How are we doing peeps?
I'd like to pay a big thank you first and formost to all those who have bought my original book Mortis avalible on Smashwords, (Links are on my web site) and now to a good friend of mine cptArcher whose original species the Velons are going be brought to life in Hybrid Wars, that having been said I do hope you all continue to have a great 2022 and thank you for sticking with me.
So with that lets get on with the show...
Chapter 66: The Touch of Death.
Adem Zen-Ketomer was his original name, a name he had not heard in many many years now, in fact, he was sure the last time he did hear it spoken aloud was during his trial which had seen him exiled from Velona when he and a good few members of Clan Ruara who we captured during a failed coup attempt by the damnable Guardians of Life.
But unless absolutely necessary the Guardians refused to kill as to them life itself was sacred, so rather than use brute force to subdue him and his fellow rebels they had simply outmanoeuvred them before leading them into a trap which had resulted in their capture and confinement.
That was until the trial which had seen them all loaded onto individual ships and ejected from Velon space and into the cold depths of the ocean of black that was space.
Adem had wandered the depths lost, alone and if he was true to himself, more than a little scared.
But then who wouldn't be, lost alone in an endless ocean of nothingness with only tiny little twinkling lights to guide him and no charts or maps to even tell him where to go?
All the time he had flown from place to place hoping to find something or someone to help guide him his anger and misery had broiled and seethed at his loss, for a Velon to be stripped of their beloved homeland was the cruellest of punishments, worse even than death itself because at least then you were once again part of Velona, part of the blood.
But not him, he was an outcast, an exile, unwanted and unloved, cast into the void for what his people had seen as unforgivable crimes against them.
When in reality all he had been trying to do was to show his fellow Velons that their ways were misguided, that they needed to take a stronger approach to defend and securing what was theirs, to ensure that Velona and all its precious resources would only ever be for Velons and only for Velons and none of the other lesser species that called this endless pit of a void home.
And they were lesser species of that he was already sure, as thankfully he had encountered some of these lesser beings on his travels and they had allowed him to join them, both a blessing and an irony really.
Irony in those lesser beings are the ones to give him shelter among their number but a blessing as it reaffirmed to him that non-Velons were nothing more than barely sentient beasts that scrabbled about in the dust and dirt clawing and killing one another just to continue their pointless existence.
It had grieved him greatly to have to rely upon these lesser beings for his survival and this had only added to his anger and his misery at having been ejected from his home, but here came a further irony, because it was thanks to these lesser beings that he was able to meet an agent of the Dark Seed, an agent who would change his life forever.
It was on the pirate station known as Blue Haven where he had encountered this agent and at first, the meeting had not gone so well, he'd been sitting at the bar nursing his drink and wondering just how in the hell he'd wound up as a member of a pirate crew stealing cargo from passing traders, an occupation that was far beneath both his station and his talents when a cloaked figure approached him.
"Greetings brother I sense a lot of uncertainty and anger within you," it had said in a voice so deep it had sounded like it was talking while chewing a mouthful of gravel.
Adem had snorted at this creature calling him brother and had said as much, telling it to go and copulate with itself and to never ever infer that they shared any kind of blood as this would be a disgrace to his noble bloodline.
Well as it had turned out this had amused the creature no end and it had burst out laughing causing Adem's ire to flare up to no end, he vividly remembered jumping down from his bar stool and challenging the creature to a duel only to be rather surprised by the sheer size of it, standing at about 9ft tall and despite the cloak covering it head to foot it was twice his width, but Adem was no coward so he had stood his ground regardless.
What had happened next had shaken him to his very core, the creature moved faster than his eyes could see at least at first, it simply vanished and then reappeared right before him grabbing him by the throat and seemingly avoiding his quills purposefully when he tried to swing at it, that's when he felt it, a sensation like an oil covered tentacle squirming around in his mind.
Try as he might he couldn't pull away from the creature but what he felt as that tentacle took hold was indescribable, it was like he could reach out and touch the universe from right here with nothing more than his mind, he could reach out and touch Velona.
He could feel it as if he was standing right on the shores of the ocean at the edge of the Blood-Plane, he swore he could feel the spray upon his face and even smell the salt in the air again.
It locked up his senses completely as images of his home flashed through his mind so tantalizingly close that he could feel it with every one of his senses, that's when he heard that deep gravelly voice again only this time it was inside his mind, ringing through his skull like a stuck bell.
"Ahh so you yearn for home but it is more than that, you yearn to change the very nature of your people, hmmm a grand wish young one but one that can be granted to you," the voice said
"What!? How? How can such a thing be possible!?" he had exclaimed back as he fought against the tentacle in his mind.
"Through the will of the Dark Seed of course young one, it is all-seeing and all-knowing, it sprouts and grows even now little Velon, I have seen the anger you hold and the indignity you have suffered now what if there was a way where not only could you make your dreams a reality but also punish those that wronged you and your fellows?" the figure said.
Adem really hadn't known what to say to this, the thought of not only being able to return to Velona but also to bring it under the sway of Clan Ruara, to change it for the better and to remake it in the way it should have always been was an incredibly powerful draw indeed.
Somehow he just knew that this creature was not lying to him, was not just blowing smoke up his arse in order to get something it wanted out of him, he could actually feel the truth in its words like they had been spoken by his very own lips.
"I would do anything for this chance," he said plainly and the creature had lifted his head enough so that he could now see it under its hood and to say it was not a pretty creature would have been the understatement of the century.
It had dark brown and green-coloured skin that was blended and swirled together almost like a natural camo, but the two biggest features that stood out to him were its bright vivid blood red eyes and its four tusk-tipped mandibles.
"I am pleased to hear you say that now awaken young one and see who you truly are," it had said and Adem simply did not have words to convey the power of what it had done next, it was like it had crammed the entire universe into his skull.
He could hear everything, feel everything, see everything, it was like he was connected to all things all at once, it was like hearing the very breath of the universe flowing through him.
It had dropped him to his knees on the floor before the massive creature, "You see it now don't you young one, you see your destiny as if it were written in the very stars themselves don't you,?" the creature said.
"I-I-I see it!" Adem had cried aloud and the creature nodded approvingly.
That's when his so-called crew mates had taken it upon themselves to interject a mistake they would not live to regret.
"Hey! What the fuck do you think you're doing with our ship mate ya big cunt!?" Verdan a particularly grumpy and overly aggressive Floxran yelled before planting a large hand on the figure's shrouded shoulder.
Now Adem had heard that the Floxran was referred to as the Orcs of space, but given he had zero idea what the fuck an Orc was supposed to be the reference was lost on him.
"One moment it appears I have to deal with some lesser beings, don't go anywhere my apprentice," the figure said then with a move so fast no one but Adem saw it happen the creature turned and with what looked like a long pair of jagged blades mounted on its wrist it simply cleaved Verdan's arm from his shoulder in a single stroke.
But it was like time itself has simply stopped, Verdan did not react to his massive arm being removed from his shoulder nor did he react to the creature taking hold of the incredibly slowly falling arm and using it like a club to smash him so hard across the face with it that it removed his lower jaw completely in a single blow.
That's when time seemed to catch up and Verdan fell to the deck plate and began screaming incoherently in the incredible amount of pain he must have been in, suddenly the small group of his shipmates were not so brave anymore as they all looked from Verdan to the creature still holding his severed arm like a club.
"Begone wretches before I decide you are more worthy of my attention than you currently are because that is not something you wish, I'd tell you to ask your friend here but I'm pretty sure you won't get much of an answer now will you?" it said before kicking Verdan so hard in the throat that it snapped his massive neck clean in two causing his head to simply flop backwards against his spine.
That was the last straw and his shipmates fled for their lives, the creature turned back to him and threw the dripping bloody arm into the middle of the bar with a wet thud, "Sorry about that my new apprentice but sometimes one must take out the trash and you will swiftly learn that trash is simply everywhere, it's a never-ending task it really is, but such is the way of things, these creatures need to learn their place and like all cattle and prey species they only understand one language, fear," it said holding out a massive claw-tipped hand towards him.
Adem had reached out and taken the creature's massive hand allowing it to pull him to his feet without any effort whatsoever, "You called me your apprentice, what does that mean?' he had asked and the creature had given him a very dark smile indeed.
"Exactly what it sounds like young one, you are going to study and learn under me and you will find that I have so very much to teach you on the way the universe really is and how things truly are, but first I must take you to meet your new true master," the creature had said.
"My new master? Adem had asked in confusion.
"Indeed, I would believe it would only right for you to wish to thank the one who gave you those gifts that you now possess while at the same time offering them your service because not only is it honourable but it is good manners, besides only though their power and instruction can those dreams of your become a reality," it said.
So that's how Adem had met Taleslan of the Clan Shadow Star who belonged to the species that called themselves the Yautja.
Taleslan as it turned out was a female of her species and as her size betrayed was like a force of nature, brutal and efficient in how she dealt with threats but also just for fun, the evidence in the pleasure she took in not just killing them but mocking them in their agony was evident in the way she cut through her enemies, she always went for dismemberment rather than a clean kill as she believed they had earned fear and pain they now wallowed in before she finally stuck the killing blow, most often than not with one of their own severed limbs as a kind of insult.
She had taken him via her ship to a planet far from Blue Haven, it was a small and lifeless place that hung like a mass graveyard in space, in fact, he had felt the death that washed off the place long before they could even see it, but he could also feel something else, power.
The planet itself was like a desert that reminded him of the Sand-home of Velona, except this dessert was truly lifeless, all that was left in it was a series of truly massive statues and monoliths of what must have been a long-lost civilization stood proudly and resolute against the ravages of the harsh environment.
She had led him deep below the ancient city through winding trap-filled catacombs and the deeper he went the stronger the pull of the darkness that lived in this place became, and so did the pull of the power that it both held and promised.
Finally, they had emerged into a chamber that was completely empty except for a simple sandstone altar set in the middle of it, "This part is for you alone, approach the altar and see what the Dark Seed offers you," Taleslan had instructed before seemingly melting into the shadows that filled the place leaving him alone to pay fealty to this Dark Seed whatever it was.
As he'd approached the altar he'd become aware that there was an oddly familiar object sitting upon it and as he got close to it he quickly realised what it was and his mouth fell open with the shock of seeing one all the way out here in the middle of no-where, it was a Velon ceremonial sword.
Slowly he had approached the blade which as he drew closer he realised was not only shaped to look like one of their ceremonial blades it actually was one as a pure-blooded Velon he knew Magentite anywhere.
before he could stop himself he reached out to pick up the sword to examine it and no sooner had his hand grasped the grip than black tendrils of pure shadows hand shot out and wrapped themselves around his wrist preventing him from letting go of it.
"Greetings little Dream Warrior, I see that my loyal servant Taleslan has brought me a new pledge and I must say I am impressed with the specimen that now stands before me, I can feel your powerful anger and this is good because it will give you strength for what is to come," a deep and very sickly voice said from seemingly all around and also within him.
"W-Who are you? What do you want?" Adem asked turning on the spot while also trying to shake the sword free of his hand to no avail.
"What I want is simple young one, to give people like you the justice they so badly crave, you see unlike the vast majority of this universe you and those like you are special, mighty, powerful, unlike the rest of the insects that scurry around this universe sating whatever basic whim or pleasure takes their fancy people like you are touched by the very divines themselves and yet you are exiled, cast out, reviled. Now why is that do you think?" the voice asked.
"I-I don't know, jealousy maybe?" Adem replied shaking his hand to try and drop the sword but it was like it was glued to his palm.
"Yes! Exactly right young one! Jealousy, the insects are both afraid and jealous of the gifts you and those like you poses so they seek to cast you out and to turn those you care about against you. They drive you from your homes and turn their backs upon you, well how would you like to take back what's rightfully yours, to not only return home to Velona but to conquer it and make it yours?" the voice asked and that stopped Adem right in his tracks.
"C-Concoqur it? You mean I could instal the rightful Clan Ruara as its leaders and make them listen?" he exclaimed and the voice inside his head chuckled.
"If you accept what I offer little one then when you return you will be leading Clan Ruara and all those that oppose you will fall like sheaved wheat at the roadside, all you have to do is accept the gift I offer you and to follow my commands, then together we will crush all who oppose us!" the voice said with such fire and passion that it lit Adem's heard a-flame.
But it wasn't only words that the voice filled his head with, it showed him things too, it showed him a now united Velona, it showed him and the rest of Clan Ruara casting Clan Lunara out into the depths of space as they had once done to his brothers and sisters, it showed him a mighty Velona what no-one would ever mess with or defile.
"Yes! This is what I want! I accept your offer!" he exclaimed loudly.
The voice chuckled, "I thought you might young one, then pledge your allegiance and swear your fealty to me by accepting this seed, with it you will become stronger than you could have ever imagined," it said and before his eyes, a black seed appeared on the alter where the sword had once rested floating above the stone.
Ginger he reached out with his free hand and touched the top, no sooner had he done so than the seed melted into oil and ran right up his arm over his quills and absorbed itself into his skin, the feelings that came with it were like nothing he had ever imagined in his life, it was pain beyond measure that dropped him to his knees as he fought to remain in control, but in the end as all who accept this gift, he lost.
When he came too he felt once again like himself but at the same time different, stronger, more in control than he'd ever been.
Gone from his hand was the sword now as well but he swiftly found it sat on his hip in a black scabbard that felt as cold as ice to the touch.
"We are one now young one and from this moment on you are Adem no longer, from this moment on you are Death Touch and you will see why soon enough, but for now I leave you in the care of Taleslan, she will be your mistress and you her apprentice, you are to do whatever she commands you to no matter what it is do you understand?" the voice said seemingly deep from within him now.
"I do my lord, I will not fail you," he said saluting the air around him sure that the dark creature that had spoken could see him.
"Good see that you don't, I do not tolerate failure," the voice said and with that, it was gone and out of the shadows emerged Taleslan.
"Come apprentice, I have much to teach you," she said and with that, he followed her back to the ship and on towards his new life.
And in him she did, Taleslan was a truly ruthless individual who expected nothing less than perfection and if he did not deliver then he got punished, it also turned out she was a massive sadist who seemed to truly revel in causing fear and pain.
Her training also came with a price as it seemed that part of her deal with the Dark seed was that whatever apprentice she took on became her property, so not only did she punish him most harshly for any and all errors he made but she used him like her personal toy.
Somehow she also seemed to be fully aware of his species natural defence mechanism in the form of the poison-delivering spines that were scattered about over his body that could deliver a rather nasty and rather fast-acting neurotoxin, one that his species revered as almost as sacred as their blood.
So the very first time she decided she was going to have her way with him she was extra careful to ensure that she milked every last drop of the toxin out of the sacs beneath them that the toxin was stored in before she made her move on him to ensure that he would not be able to stick her with them.
This infuriated him no end because he felt so helpless and so powerless against her and not only that but she had taken something both precious and sacred to his people, this was made infinitely worse later on when he found out that she was using it to coat her blades to make them extra lethal.
In the bedroom she was both selfish and dominating, she liked to restrain him before she would have her way with him though usually, she had him make a show of stripping and begging her for it first just to humiliate him further, this was usually followed with him being forced to perform oral sex on both of her holes before she would throw him onto the bed, tie him up and go to town on him.
It wasn't until a few years into this cycle of abuse she called training that it really clicked why it was she was doing it and suddenly the whole thing just made sense.
Nightmare Assassin's abilities and powers are fueled by their emotions, their anger, and their fear, it gave them strength and power, so the angrier she got him the stronger he became until he truly began to fight back, he channelled his rage into resisting her until he finally beat her at her own game.
Though strangely enough on that day despite his absolute distaste and disgust at being forced to lay with someone he saw as beneath himself he still took her, he wanted her to feel exactly how and what she'd made him feel all those times over all those years, though to his shock she actually seemed to enjoy it, which only angered him further.
It also turned out that Taleslan was a lot more secretive and cunning than he'd thought, he'd always taken her for a simple brute who got to where she was and got what she wanted by sheer force of strength and will be backed up with her power.
But as it turned out she was also incredibly intelligent as he'd found out as when in a fit of rage at being denied her humiliation at being forced he stabbed her with his spines and gave her a rather large dose of his toxin, a truly grievous sin in the eyes of his people.
So when she started laughing at him but also nodding approvingly he found himself completely and totally confused by it, was her people immune?
No, as it turned out they were not, yes they did have a higher tolerance than most thanks in part to their biology but what truly made Taleslan immune was the fact that when she'd first taken the toxin from him she had begun two processes, one was developing an antitoxin for it, the other was building up her tolerance to it by taking small amounts to bolster her body.
So now his toxin was as potent as water was against her.
As it turned out this rebellion is exactly what Taleslan had been waiting for, she had been trying to make him as angry as possible so that not only would he fight back but he would use what she'd taught him to its full effect and he had.
"So it seems your training is complete young one and I must say it seems I did a rather masterful job if I do say so myself, you have become a fine and powerful Nightmare Assassin, you are now truly ready to serve the Dark seed," she had said.
He remembered being incredibly angry at her words, "So what!? This was all a fucking test!? All the abuse, all the humiliation, all that defilement just to prove a point?" he'd yelled and she'd simply smiled and nodded.
"Exactly, I needed you to see that as a Nightmare Assassin the only person you answer to is the Dark Seed itself, no one else has the right to command you, to tell you what to do, you are the god-made flesh and blood, not them, their place is at your feet snivelling and begging for your forgiveness and your mercy, you have no master young one, you never did, it was all an illusion that you made for yourself, I was your trainer nothing more, you let me be your master and I did what any good master would do, whatever the fuck I wanted, though I will admit I will miss our sessions together, you are very skilled with that tongue of yours and that cock," she said wit ha sickening purr at the end.
Adem snarled angrily, no, he was not Adem any longer, he was Death Touch now, Adem was gone, Adem was weak, pitiful, useless and he was none of those things any longer, now he was in charge.
"So what now?" he'd spat at her and she'd smiled broadly.
"Simple, I return you to where I found you, the final part of this test is a simple one, get yourself a ship and if you feel you need one a crew though I never found a use for one myself, I prefer the solitude though having a pretty spiny boy around to serve me whenever the mood struck was a nice distraction I will admit, from then on you are on your own, the Dark Seed will tell you what to do and where to go, do not ignore him the gifts he gives you are a dark blessing and they can be just as easily taken away," she'd said.
With that she did exactly what she'd said she would do, she dropped him at Blue Haven once again and then she was gone, back into the vast sea of black never to be seen by him again in all the time he spent out there.
As it turned out getting yourself a ship was a rather easy task when you're basically a demi-god, he'd simply sought out the captain of the first ship that had caught his eye and demanded he hand it over, when the man had laughed at him he'd killed every one of the man's officers before locking him inside his own mind with only his darkest nightmare for company, though not before he's ripped the access codes from his mind of course.
This had netted him a rather nice Felenis cruiser and crew to go along with it, she wasn't the biggest and it was obviously an older model by the styling not to mention stolen as not a single one of the crew was Felenis, but it would serve his needs most nicely.
The first thing he'd done after liberating said ship was he'd changed its name to Vengence of the Blood then he'd put his new talents and powers to good use and hunted down every single one of his exiled brothers and sisters who had been cast out alongside him on that fateful day all those years ago, funnily enough when they'd seen what he could do they had readily joined, though to accommodate them this had meant replacing the existing crew after they'd taught his brothers and sister what to do of course.
Though he was far more merciful with the insects than he'd have needed to be, rather than killed them he'd simply abandoned them on a distant world and left them to fend for themselves, he felt this was an act of mercy considering he could have just killed them outright, it wasn't his fault or problem that the planet happened to be infested with giant flesh-eating reptiles now was it?
From there he'd begun receiving instruction from the Dark Seed itself, it would usually speak to him through his dreams, dark dread-filled dreams that not only showed him what he had to do but also the price of his failure.
It seemed that he among his new dark brothers and sisters had quite the talent for finding others like himself that were touched by these so-called divines, it was his job to hunt them down and to deliver them to the Dark Seed so trainers like Taleslan could mould them into what he himself had become, a dark force of nature.
So his hunt had begun across many worlds and among many stars, hunting the little souls crying out for justice and vengeance for their pain and suffering, they would become strong like he was thanks to his answering their call.
That's when he first met the accursed Clan Mason and realised that his kind were not the only ones who used or possessed these powers.
He had been sent alongside a number of his brother and sisters including the one they called the Dark Angel to a place called Raptoria, a pitiful place where all of its residents cowered underground in hidey holes too scared to brave the surface of their world for fear that something might eat them.
That funnily enough was where he got his first introduction to both the Scalathor and the Draconis as well.
These reminded him so much of Taleslan in their attitude towards him and his fellow dark brothers that he had felt more than compelled to not only put them in their place but to beat the smugness out of them, so he had, more than once.
They swiftly learned a valuable lesson in not going near he or his dark brothers unless they themselves wished it and while it was obvious that a few of them had the taste for the loathsome reptilian creatures by the feminine screams that pierced the night from a few of their quarters they left him well alone.
His job was to be a simple one, once they breach the underground cities he was to round up as many of the blessed ones as he could find and to ship them off to the Dark Seed for their conversion and training to begin, a challenge he had relished because he had felt quite a few souls crying out into the dark here.
But that entire plan had come crashing down very swiftly upon the intervention of Clan Mason and more specifically of him.
The God Killer himself, a man he had only heard about in whispers and myths thrown around cantinas and in shadowed corners, not to mention Yautja Clan ships, a Dream Warrior so powerful it was said that he had the ears and favours of the Gods themselves, a man who had killed a God with his sheer will alone.
Now Death Touch had never believed in such fairy tails himself, well that was until he had seen the man with his own two eyes and had realised that not only were the rumours true but they were wildly under-exaggerated.
The man was a living force of nature, just looking at him hurt the eyes as he was surrounded by an aura of purest white flame one that seemed to somehow envelop every single one of those that fought alongside him, most of all that of his wife.
She was the one they called the Breaker of Chains, freer of slaves and defender of the weak and pitiful, she like her husband was a force of nature despite not being one of their kind, he had personally seen her cut through rank upon rank of soldiers like they were nothing more than an inconvenience and when she was at his side that's when the trouble really began.
Only a handful of his dark brothers and sisters had escaped that place and if it hadn't been for the Dark Angel showing him how to use the Shadow Step then he would have never gotten out before Clan Mason and their detestable Raptorian allies ran over them like a living steam roller made of pure white fire.
He was only grateful that he had sent his ship and his brothers and sisters out of the system on a recon mission before the fucking Clan had arrived, or they too would have met the same fate as the Scalathor and Draconis.
That to him was the most detestable of thoughts, he had promised them a victory so powerful that it would carve a wound into the very soul of Velona, one that when it healed would remake Velona in the image that he and the rest of Clan Ruara saw fit, they would show Clan Lunara exactly what their pitiful respect for life and weakness had sown.
But before he could even begin to further the plans he had put in place to make this happen he had been summoned by the Dark Seed, to a world far away, one so filled with divine-touched ones that it promised to swing the favour of the shadow war back thourally into their favour.
A swing that was so very desperately needed after what Clan Mason and more specifically the God Slayer himself had done on Scalathor prime.
A shiver of fear had passed through him on that day as the thought of him doing such a thing on his beloved Velona resonated into his soul so deeply that it had awoken the Dark Seed and called it to him, it had given him the strength he had needed by showing him images of the future, of Clan Lunara in chains being cast out into the sea of black, had he had once been, or better still in mass graves as a warning to others of the woes that weakness and mercy bring.
So this is where he found himself now, on a world filled with primitive savages that had barely invented the fucking wheel, being forced to play nice and cosy up to their power-hungry leaders just so he may have the freedom he needed to hunt down those like him and to swing them to his cause.
And as much as he thourally detested these people he did have to admit that the Dark Seed had been wise to send him here, there were indeed a great many like him and they were so enthralled by this wizard from beyond the stars that they had all but thrown themselves at his feet, which is exactly where these snivelling wretches belong.
That's when a stab of cold fury hit his heart once more as it seemed that now Clan Mason was here too and undoubtedly for the same reason as he was, the God Killer had obviously sensed the power this place held and had sent his underlings to investigate it.
This could not stand, he would not be robbed of his prize once again, this place was the stepping stone he needed to win favour with the Dark Seed, to gain back the power he needed to return home so that he might free his beloved Velona from the weak limp wristed simpering clutches of the detestable Clan Lunara.
So this time it was going to be different, this time he was not going to be caught off guard, this time he would make Clan Mason pay for the indignity he had suffered, this time he was going to show the God Slayer what it was like to lose, to run home with your tail between your legs, this time he was going to hunt down every last Clan member on this world and then them home in pieces, this time it was the God Slayer who would fear him that was a promise.