Chapter 24: Immortal Wrath
Kay walked to one of five evolution chambers that had been created in the underground village. The other five evolution chambers, located at the surface, were still there, and Corvurn frequented them more since he thought it was efficient to simply work with them in close proximity. But with the danger of the sky lasers raining death on many zerg strains on the surface of the world however, it only made sense to create backup bio-structures underground and have the evolution master move his work below the war-zone.
But Kay had a certain overlord that he wanted checked on. Upon approaching the evolution chamber that he knew his evolution master was in, he gently kicked the immobile beast. Seconds later, Corvurn slithered out and found Kay standing before him. He pleaded his fingers and spoke in his usual low growl, seemingly removed of any emotion. "Commander Kay. Swarm expansion, ongoing. Pleased."
Kay nodded. "Kay, nice to know that you're happy. Is there something you are doing at the moment?"
Corvurn nodded. "Unlocking blightbringer and aberration strains. Imbibed several gilanian genetic samples. Enabled evolutionary change. New improved unit over infestor. However, very expensive to produce. Produces infested organisms for infinite duration. Also expensive, but lesser resources needed."
Kay smiled. "Very good, Corvurn. I have a project in mind for you. Think you can handle it, after you're done here?"
Corvurn nodded. "Shall assist swarm. Command me."
Kay pointed upwards. "There is an overlord that has been affected by some kind of poison that three gilanian hunters used on it. We discovered this when we placed some zerg organisms into its ventral sack, and they too started getting sick. There are two more queens that also exhibit the same signs, and they are now keeping themselves, and the overlord they're inside of, healthy. They are still sick from three nights ago, and I want to find out why that is."
Corvurn seemed... perplexed. "Impossible. Swarm evolution dictates changes. Rapid development. Poison resistance mutations expected to develop."
"I still want you to check it out. Ask Virid for assistance, but I don't want her, or anyone else, getting infected with whatever that overlord has. It's clear to me that, whatever it is, it's contagious!" Kay warned.
Corvurn paused, but then he nodded his head. "Shall obey. Summon Virid after unlocking strains. Possible anti-zerg contagion detected." He said, going back to his work.
Kay nodded as he watched Corvurn slithering back into the underground evolution chamber. He had to hand it to the guy, he was diligent in his work.
PANIC!
Kay could feel the presence of Gollog strutting on his creep again, near the southwestern expansion ten kilometers from the main hive cluster, and it was barely morning. It was the same area that Kay met Kralluf once in person, and 'Gollog' twice in person. This meeting will be the third time that Kay would meet the strange person that Kay sensed no brain waves from, or any organic presence. However, Kay had expanded his creep fields heavily, already spreading outward several kilometers in distance. Kay could not have determined how Gollog got here without the use of a vehicle!
Once Kay emerged from the newly formed nydus worm, he took note that Gollog, still pristine, white clothed and opalescent from days before, was carrying another copper and green suitcase. Gollog had a furrowed, angry expression, and he was staring daggers at Kay when he finally came close to him. Gollog stopped when he was three meters away, and placed his suitcase down. After a long pause, Gollog took in a breath and sighed. "We really have to stop meeting like this."
Kay scoffed. "YOU'RE the jackass that keeps coming back! Why have you came back here, and what the hell have you came here for this time?"
Gollog took another pause before speaking. "... I want a truce."
Kay reared his head back and looked at Gollog in surprise. "What?!"
Gollog explained. "It's true. I want a truce between us. Don't act so surprised about it."
Kay crossed his arms, still feeling like he should be wary of any trick that Gollog might have had. "Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"
Gollog waved his hands outward and widely in what seemed like a humble and passive gesture. "I understand that we are at an impasse. My powers will limit your expansion, and you simply keep coming back like insects swarming out from a breeding ground. I wish to broker a truce so that we can finally stop this maddening fight with no end between us."
Kay snorted and smirked. "Is that what you call it? I count four times that I went against your forces, and I came out winning in the end through every one of those battles."
Gollog shook his head. "Even so, my divine smiting light can lay waste to your forces at an even greater level than what you had experienced yesterday. But as of now, I am granting us the means to stop this madness. I am willing to agree that I was a fool to let this continue on as it did, and let you agree that you were also a fool in starting this war. Are we agreed?"
Kay closed his eyes and thought long and hard about the offered truce. "Hmm... A tempting offer." He replied sarcastically.
"Then how about a peace trade?" Gollog offered. "Anything you would request from me and my empire, and I shall give it to you. Fame. Wealth. Power. Resources. A place in our world. Anything of mortal desire that I can fulfill."
Kay paused before asking. "... If I were to accept, then what would I have to trade away?"
Gollog placed a hand to his chin in thought. "... You're talents and mastery over your zerg beasts are quite unique. I suppose you could put them to use in targeting some unscrupulous individuals. In fact, I have a certain target in mind already."
Kay looked up and stared at Gollog. "You want me to assassinate who now?"
Gollog softly chuckled. "Ho ho ho, you may call it that, but I think it is more likened to a 'public service'."
Kay rolled his eyes.
Gollog smiled. "But the death of a few people means nothing to me. And certainly not to you! What do you say? Kill a few people for me to achieve this truce?"
Kay paused for a long while. After mulling it over in his head, he came across several pros and cons to agreeing to this truce trade. Would he choose to accept the truce? Or would he choose the war instead? Truthfully, he didn't know what kind of answer he would give to Gollog at the moment. With nothing else to go on, Kay decided to dig for some extra information. "I dunno man. Killing people is pretty wrong anyway."
"How so?" Gollog asked, sounding confused. "You didn't seem so reluctant when fighting my soldiers."
"Yeah, well, being an assassin is not my style anyway. If I didn't know you any better, I'd probably think you need my little monsters to clear out entire cities of all its citizens that have pretty unscrupulous opinions of you. It would leave you in the clear while the public fed on the fear of being infested by my zerg. You would then comfort your people and give them an outlet of praise and worship. If anything, this truce would benefit you more than me."
Gollog nodded his head. "True."
"With that being said, this hit-list of yours must also include people yjat are a great threat to you. And, judging from your political and diplomatic standpoint, it comes to reason that those outside your influence would hold the most power against you. And it is power that YOU want for yourself only."
Gollog was silent.
"I'm afraid that this peace trade is not going to come to pass." Kay said, sighing and folding his arms.
Gollog furrowed his brow. "What makes you say that? Does this mean that the bug-man beast-master has his own morals to look after?"
Kay shook his head. "No. I merely have an impossible request."
Gollog blinked. "A-and that is?"
Kay took a breath and sighed. "In our first conversation, I asked you if you could get me off of this world. You're face scrunched up something fierce after you processed that question. From that expression alone, I deduced that you had no intention, or no knowledge on how, to do it. But it is my only request. Even now, I can see from your expression alone that such a request cannot be done."
Gollog stared at Kay for a long while. "... You really are intent on trying to leave Kiln, aren't you?"
Kay nodded.
Gollog looked at the ground, as though he was trying to find his answers. He then looked back up at Kay. "May I speak plainly?"
Kay nodded again to allow Gollog to explain, folding his arms behind his back.
Gollog breathed in before speaking. "You see, Kay. Every gilanian here is a descendant of a prisoner. The precursor gilanians founded this world and remodeled it to be the perfect place to store their war criminals, their mass murderers, and their tyrant lords. I believe they created a special type of veil around our world to prevent us from escaping its orbit. I heard tales of test subjects that were tied to metal chains in sealed suits and being cast into the inky blackness, only to disappear into this void. When they retrieved the test subjects, they found that the places on their body that the dark veil touched was completely dissolved. It was like they grated against several impossibly sharp blades that sliced their flesh perfectly. Almost as though a perfectly sharp biscuit puncher was used onto their bodies. We have tried to escape our world several times, but we found no purchase each time we attempted to leave."
Kay frowned as he was told this story. He was feeling a small amount of sympathy for Gollog. Kay felt like he knew what it meant to be a prisoner to something, but he can't tell why that was. Kay chalked up that feeling to a byproduct of damaged memories and amnesia.
After that long-winded explanation, Gollog changed his expression to one of royal demeanor. "So, Kay. If I cannot offer you freedom, then what else would you want?"
Kay stood silently before deciding on his answer. "Nothing from you. If you can't help me, then I'll find my own way out." Kay said, turning around and going back to the nydus worm he arrived from.
Gollog frowned and growled. "WE ARE NOT DONE TALKING!" This stopped Kay, which prompted him to turn around and face Gollog again, but with an annoyed expression. Gollog waited a few seconds more before speaking. "Think about this carefully. If you really want to be left alone, then all you really have to do is kill a whole city of people. Far west from here, there is a citadel called Gargantua. If you can slaughter everyone there, both men, women and children, then I will allow you your deserved peace."
Kay really wanted to smile a shit-eating grin in front of the gilanian emperor. However, he didn't when he said his next sentence. "Blow it out your ass, Gollog. I said that I want nothing from you except if it's a means to escape this world. Since you couldn't even provide that, then I have nothing else to say to you. Tyrannical scum like you are always the type to try and buy an easy victory. Well, the zerg, as I have said before, cannot be bartered with." Kay said, turning around and leaving for the nydus worm again.
A blast of heat penetrated into Kay, and he felt pain on an unimaginable degree. After five seconds of this pain coursing through Kay's body, Kay doubled over once the flash of fiery sensations was over. He rolled over, and saw Gollog standing over him with an energy casting pistol in his hand. Gollog shook his head as he stood over Kay, looking as though he was disappointed. "I have been very patient with you, Kay. But now, that patience has ran dry."
Kay wriggled on the creep covered sand. He coughed a few times before getting back on his knees weakly.
"I will no longer hold myself back. Damn the hidden village, and damn the beasts that you command. You have payed me disrespect for the last time. Now die." Gollog said, putting the energy casting pistol to Kay's head.
The pistol was shot out of Gollog's hand by a row of spikes that shot out of the ground. However, they did nothing when they passed through Gollog. He stumbled backwards as these spikes poked through his feet and legs, but he still stood tall and he only emoted annoyance, rather than pain. Still, Kay had to give thanks to the lurkers positioned near the nydus worm. That was when the nydus worm also started vomiting out verious zerg organisms. Zerglings, roaches, and hydralisks poured out of it, and they assailed Gollog. The zerglings surrounded and savagely attacked Gollog from all sides, while the roaches and hydralisks formed a ring around gollog and fired their spit and spines at him. Even still, Gollog only looked as though he was becoming more annoyed as he was attacked by the zerg that were defending their commander. Kay took the chance to crawl away from his attacker, and stepped behind the line of roaches and hydralisks.
Gollog held his hands out. "I SUMMON FORTH MY DIVINE SWORD AND DAGGER!" Smoke appeared out from his hands, which instantly formed blades that he seemed to have summoned out from thin air, and he used them to start attacking the zerglings around himself. His blades had an unusual sharpness to them, as a single strike cleaved through several zerglings effortlessly, killing them in one attack. The zerglings may have contained Gollog in the center, and that the roaches and hydralisks were doing their best to kill the emperor from a distance, yet they seemed to be doing no form of lasting damage to him.
Kay watched Gollog kill droves of his zerglings, and he stared at awe after a few seconds. Half a minute passed before Kay decided to say something. "... Fucking hell. This is getting us nowhere."
Gollog swung his sword and dagger with incredible speed, using deliberate strikes to strike down the smothering horde of zerglings that filled his vision with claws, teeth, and more claws. Gollog grunted. "I SUMMON FORTH MY DIVINE POWER! QUICKEN MY ATTACKING SPEED!" After Gollog had exclaimed that, he began cutting down zerglings even faster than before. In fact, he was killing them so quickly that the number of zerglings arriving were having a hard time replacing their slain brothers! Another nydus worm was now trying to burst from the ground, which provided more zerglings that would hopefully kill this insufferable enemy. Gollog was already making his way to the ring of roaches and hydralisks that kept trying to take him down to no avail.
'Virid. Send in nearby air combat strains in this area. ANY air combat strains!' Kay telepathically sent to Virid.
It was at this point that the flying zerg organisms started entering the fray. Specifically, the mutalisks. They screeched as they heard the call of their master and polluted the airspace with their numbers. Glaive wurms filled the air as they spun down toward Gollog to assail him, their spinning, and acid drenched, blades exploded into life as they tried to harm the emperor. But even such an attack was useless against Gollog as he kept waylaying the zerg on the ground. After noticing this sudden trend of glaive worms flying through his intangible torso, Gollog threw his knife upward. "I SUMMON FORTH A DIVINE SPIRIT TO GUIDE MY DAGGER! SLAY THESE AIRBORNE FOES!" The dagger took on a life of its own and began zipping around at a blinding speed. But even with air support, their efforts did little to slow down Gollog as the mutalisks were cut down by a blade that flitted around madly and quickly, like a demonic bird with scalpels for talons.
Kay slowly shook his head as he stared at the 'immortal' emperor fighting his zerg forces. He had no way to plan or counter against such an attack. "How the fuck am I supposed to kill this guy?!" This kept going on for another minute until Gollog decided that he was done wading through the swarm of zerglings, roaches, and hydralisks. He had finally decided to try his hand at slaying the apparent leader of the swarm once more. Kay noticed the emperor coming to him at a fast pace and quickly backed away as Gollog's sword came dangerously close to slicing through his carapace armor. Gollog was insanely fast, and Kay was having a difficult time tracking his sword swings and other melee strikes.
Gollog started off with a flurry of quick strikes, two horizontal slashes, a rising vertical cut, and a quick roundhouse. Kay tried to trip up Gollog with a sweeping kick and quick stabbing jabs with his bone wings, but it simply opened him up to Gollog's counterattack. Kay's own attacks merely fazed through the emperor. Kay was beaten with the hilt of Gollog's sword multiple times before his limbs were being removed methodically. Before Kay even knew it, he was arm-less, wing-less, and had only one leg to hobble on. Kay made a strategic jump toward the nydus worm, and he hoped that the spine and spore crawlers could at least slow Gollog down. But once Gollog caught Kay by the leg as he almost entered the nydus worm, Kay instantly had a realization.
After being slammed onto the creep covered ground, Gollog pointed his sword to Kay's neck. The arriving zerg organisms and the spine crawlers tried to take down the immortal emperor, but their attacks were still useless. Gollog stood over Kay victoriously, and his smile became predatory and wide. "You have struggled long enough. This fight was prolonged longer than I had thought, but I shall now an end to your life. before I put an end to your mortal existence, I shall allow you to part with your last words."
Kay smiled and laughed weakly. "Heh heh heh heh heh."
Gollog cocked his head and furrowed his brow.
Kay's forehead immediately flashed light as lightning crackled forward, forming into what looked like an energy blast. The blast jumped between different locations in the air, and cracking sounds could be heard splitting the wind, making it smell of ozone. Gollog stepped back and looked around frantically, his form seeming to flicker for a bit. "WHAT?!"
An overlord that was overhead dropped down and picked up Kay with its pincers. Kay continued to laugh weakly as he was carried. "Heh heh heh. I understand now why you were tangible and intangible at the same time."
Gollog looked up at Kay, which was hanging from the pincers of the overlord that held him. Gollog took a step forward toward Kay. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Kay smirked and craned head. "I'll tell you, you goddamned idiot. I didn't figure it out until you came closer to my spore crawler bio-structures, and it was just then that I realized what was happening. You keep saying that you are immortal, but you are actually using cloaked, floating devices that is projecting your physical body in front of me. They project your physical presence and make it possible for you to affect material objects, like my zerg or my body for example. To put it simply, I attacked your projectors and limited your physical presence in the material realm."
Once an overseer flew into the crowd of mutalisks, they directed their glaive wurms to attack the flying dagger that had felled many mutalisks. Even the hydralisks joined in neutralizing the dagger, and did so with collective success. Gollog's eyes beamed with rage and contempt, turning away from Kay to witness the destruction of his flying dagger. Gollog turned back to stare at Kay with murderous intent. "EVEN IF YOU DESTROYED ALL OF MY DREAM-LIGHT HOVER-BOTS, I WILL NEVER REST IN MY PURSUIT TO KILL YOU AND ALL OF YOUR ZERG! MARK MY WORDS, AND MARK THEM WELL, BUG-MAN BE-"
A hydralisk destroyed the final dream-light hover-bot, which was inside of the projected body of Gollog. Kay shook his head, happy that the loud voice that emanated from Gollog was finally silenced. "Fuck, you're loud."
'Kay, you are wounded. Return to the underground hive cluster, and I will tend to your injuries.' Virid said from the comfort of the underground village.
"Pfft. Tis but a scratch." Kay replied. He mentally gestured to the overlord carrying him to put him into the nydus worm's maw.
'You need to be more careful in your future battles, Kay. If you suffered any more damage during that fight, then the main hive will have to repair your broken body.'
Kay could feel his limbs growing back, forming little miniature versions of the hands and foot he lost. He paused, however, when Virid brought up an important detail just then. "You sounded as though you don't care whether I lived or died during that battle. That makes you way more impassive than normal, Virid."
'I wouldn't need to care. You base swarm instincts would have forced you to deep-burrow to the first hatchery structure, where you could regenerate to your full health. Even if your body was completely incinerated, your memories and DNA would form again within a new body that would develop inside the hive.'
Kay paused slightly longer. "... Well NOW you tell me."
'I also noticed that you used an energy based attack just then. Is your psionic abilities returning?' Virid asked.
Kay shook his head and sighed. "Actually, I don't really know how that happened. That was sort of a... 'spur of the moment' scenario, I guess. I did summon energy blasts, yes, but I can feel a headache coming on. I think I might have exerted myself, actually."
PANIC!
A wall of light descended downward and made contact with the sandy ground. From the perspective of every zerg organism, Kay could see that the wall of light encompassed two times the area of the reestablished zerg territory. Zerglings tried to pass through the wall of light, but they were disintegrated by it similarly to the beams of destruction from yesterday, which had also eradicated many zerg organisms. Kay also noted that the wall of light was quickly grazing across the land, and was coming towards him. Even the roaches and infestors trying to burrow-move past the wall died and cooked quickly. 'Then I recommend returning to the underground village before you overexert yourself again. Or before that wall of light reaches you.' Virid said simply.
Kay nodded, then entered the nydus worm quickly after. All other zerg organisms that were on the ground hurriedly returned to the nydus worms, whilst the zerg organisms that were outside the wall had to continue with their respective missions on foot. The flying zerg organisms at the center of his territory, if Kay was correct, would be unable to survive the conical laser bombardment.
The laser wall was greatly slanted since it originated from the sun. By Kay's estimation, the wall would close into the zerg territory by midday. Thankfully, the laser wall didn't reach the hatcheries and zerg organisms that were below ground, but Kay was unsure if the underground village was safe from this kind of attack. Once Kay was fully healed, he knew he had to tell Kragnon the bad news.
He also wondered if Johnny was doing alright. But he already knew that he was doing well, because of the zerg hivemind psionic network Kay and Johnny were connected by. Johnny was enjoying the lavish lap of luxury, living it up with spiced krell-egg salad, chilled flavored drinks, and all the while being watched and protected by Baroness Tak.
Kay would love to be pampered like Johnny, instead of being cooped up in this fiery war-zone.
A/N: Now we know of some of the capabilities of Emperor Gollog. And then some. Yikes.