an eye out for possible enemies. Or rather, Aches was – Jinx and Stripe were mostly keeping an eye on Gloob, who still managed to put one foot in front of the other, but was doing so in an increasingly drunk manner. After some time, Jinx couldn´t bear Stripe´s eyes piercing the back of her head as she waited for Gloob to catch up with them anymore. She looked into the fiery orange eyes of the only Minion whose commands she´d really consider, and sighed. "Yeah, okay. He´s been bitten," she admitted in a low voice. "Apparently the wound hasn´t healed as the blues took care of him. But what was I to do? He looked fine back in the gorge."

Stripe looked at her sternly. Then he lowered his eyes and sighed as well. "Good horde member," he said in his deep, growling voice. "Old friend. Take him on your back."

Jinx did as he said. Stripe reached up as he walked, and pulled down the piece of fabric around Gloob´s shoulder. He hissed.

Jinx looked back. The wound was swollen and seemed to be glowing slightly. The flesh around it was tainted darkly. Gloob´s eyes had almost closed now he didn´t have to walk anymore. "He´s going to mutate, isn´t he?" Jinx said softly.

Stripe nodded. No ´maybe´, no ´probably´. He was sure of it. But he didn´t advise her to lower him and leave him behind. That´s what Aches would have done; the Minion who didn´t care about weaklings and newborns, or old friends. The Minion with the black-plumed helmet, walking just behind the rest, and not at the back where the ooze was almost catching up with them. He didn´t even look back.

Jinx was so consumed by worried thoughts she barely noticed as the blues stopped, and with them, everyone walking behind. She looked up, and saw the three pinpricks of light of Hoarse, Fever and Simmer, way up ahead on the mountainside. Then she looked down. The Minions were moving aside to clear a path for her. The blues had finally found a shard at the bottom of the lake.

She hurried forward and picked it up with trembling fingers. As she let it slide into the sack, past Gloob´s weakening claws, she felt bitterness well up inside of her like bile. Minions are going to die here. She didn´t doubt it anymore. Her only comfort was the fact Kniff was safe. They´re going to die, my old friends… and all for a few pieces of powerless nacre. Inside she was yelling and cursing at the shards on her back, and she almost wished they hadn´t helped her chase off the succubi with their blinding power – she wished they actually were powerless, so she had the right to be furious at them, to fling them away, to break off the expedition. She wanted to get out of here. She wanted to get back to the real world, to sunlight and life, and real fights against enemies she could look in the eye and defeat, instead of foes who were all around her all the time and slowly drained the life from her and her friends.

She walked along as the blues started moving again, without a word. Sayron looked back once, and he almost jolted as he saw his horde leader´s eyes; the dark rings around them had been there for a few days, but her eyes were now almost blazing from within her lowered face. He was secretly glad she wasn´t looking at him.

She cares too much about the Minions, he realized. A moment later, a second thought followed. But isn´t that the definition of a good horde leader?

A while later, the Overlord was jolted again as Floater and Drip, two younger blues, burst out coughing in front of him and backed away. Sayron backed away with them, for a place where the blues weren´t standing wasn´t a safe one out here. "What´s wrong?" he asked. "What´s bothering you?"

"Stench," Drip coughed, wiping tears from his large eyes. "I couldn´t breathe…"

Soaker carefully crept forward to the spot where the two had been struck. He, too, backed away, his eyes narrow. "Master," he said, looking up. "There´s something here, beneath the ooze. Guys, come over here, surround it."

As the blues had carefully divided themselves around the spot where the foul air seemed to be coming from, the ooze suddenly gurgled, and the area within their circle burst open in a rain of droplets. Everyone backed away. But the middle of the ring remained ooze-free. A dark hole had been brought to light.

Jinx jolted as Florian suddenly jumped down beside her. The elf didn´t so much as look at her, but walked over to the hole and peered down, holding his nose. Jinx, too, came forward and carefully smelled the air. Now the ooze bubble was gone, the air seemed to be slightly better. It was now possible to breathe even if you weren´t a green Minion.

Florian was still holding his nose. "I feel the presence of shards," he uttered in a distorted voice. "Multiple, even."

Sayron strode forward and towered over him, more fearsome than ever. "How do we know you´re not luring us to our death?" he thundered. "You might have been right about one little shard in this lake, but I refuse to enter this hole because you say so, elf!"

Florian seemed unimpressed. "Then you don´t. But you´ll never complete your Tower Heart." A trace of a smile seemed to linger around his mouth.

Jinx stepped forward. "I can try and create a shield, Lord. Give me Jagged and Ramul in case there´s still poison down there."

"Jinx…" the Overlord started, turning around wearily. He was greeted by bright, but deadly grey eyes.

"I´ll survive anything, Lord." It wasn´t an argument. It was a fact in the way she said it. She tried to ignore the image of Kniff, furiously wrestling to get to the mist pool to desperately tell her not to go.

She even briefly hoped Sayron would forbid her. It came as a slight shock when he nodded.
She briefly widened her eyes, then nodded back and gestured to the two greens. They came standing next to her, followed by two blues as Sayron told them to. Jinx concentrated, and slowly a translucent purple bubble grew around her, reminiscent of the delicate nets of blue lightning Sayron had woven at the right moments.

Then, with her eyes closed tightly and under a quick prayer, she stepped into the hole.

In the magic room something groaned in a deep voice. By the sound of it, something else was busy making fun of him in a sharp, tinkling laugh.

"I knew it," Lady Synn chuckled. "I knew they´d find your Tower as well."

Lord Atrej pressed the palm of his gauntleted hand to his face. "Alright, alright. Let´s hope there actually are shards down there and that stupid elf hasn´t sent them down for nothing."

"Don´t you know?"

"How should I know? There´s so much magic in there."

Synn thought this over, then raised her head. Naturally, there was a third figure, very still this time and facing away from them, slightly further into the colour storm.

"Are you alright, Vergal?"

"Hm?" The third Darklord half turned, then back again. "Oh, yes…"

"Thinking of squashing that Sanctuary?"

Vergal smiled faintly, invisible to Atrej and Synn. "I never was as violent as you, Synn. No, I´m thinking about the state of our young horde leader."

"She´s going to survive it, right? I´m starting to like her," Synn spoke, slightly worried. "She kind of reminds me of myself."

"That, milady, only Taegan knows."

Slow blue waterfalls, in a slight purple hue thanks to the shield, enclosed her on all sides.
Jinx now knew how a non-blue Minion felt while surrounded by water. Jagged and Ramul looked around them in slight panic as the purple bubble slowly descended in the hole. Floater and Drip, the two blues, seemed slightly more at ease.

"Always stay in the shield, with me," Jinx said with pressure.

"Know, Jinx," Ramul hissed. "Aren´t going anywhere."

Jagged chuckled for a moment, a sound breaking the mood slightly. "Like little slaves in walking wheel," he snickered.

"Right, and we should stay that way. We walk and roll the bubble forward, alright? I think I can manage."

Caves stretched away into an endless deep far below them. Jinx looked up; she did see the sky, but it was black and offered little hope. She noticed she didn´t even really want to go back up. She let the bubble descend further.

Eventually, they reached a point where a jutting rock split the ooze flow, so they could see the wall behind it. There was a cave there. Jinx reasoned, however, that if there were shards here, they´d have fallen down and wouldn´t have ended up in a side tunnel. They lowered themselves further, past more and more caves in the walls. What kind of place was this? There was an air of immense age here, an air that made her feel like these caves had been populated once. She knew this feeling. She´d had it as she´d stared down on the fallen tower in the succubus ravine.

But…

…she suddenly remembered something she´d read in a scroll in the private quarters, seemingly ages ago, back in the comfortable safety of the Netherworld.

The locations of the Darklords´ Towers had never been clarified, because the rulers had kept them a secret after their fall. But they seemed to lie in a triangle in this area, something she knew because Gnarl had betrayed it to them at the Hive Bastion.

The Towers of Synn and Vergal had stood upright. One of those seemed to have fallen. But Atrej´s had been subterraneous. It had been different from Sayron´s in the Netherworld, however; Atrej´s Tower had been an unbelievably complicated cave system reaching at least as deep as the other Towers were tall.

Could this be Atrej´s Tower? Filled up with ooze, insanely dangerous, impossible to search?

"Boys," Jinx muttered to the four Minions, "this is not going to be easy…"

At the surface, Sayron looked up at Florian, already nestling himself on top of one of the many rock formations in the lake. "You get comfortable up there," he called up. "Just let us wait here until they come back."

"I never said you couldn´t just continue," Florian answered innocently.

It didn´t take much more for Sayron to fly up the rocks and fling the elf into the ooze by his throat. He kept himself in check thinking of Fay and her opinion of him when he would.

The remaining blues had sat down with crossed legs, keeping the ooze away as much as they could. The rest of the horde stood or sat between them uncomfortably. They weren´t used to waiting. Most of them stayed well away from Stripe and Gloob – mainly Aches was at the very other end of the group.

The former horde leader was sitting with crossed legs like the blues, Gloob only half consciously on his lap. This was an unusual display of care from the rough, large Minion, and most others were looking at him in surprise. Soaker, however, was holding Gloob´s injured arm, even if he was keeping the ooze away at the same time, and concentrated to set the healing process in motion. The wound did seem to be less swollen, and the dark taint was shrinking, but it was happening painfully slow and Soaker´s face was twisted with the combined strain. Stripe watched in worry. But he had hope for the Minion just below him in rank, one he´d known for much of his life. He had hope his old friend might still heal.

In the Netherworld was someone who was possibly holding on to his hope even tighter. Jinx´ mental image had been right – in the moment she´d stepped into Atrej´s cave system, Kniff had pretty much fought as if his life depended on it. But Gnarl had called down two of the guards watching the portal to keep away unwanted guests, and those two sturdy, armoured Minions with Netherworldly helmets now firmly held the little, trembling brown by his arms, slightly lifting him off the ground.

"Change the pool," Kniff begged the ancient Minion. "Show her."

"I can´t do that myself," Gnarl bit at him. "It´s always happened outside my power, alright? And this seemingly isn´t that kind of moment where the pool thinks it´s a good idea to show her." As he said this, a surge of discomfort flowed through his stomach, and he could see the double applied to Kniff. He looked into the brown´s desperate eyes and almost felt sorry for him. "I know she isn´t dead," he said with an irritated sigh. "Come on, this is Jinx. You know very well she´s been stabbed, drowned, poisoned and eaten without dying. She´ll survive this, too."

The purple bubble slowly descended onto the bottom. Some sort of bottom, anyway.
The shield sunk down into ooze up to Jinx´ eye height almost immediately, and then calmly continued sinking. Jinx screamed in shocked fear, and the greens hissed in sudden panic. The blues, who´d outstretched their hands to the shield earlier to strengthen it with their own magic, now doubled their efforts.

Jinx stared around her. The ooze shone blindingly bright, in irregular, viscous streams. It steadily crept up along the shield. "Walk," she uttered. "Roll the shield somewhere, doesn´t matter where." She tried her best to lift the shield slightly, but she knew rolling was a better method if there was solid ground somewhere near. She looked up. The glowing blue shaft stretched up to the sky, and the waterfalls continued all the way down into the lake in which they were stuck now. However, if there was an entrance somewhere behind the waterfalls, an entrance with less ooze behind it…

With combined efforts they managed to set the shield in motion, and the bubble slowly ploughed through the sick magic and towards the wall of slowly descending ooze. The blues managed to clear away the ooze above it and pile it up below it, so they rose slowly. They reached the waterfall and pushed through. Behind it lay only dark rock, but Jinx rolled the bubble along it in the hopes of finding an entrance.

Then, suddenly, they were through and burst into a new area. They rolled through a puddle of ooze, but it quickly grew shallower and then ended. Solid ground!

Jinx was so relieved she forgot to hold on to the bubble, and the shield burst without sound. She and the four Minions fell down onto the rock bottom.

Immediately Jinx and the blues pressed their hands to their faces and burst into a wheezing cough.

In the poisonous light of the ooze behind them they could – with tear-filled eyes – see a tunnel stretching away into the darkness. The system had become horizontal, they´d reached the deepest part.

Darkness wasn´t the only thing hindering their sight.

The tunnel was completely overgrown with leathery leaves and trumpet-shaped flowers resembling those growing at the green Hive, apparently kept alive in the blue light. From their calyxes they seemed to emanate a greenish mist, and the air certainly wasn´t fresh here – Jinx, Floater and Drip tried to breathe, but didn´t manage to do so. Ramul and Jagged didn´t seem to be affected.

"Help," Floater panted, his hands at his throat and despair in his round eyes.

Ramul gripped Jagged´s shoulder. The green leader nodded. Then the two sped away through the tunnel.

Jinx looked on as they jumped for the growths. Where they went the greenish mist seemed to thin and disappear, and the flowers slowly closed; a talent of the greens that had been long hidden.

A rustling echoed towards them from the dark, outside the glow of the ooze. The greens froze and abruptly stopped trying to close the flowers on the walls. They silently slid away into invisibility.

Jinx pulled her bandana from her head and covered her nose and mouth with it. Then she unsheathed her sword and stood in front of the blues in defence. "If you want to you can wait in the pool," she spoke in a muffled voice.

"No, we´d rather stay here," Drip answered, softly but grimly. "You could just be needing us."

Jinx nodded silently and stepped forward, as the green mist backed away for her; the greens were still at work. Not much later Jinx smelled only their odour, an indication of their positions. She used the same perception as the clan itself to avoid bumping into them as long as they were still invisible.

For some time they walked on without trouble. Jinx felt naked in a strange way; as far as she could see, she was accompanied by only two Minions, and those were blues to top it off – not capable of really fighting, and if both were killed, they´d be useless. The upper world was unreachable behind more ooze than she´d ever wanted. The one thing she did have was the word of an elf there were shards down here.

Then she was forced to let go of those thoughts. The walls were coming to life.

The rustling they´d heard earlier started again, and then changed into the buzz of dozens of membranous wings beneath gleaming shields.

"Jagged! Ramul!" Jinx shouted. A moment later she was smothered by multiple gigantic beetles.

They were of a gleaming, oily green, and their hind wings gave them a wingspan of at least a meter. They weren´t heavy, but the impact of four of them knocking into Jinx at the same time was enough to throw her into the ground, between the poison flowers. A few of them opened again as she flattened them. Her eyes filled with tears, but her improvised gas mask served her well.

With a crack and a small rain of colourless smudge she skewered one of the beetles, but the six clawed legs kept milling about and scratched her breastplate, making it harder to yank the insect off. Jinx was forced to leap up, swing her sword down and crush the insect´s head with a fierce kick. The wings shivered a last time, then the beetle stopped moving.

It didn't end the stream of its kin.

At the surface, boredom had taken over. Sayron was sitting in the middle of the ooze-free zone, sharpening his blade, and angrily looked up at Florian time and again. The elf was sitting atop the rock, calmer than ever, staring up at the sky as if he didn´t have a care in the world.

Meanwhile, the four blues were frowning with strain. Soaker was still busy tending to Gloob at the same time, but the brown Minion was still unconscious. It seemed as if the blue was temporarily halting the poison, not eliminating it.

Stripe had given up sitting by his friend´s side and worrying a while ago. Now he was prying small pieces of rock from the crumbling soil and lobbing them further and further into the ooze.

Invisible to his eyes, the result was a surge of slow, viscous waves through the blue plain.

And below the surface, something stirred.

"Yah!"

A small dagger pierced one of the membranous wings of the last beetle. The insect lost its balance, and then was clawed from the air by Jagged. The green winked. "Thank, Drip."

The blue came forward across the poison growths and plucked his modest weapon from the insect. He grinned back. "No thanks."

Jinx sighed deeply and yanked a severed head from her leg – the jaws had been stronger than she´d estimated. She scanned the tunnel.

There were dead beetles everywhere. Some of them were still convulsing, but she knew none of them would fly again.

All four of the Minions were still alive. Drip and Floater had kept to the back, constantly surrounded by whirls of blue, healing sparks in case they´d get hurt. The greens had used their invisibility to the advantage, and the fight had swung round in their favour.

"Thanks, guys."

Jagged grinned up at Jinx. "Our area," he hissed. "Can´t be harmed when we´re around."

"Don´t get overconfident," the horde leader warned, but the green leader was already strolling on. The flowers closed before him, though not many remained here; they were leaving the glow of the ooze behind, and without light not even these growths could survive. The group entered total darkness. Jinx snapped her fingers and a purple flame nestled into the palm of her hand.

The tunnel split a couple of times, but also joined together with another. Entrances came out on their passage from above, but none of them brought ooze with it; all entrances from the upper world appeared to be closed off, except the one they´d entered.

Jinx tried to understand. What was this place? Was this really Atrej´s Tower? An Overlord couldn´t possibly live in here…

Then the creaking of rock on rock resounded, and her flame suddenly paled in a pearly glow. In this new light Jinx could see Jagged lifting a small boulder and rolling it away. Below it lay a shard, and the light it emanated lit up the surroundings. They´d entered a larger cave without even noticing. The ceiling flew up into the high distance, where flickering shadows moved in the shard´s light.

Jinx picked up the shard, but didn´t put it away. It might be better to save her magic and use this light instead…

One of the shadows fluttered down on leathery wings.

Jinx raised her sword, but the creature sailed over her and the Minions without doing any harm. She caught a glimpse of a hairy black body, glowing blue eyes and sharp, regular teeth. A bat. A mutated one, but the creature appeared to be far more stable than the other inhabitants of the Wasteland.

Before she knew it, the horde leader was grinning. The memory of Ripped Wing was irresistible.

More bats joined the first in a whirl of hairy shadows, and the shard´s light shone up all the way to the ceiling. There, at the cave´s most distant wall, was a hole which continued far into the ceiling. Jinx strained her eyes – was that what she thought it was?

It was a winding stairs…

She hurriedly walked over, followed by the Minions. A trace of civilization?

Indeed, there was a stairs leading up along the cave wall, up to the point where it disappeared into the ceiling. Along the wall, weathered images were visible, but they were too faint to properly make out.

And here…

Jinx stroked over the rough rock – or at least she thought so. Her fingers traced a deeply carved line, arching over her head height. She brought her hand down. Ancient dust descended.

"I´m getting too old for this," Jinx mumbled, as her index finger traced the cleared inscription and she tried to make out the words. "The other two can keep this up until they die. I hereby close my domain and hope it will stay hidden until the Unholy wishes to uncover it again. May evil always find a way. Lord Atrej, ruler over the Golden Mountains, western Ruboria and Tusay-Marena."

Jinx took a deep, trembling breath. This meant two things. She´s just found the final message of a legendary Overlord to the world, and Atrej´s domain reached far deeper than just these caves and passages – this was just his first hallway, his protection from the upper world. She silently thanked him in something resembling a prayer for the fact he´d done so. They probably wouldn´t have survived the search through the actual domain.

She vowed to herself to return here someday, and open this gate.

She looked around her. The cave was a dead end; there was only one entrance. They´d have to return the way they´d come.

The ooze stirred.

Stripe jumped up and stared down with wide orange eyes, his last pebble still in his claw. The viscous blue fluid had flowed towards him a few centimetres, like waves on a beach.

The former horde leader looked out across the glowing blue plain.

Under his eyes, the ooze bubbled up. Now Sayron and the others were on their guard as well, and in certain points the ooze flowed in again because the blues lost their concentration.

The bubbles appeared in multiple spots, the large brown Minion noticed. Threes of feelers appeared, with slow, slimy movements.

Slugs. Slugs, larger than he´d ever seen them in the days he´d spent here. More as well. He must have woken them up with his throwing.

They slowly started to come for the group. Sayron had already seen them, but refrained from punishing the large brown Minion – he had more pressing matters to deal with.

"Soaker, Eel, Goudvis, hold that magic! We need that solid ground!" The Overlord looked down. There, just next to him, was a drooling, grinning Minion with a giggle at the back of his throat.

"Stabbit… you´re the only green here. Jump them." There was no sign of understanding or confirmation from the insane Minion, but it would have to be enough. Granting permission was optional with Stabbit; he went for it either way if there was something in sight he could kill.

"Miko!" The blue Minion looked up. Sayron looked back with hard, flaming eyes. "Get the reds."

The blue saluted and ran off to the edge of the lake.

Sayron turned back to the approaching slugs – fast, fear-inducingly fast and impossible to ward off – and unsheathed his sword. Florian lazily climbed off his rock formation. "We can take them."

"We can´t all fit on that rock of yours if there are too many and the blues fall," Sayron growled. "We have to stand our ground. Jinx and a quarter of our horde are down there in that hole."

"Drip, Floater… um."

The two blue Minions turned to Jinx. To her, they were silhouettes against a wall of poisonous, cyan light – they´d returned to the waterfall of ooze behind which lay the shaft leading up to the lake.

"Yes, Jinx?"

"Would you dive into the lake? That one shard might have been washed into the tunnel, or taken by a beetle or something else, but it could just be one is still in the ooze itself."

Drip nodded immediately, almost eagerly. "Certainly!" He dove through the ooze face-first, followed by Floater moments later.

The ooze closed behind them, and the horde leader was alone with Jagged and Ramul. She sank down and crossed her legs. "We´ve come a long way," she sighed. "Below the Wasteland, pff…"

"Seems years ago we guided you to Master on Everlight," Jagged grinned.

"I remember that," Jinx smiled. "You kept going invisible. It was hell to follow you."

"Are going back, right?" Jagged´s eyes glowed hopefully in the cyan light. "Miss Everlight."

Jinx laughed briefly. "As do I. It´s the best I can imagine right now, even better than the Netherworld… sunlight, sea, palm trees…"

"Spiders," Ramul spoke up.

"If we get back," Jinx started, "I´ll take you to the temple lake, and we´ll take your little ones as well, Ramul. They should see where their parents were brought up."

The two sly faces brightened. Before either of them could say something, however, the waterfall split again and they had to back away, because the two blues came through and they brought a great splashing of ooze. As they´d shaken themselves clean Jinx and the greens came closer again. Drip had his hands hidden behind his back and was grinning broadly. Jinx widened her eyes. "There actually was one?"

The blue took out the shard. "Very correct."

"Thanks! You guys are great," the horde leader grinned.

At the surface the slugs had reached the patch of dry ground on which the horde was standing. Sayron tried to defend the edges of the area as well as he could, but the slugs were too many. The blues were forced to retreat further and further, even though the Overlord let loose as much lightning as he could and Stabbit was jumping from slug to slug, leaving none alive. Even Florian plunged his slender sword into the slimy blue bodies, but the slugs had noticed there was food here, and so much better food than they were used to. They were driven further towards the rock formation, and Sayron saw they´d be forced to give up the hole Jinx had disappeared into. But if they did so, the ooze would flow back in.

He couldn´t allow that.

He looked back and realized he was only one step away from the hole. He took that step and bent over.

"Jinx!" he roared down. "If you can hear me, come up as fast as you can! The hole´s going to flood and I can´t hold it much longer!"

Floater froze mid-sentence, and perked his ear webs. "I hear something…" He stuck his head through the ooze fall. As he pulled back, he was slightly paler. "Jinx, we have to get back up. Master´s doing battle and he has to give up the hole."

Jinx clenched her teeth. "So much for our scouting mission. Come over here, guys." She concentrated and formed a jolting shield, stronger and rounder with every passing second. "Ready?"

The Minions nodded. Jinx nodded back and stepped forward, rolling the bubble through the ooze fall doing so.

"I need you," she spoke between her teeth as the shield sank into the ooze for a second time. "Drip, Floater, help me up."

The two blues outstretched their hands and their magic to the slime above them and pushed it down, so the bubble slowly rose. As they were out of the pool they continued with the ooze on the walls.

"I have to give up, Jinx!" Sayron´s voice suddenly echoed through the shaft. Jinx jolted and almost let go of the shield. She looked up.

There, through a purple haze, she saw something appear in the gap connecting her to the outer world. And it wasn´t the Overlord.

A hideous head with three stalked, glowing eyes, dripping with ooze. A slug, and a large one.
Sayron was gone from there. The blues were gone from there.

An enormous clump of ooze came with the slug and hit the shield squarely, with a dull thud.

Jinx lost her concentration.

The purple, protecting bubble flickered and disappeared. She and the Minions immediately fell down through the middle of the shaft.

But Jinx had experience with falling; she´d survived multiple lethal situations, and now, too, she instantly had a rope in one hand and wildly grabbed at the Minions with the other. She brushed Floater, but didn´t manage to hold on to him. At that moment her rope hooked on through the ooze, to the rock beneath it, and she stopped falling. She could just create a new shield before smacking against the wall of ooze.

There she hung, by one rope, only a thin layer of magic protecting her from the ooze now running down the walls faster and faster.

Ramul had grasped her leg at the very last moment. The other three…

Jinx took a shivering breath. The other three had fallen. There was nothing she could have done.

"Jagged! Drip! Floater!" She almost yelped out their names.

"We´re okay!" Floater´s voice echoed up. "Drip, let go of my ears, will you…"

Jinx shivered across her entire body. Ramul climbed up to her back and stared down. He resembled a frightened cat.

"…Jagged?"

Silence.

"Jagged!"

From the terrible silence rose a slow, rattling growl.

Jinx shut her eyes tightly. "No… no…"

Below them, two lights blinked on. Blue. Mismatched in size.

Then a dark shade flashed up and threw itself onto the hanging horde leader. Jinx caught a glimpse of huge, jagged tusks jabbing up from a deformed lower jaw below two hideous, blinding eyes, then the thing bounced off the shield and fell back into the shaft, growling the entire way. Jinx was almost sobbing with misery, but still thought of the blues. "Guys! I´m coming down!"

"No, Jinx! We´ll be alright! We´ll stay here!" The grief was clearly audible in Drip´s voice, and it was clear he meant Jinx should finish the job before they could come up. Jinx furiously wiped her tears away with her free hand and then climbed up, as Jagged was audibly coming closer through the shaft.

Before they were out, the enormous clawed thing that´d once been a Minion caught up with them a second time. This time he didn´t bounce off the shield, but hung on to the opposite wall, where the ooze slowly dripped over him and rendered him even more fearsome; all spines and claws and teeth, all of which having grown so fast the flesh around them was split and torn and now leaked a mixture of red and blue blood. But just like Parch, Jagged could feel no pain. He didn´t feel anything – just the urge to kill whatever he saw. What was left of Jagged was now more insane than Stabbit.

Jinx kept climbing and eventually hoisted the shield over the edge, into the ooze lake. She quickly looked around and saw Sayron and the horde had pulled back, partly up the high rock, partly around it on soil kept free by the blues. They were fighting back a large group of slugs, and many more lay dead around the hole. She could see Sayron had done good to pull back and give up the hole; it had been impossible to keep the blues in position.

She quickly rolled the shield over to them and let go. It was more important to stay on solid ground and save her strength now. Ramul slid off her shoulders.

Sayron ended the fight with his slug and saw her hunted expression. "What happened in there?"

"Jagged," she panted. "He´s mutated." She didn´t even think of the two shards they´d acquired; the tears now ran across her cheeks freely and blurred her vision. She did see the enormous mutated Minion climbing out of the hole and storming at them through the ooze, with more than just the speed of a green Minion.

She shook off a shiver and drew her sword, meaning for Jagged to run into it. He didn´t; the Minion evaded her and turned invisible.

Jinx widened her eyes. "No…"

Then a green flash darted past her, and not mingled with glowing blue, like Jagged´s skin. There, hissing, rolling through the ooze clawing at an invisible opponent, was Stabbit. The insane Minion was visibly getting more and more bloody scratches, seemingly from empty air. The ooze covered his back and legs, but he didn´t mutate. He didn´t mutate!

Jinx just stood there, too shocked to react. Her sword hung limply from her hand. Then she shook herself. It shouldn´t surprise her.

It did surprise her as Stabbit was shaken off and an ooze-covered shape staggered to the patch of dry soil. She´d half expected Stabbit to win, but there the mutated Minion was, no longer invisible thanks to the thick layer of blue fluid. Behind them the browns, reds and Ramul held off the slugs, and by the sound of it that fight was almost over. Here matters were different.

Sayron strode forward. "Don´t let him get any closer," he growled in a low voice. "I´ve got him." His sword went up, and while Jagged was still jumping for him, claws outstretched, Sayron´s heavy gauntlet closed around his throat. The Minion uttered a rattling hiss and pulled his claws over the Overlord´s arm, but then his grip cramped. The hiss ended in a halting gurgle. The leader of the green clan looked down.

His entire stomach had been sliced open, with one stroke of the huge sword. Sayron retracted his weapon, threw Jagged to the ground and planted the sword through his chest for a second time. A high scream escaped from the green Minion. His back arched. Then he thudded back down, and moved no more.

Sayron´s red-hot eyes cooled. Then he looked at the scratches Jagged had left upon his arm. They were glowing slightly.

Soaker and Miko ran forward and Sayron knelt for them. "Careful, Lord," Soaker spoke. "We can heal this if we´re quick." He closed his large eyes, and Miko followed his example. They moved their webbed hands over the wounds, and blue ooze slowly started to seep up from them. The glow diminished, and the wounds slowly closed. Sayron exhaled deeply. "Thank you," he spoke, and it was clear he meant it.

As the Overlord turned away, Ramul slowly walked to his former horde leader´s dead body. A flood of blue blood leaked from the huge wound in his stomach, his empty, glowing eyes were half closed and his tongue lolled from his mouth. Still the healthy Minion closed his eyes in respect, bowed his head and lowered his ears.

Stripe clawed the head off the last slug and slid from the slimy back. As the group travelled on they left a battlefield behind.

Eventually, the ooze reclaimed everything.

Behind them the black Ruborian vultures fell from the dark sky.

In the Netherworld the floating rock soared back to the barracks. On it, two young green Minions crouched down. They´d just come from the throne room, where they´d seen something that caused their ears to lie against their heads low and trembling even now. As they arrived at the barracks they timidly disembarked and ran to the green Hive as fast as they could, their heads held low. They swiftly climbed up in the vines. Once up, they stroked their claw knives past each other rapidly, creating a scraping noise and granting them the attention of green Minions and spiders everywhere in the web.

Older Minions let themselves fall down from the upper levels. Among them, the two newborns noticed with something resembling panic, were Scythe and Whisper, the two remaining clan elders. Those two quickly made their way to the messengers.

Whisper straightened out as far as his curved spine allowed and put up his ears. "News from the mission?"

One of the little ones nodded. His ears trembled and he didn´t make eye contact. The elder Minion bent over slightly and lifted the newborn´s chin, paying no heed to Scythe´s barely repressed annoyance. In his eyes the question was clearly visible.

It was barely a whisper, low even for a green Minion. "Jagged´s dead."

Whisper´s eyes widened. Then he frowned, and shook his head. His ears drooped in confusion. "What? No…"

"Mutated," the other muttered. "Master killed him."

Whisper looked up, pain in his eyes. Scythe met his gaze, with the same emotion on his normally sly face. Jagged was dead. Their old friend, with whom they´d outsmarted the entirety of Everlight and saved the Hive. Their leader. Without him, they and Ramul would have clawed each other´s throats off long ago. Jagged had balanced them all the time, guided them, kept them alive. Now he was gone. They had no leader.

Some Minions looked round, where an enormous, gleaming black spider hung in the air between the levels. As they watched she slowly, mournfully climbed back up. Heavy silence fell over the area around the green Hive.

Then a hissing voice sliced that silence to shreds. "Need leader."

Whisper abruptly looked back to Scythe. The other elder looked back, with smouldering eyes. "Know it´s true, Whisper. Can always mourn. But now… Ramul´s alone with crazy young in the Wasteland. Green horde needs replenishing. Who goes?"

Whisper clenched his teeth. He knew it´d come to a fight, and that fight should be three-sided – between him, Scythe and Ramul. As three elders, they all had equal rights to be the new leader. But Ramul wasn´t here, and wouldn´t be for a long time. There was no possibility of a fight in the Wasteland itself. The Master didn´t tolerate clan business to be taken care of during missions.

It would have to take place here and now. And with that Ramul would be denied his chance. Everything in Whisper protested against it, but he knew Scythe had waited for this opportunity – he´d always been the most cunning, most sly of their quartet.

Whisper´s eyes lit up. He´d been the one closest to Jagged. The horde leader had almost given his own life out of fury when Whisper had been killed on Everlight. And with less than a Minion brain, one could see the news of his death affected Whisper more than Scythe.
Of course, that had no role in choosing the new horde leader. What mattered now was strength, and cunning.

Around the two elders an empty ring had been created almost unnoticed. Even as they stretched their claws some youngsters turned invisible and darted back.

Something was going on at the Green Hive.

Scabies slowed his pace, causing his red parrot to wobble on his shoulder and flap his wings to regain his balance. The brown Minion looked up with narrowed eyes, trying to see between the tangled vines rendering the green territory almost invisible from the outside.
A fight? Had the pecking order been disturbed?

Climbing up was forbidden for the members of the other clans, and it could mean large scars or even death, but there were blues close now who weren´t named Mortis, and Scabies was certain his clan members would call some of them so he could be resurrected without a price. There was so much commotion at the green Hive now he was getting both very curious and certain of the fact he wouldn´t be spotted immediately. He exchanged glances with Duda and started climbing.

Scythe was gone from sight almost immediately and forced Whisper to do the same. Invisibility made every fight harder, but also for the opponent; in visibility it would be far easier to strike vital organs. It wasn´t impossible to find out the other´s position, however; Whisper would recognize Scythe´s scent anywhere, and the opposite was true as well. The two Minions had no secrets from each other. Scythe followed in hot pursuit as Whisper climbed the vines to the upper levels with large leaps, disturbing spider mothers and scattering their offspring. Some little green Minions fled on threads of black silk, chittering as they went.

Whisper shot into a nest and rolled himself in the tangled, discarded silk of an empty egg cocoon. The scent of eggs, young and mother´s silk was heavy, at least to him, and he hoped it´d conceal his personal stench enough to make him stand out less among all the other greens. He rubbed himself with the scent and then exited the nest, to wait beside the entrance until Scythe would reveal himself.

Smells whirled through each other. This wasn´t a good place to hunt by smell, but he almost never needed to – not him, whose position had been fixed until now. As elder he was sure of his rank, not constantly busy proving himself like a newborn…

Jagged… everything´s so strange.

A new smell interrupted his thoughts. Whisper breathed in deeply. A grim smile curled his mouth around his canines. Yes.

He waited until his rival – he´d hoped never to think of Scythe that way – was close enough, claws ready and knives out to strike. His breathing was silent.

He struck.

A sudden cry, a dark fluid on his knives. Whisper immediately jumped away and licked the blood off so it wouldn´t betray him.

Not fast enough. A deadly hiss resounded behind him. "Whisssper…"

Whisper snarled back and swung his tail as he felt and smelled Scythe just behind him. The other Minion yelped as the ivory spikes at the end struck his wounds, but didn´t slow.

"Mother silk can´t hide you," he chuckled.

They reached the top of the web, where free vines grew scarce and the two were forced to jump between them, all too visible by the movement of the living ropes and on each other´s heels at all times. Scythe clawed open Whisper´s leg, Whisper countered with long scratches across Scythe´s scaly back. At times they formed one tangled, furious ball of flinging claws and knives, and both barely had a hand at the vines to keep them from smacking into solid basalt at the bottom. Both knew that was the other´s intention. Death wasn´t permanent, but did mean absolute defeat.

Minion blood clotted fast, but they both had acquired so many wounds both Whisper and Scythe felt light-headed with blood loss. Not for the first time, Whisper realized this wasn't just a test of strength, but also of stamina; if he´d faint, Scythe would win.

His sight was growing hazy already. The smells rising from below mingled into an illegible mess in his nostrils. Scythe´s scent was gone…

Whisper remained hanging there for a moment, making sure his vine didn´t move. Where was his rival?

Something moved above him.

The next moment the air was whacked from his lungs and he lost his grip on the vine.

Scythe, far heavier than Whisper remembered, had thrown himself on top of him and now forced him down, no matter how much he tried to grab the aerial roots to regain control. They were both visible now, and hot blood streamed from between Scythe´s fingers as he kept holding on as they slid down with high speed. His other hand lay around Whisper´s throat in an iron grip. How did he muster the strength?

The glowing yellow eyes of the upper Minion pierced the other´s with an expression of murder. Whisper looked back furiously, but helplessly as well. He refused to accept Scythe as leader… not this way…

Not this way!

He writhed and clawed at nearby vines, but Scythe jumped and grabbed his throat with both claws. They were falling freely now, and not a second later they bounced off a net of woven vines. Scythe´s claw knives sliced into Whisper´s shoulders and throat. Whisper clawed at Scythe´s eyes and ears and managed to rip off almost all skin of his left ear. Scythe didn´t even blink his eyes. There was madness in them.

Whisper briefly caught a glimpse of a brown Minion with a red parrot and wide eyes before they both rolled off the net, and out of the web. Black, gleaming basalt rushed up to meet them.

Then… darkness.

Maraxus: And there we have it… things are really getting bad

Gnarl: I agree, I just wish we didn't need that blasted elf

Maraxus: We need this temporary alliance with Queen Fay, but if the Master says the word we'll storm her little refuge. Anyway, all readers please review or this story will not be continued. Sunjinjo has created this entire masterpiece so a little gratitude is not too much to ask for.