The Volcano

NARRATOR NOTE//: Hey everyone!

So, as you've probably noticed, this is yet another late as fuck chapter. The reason is quite simple, life. I have been rawdogged by life like Riley Reid on a busy day. Will it ever stop fucking me? Will I learn to enjoy it? Will I ever find those brownies I had a few years ago? Find out, the same Bat-time on the same Bat-channel.

In other news, I have been deciding on changes to this story. First, chapters will be a little shorter, but still a decent length. And secondly, I will broaden my release dates to the entire weekend rather than specifically Fridays.

John and the others come to a stop just outside of the laboratory due to a few piled up carts remaining on the tracks. The carts themselves have obviously not been used for quite a while due to the dust and cobwebs that have gathered upon them.

The group all disembark from their cart and begin climbing over the other carts as they head towards their goal, which is just a giant cart-sized opening, but it doesn't appear to actually be open.

After scrambling over the last cart, the group walk over the tracks and head up to the unopened opening. Kira steps forward, getting her magic prepared, so she can open a door for them all to walk through.

Before the spell can even be completed, the group all hear the sounds of crashing glass, spells being cast, and the thuds of bodies impacting against a wall or the floor.

"Sounds like the party's getting started without us." Amilia jokes in an attempt to calm the fear building within her.

"Well, let's not keep them waiting any longer." Kyuala says as she readies her axe, readying herself for what may be waiting for them on the other side.

Kira nods as she finishes up the spell, and the hatch begins to open up as the noises of battle from inside continue and get louder as the hatch opens further.

A FEW MINUTES PRIOR:

The Queen, Musha and the other giants have all entered the laboratory, ready for battle. Unfortunately for all of them, Hilfa is nowhere to be found.

"The bitch isn't here!" One of the giants calls out.

"You may not see her, but she is definitely here. Be wary of traps. We've already felt the terror she can strike within us with just a single spell." The Queen reminds her group, hoping that it'll keep them on their toes.

Musha hears those words, and the first thing that immediately comes to mind is her and the Queen's shared belief of some of the other giants being under Hilfa's thumb. It's a horrible thought to have about those who you've broken bread with, and spilled blood for, but that's the sad reality of being high up in the chain of command.

Continued scouring of the lab doesn't turn up any results, and the giants are all beginning to believe that Hilfa genuinely isn't in the lab.

One of the giants runs her fingers over one of the stone tables, seeing that there's not a speck of dust on it whatsoever. She continues around the large chunk of carved stone, carefully examining the glassware and notes of experiments that she doesn't understand.

As the giant is distracted by the fancy writing on the parchment, a small maroon coloured circle begins to gently glow on the wall behind her. As the glow begins to brighten, it shows more of the circle, revealing it to be a spell circle that is beginning to slowly turn clockwise.

The giant finally has enough of trying to make sense of the nonsense on the parchment before putting it back on the table and turning around. As the giant turns, she notices the glowing circle and leans closer to get a better look. Upon further inspection, the giant sees the spinning circle has symbols around it, and that its glow is beginning to pulse.

Suddenly, a blast of maroon dust hits the giant directly in the face, coating her eyes, nose, and mouth. The giant obviously panics, spluttering as she frantically tries to wipe away the remaining dust that's clinging to her skin, but it's to no avail.

The giant quickly goes still, becoming alarmingly calm in just the blink of an eye. She just stares at the wall, her eyes looking glossed over as her lips begin to slowly move, like she's quietly talking to someone. A few moments later, the giant turns to her left, acting almost robotically as she begins to walk forward.

About a minute later, the giant has re-joined her fellow giants, but she doesn't stop until she finds the Queen who is standing next to Musha.

"Arniqa. What is it? Have you found something?" The Queen asks, wondering why the giant made a beeline towards her.

"Your majesty, I have a message from Hilfa." The giant says in a monotone voice, gaining the attention of all the giants. "Look up."

The giants do as their friend says, and that's when they all see pulsing maroon coloured spell circles all spinning.

The Queen is the last to look up, and sees the spell circled in question. Her body is wracked with fear as she has an idea of what's going to happen.

"Everybody! Cover your fa-!"

Before the Queen can finish her sentence, the spell circles begin to fire the same maroon dust as before. The Queen quickly grabs Musha and covers her face whilst hiding her own as some of the other giants do the same just in time.

Unfortunately, a few of the giants don't manage to follow suit, and end up with their face plastered in maroon coloured dust.

The Queen, Musha, and the other giants who managed to duck their heads in time, can hear the sounds of coughing and spitting all around them as the giants hit by the dust begin to react.

"Cover your mouths and noses!" The Queen calls out to the one's who had managed to avoid the dust.

The giants do as they're told before raising their heads to look at their friends. Immediately, they see that their fellow giants are no longer reacting to the dust, and look to be in a weirdly calm state.

"It would seem that you have failed your subjects, your majesty." One of the giants says, but her words are not her own.

"Hilfa!" The Queen snarls. "Crawl out of your hole, so I can disconnect your overly large head from your body!"

The dust-affected giants all begin to laugh simultaneously, each one of them laughing the exact same way.

"Well, Hilfa did always love listening to herself. I didn't realize she would take it this far." Musha says.

"Your highness, what do we do?" One of the unaffected giants asks.

The Queen doesn't answer the question, instead, she looks at the dust-affected giants. "So Hilfa, I take it that there's no chance for this to end peacefully?"

"If you were to relinquish your place on the throne, and any claim to any leadership... I may consider it." One of the dust-affected giants answers.

"I assumed as much." The Queen says before launching her foot into the affected giant's chest, sending them flying backwards into another affected giant, taking both out for the moment.

"Listen up. They may be your friends, but Hilfa will stop at nothing to see an end to us. Try to knock them out if you can, but if you need to... do what you must."

"Yes, your highness!" The Queen's group say in unison as the affected drop their weapons, shocking the Queen's group. They all look towards the Queen who carefully sheathes her sword. "I always did like fisticuffs."

After looking at the Queen, her group follow her example by putting their weapons away before the two groups run toward one another, and thudding flesh echoes whilst fists are thrown.

Back and forth, blows are exchanged, enough to cause immediate swelling and even draw some blood. Clubbing lefts and rights, bashes with elbows and forearms, even knee strikes hit, but strangely, the dust-affected giants seem weaker than they were before being affected.

Slowly, the Queen's group begins knocking out some of the affected giants, and it's giving them some confidence that they can actually beat Hilfa.

Unfortunately for them, that quickly changes as one of the affected giants stretches out their hands, and a large gust of turbine-esque wind leaves, sending some of them flying back before the crunching of many bones is heard, and limp bodies fall to the stone below.

The Queen looks back, seeing two of her group lying dead, their necks seemingly broken from the sheer impact against the wall. Suddenly, a large squelch comes from her left, so the Queen whips her head around to see that another of her group has been cut diagonally in half by a maroon coloured, spectral heavy axe. Next, another of the Queen's group lets out a scream as a spectral pike is driven through her neck.

"Your highness! They're using magic!" Musha calls out, seeing that the spectral weapons have appeared in the affected groups hands.

"I think these are much better than lunking around metal burdens. Wouldn't you agree, your majesty?" Hilfa taunts through one of the affected.

"Oh, I cannot wait to see my metal burden put an end to that mouth of yours." The Queen retorts as she pulls out her sword, angry at not only Hilfa's words, but how she let her and her group be pulled into a false sense of security.

"Do not worry. I believe we shall see each other very soon, or rather, I shall see your corpse very soon." The affected proxy laughs before quickly changing back to a deadpan expression, like all the emotion was just ripped from their soul.

"I fucking hate that bitch!" The Queen roars as she rushes forward, ready to cut down the affected as **** for the lives of the giants she just lost.

The sounds of clashing steel, thudding flesh, and whips of magic echo in the lab as the second clash ensues.

Fury pours from the Queen's eyes like a river of tears as she cuts down one of her own subjects, having no other choice but to do so.

The Queen takes it upon herself to be the front line, swinging her sword so that her group doesn't have to. Giants may be brought up to do whatever it takes for the clan to survive, but the Queen didn't want any of them to feel the pain of cutting down their friends. It would be one thing if they were traitors like the Queen and Musha assumed some would be, but they aren't. The poor souls that oppose the Queen are trapped in their own bodies, **** to do Hilfa's bidding.

A second dust-affected giant falls to the floor, a large chunk missing from their shoulder after the Queen dug her sword deep into them before removing it.

A third giant makes her way toward the Queen, no fear or emotion in their eyes whatsoever, but before the Queen can deal with the incoming threat, Musha is quick to deliver a deadly strike.

The Queen looks at Musha, ready to say something, but Musha cuts her off. "I couldn't just sit by and watch. My duty is to you, my queen. So, let us deal with Hilfa before we lose any more of our friends."

"Unfortunately, dear Musha, that sentiment is a bit too late." Hilfa taunts through one of the affected giants.

The Queen, Musha, and the other unaffected giants all look amongst one another, wondering what Hilfa means. A moment later, they get their answer as a large hole is created through a far wall before more giants start to enter.

"I'm shocked that none of you began to question why none of my workers were around. Did you really think I wouldn't test my formula before the main spectacle?" Hilfa says through the affected giant leading the new pack of arrivals.

Stunned by the number of the new arrivals coming towards them, Musha and the unaffected giants see their odds before incredibly bleak before their very eyes.

The Queen however, doesn't share the same mindset. What many others see as insurmountable odds, the Queen sees as a chance to further prove why she has led her clan for as long as she has.

Stepping forward, the Queen readies her sword to cut through more flesh. To her side is Musha, ready to fight by her Queen's side at a moments notice. The other giants all walk forward, joining the Queen and Musha.

"I quite like things the way they are. So, let's make sure that fucking nutjob doesn't get the throne." One of the Queen's group says as they all ready their weapons.

"Ahh, I see you've all accepted your deaths. I must admit, facing your inevitable ends is almost admirable, but I have no admiration for fools." Hilfa says through one of her giant proxies.

Hilfa's giants then start to move forward, readying their spectral weapons, which are thirsty for a crimson coating.

The Queen's group take the initiative, charging forth to try and negate as many of Hilfa's numbers as possible.

The Queen has no trouble taking on a few opponents by herself, even with her larger size than the rest of the giants in the room, she is surprisingly faster than most as well. The Queen's group aren't quite as skilled as the Queen herself, but no regular giant is a slouch in a fight.

Their usual tactics of being blunt and brutal seem to work fairly well against Hilfa's group who are seemingly acting more like distractions rather than the executioners that Hilfa had the group believe. Then again, there was a reason why these giants were down in the lab, rather than outside the strongholds doors.

Hilfa's assigned team had been giants like Hilfa herself, they aren't smaller by any means, but they were less physically intimidating with their physique. Now obviously, that might seem all well and good, but there's one thing that they're all forgetting. The reason why those giants were paired with Hilfa in the first place.

They have natural magic.

Hilfa's dust may allow her to completely brainwash someone, but the spectral weapons that she created for the giants are all she can do for those without magic.

However, for those with magic...

A bolt of maroon magic is thrust forward and crashes into the chest of a member of the Queen's group, sending them flying over a table, breaking all the glass in the process. The Queen and the others almost freeze up as they didn't expect their attackers to use magic, but now they feel like fools for not thinking of the possibility.

More bolts of magic are fired towards them, and the Queen and the others quickly move to take cover from the barrage of spells. The Queen looks to her left, seeing the remaining members of her group all looking scares out of their minds.

The Queen feels the same on the inside, but she's never been one to show it. That is until she does a quick head count. Including herself and the giants she counts, she comes up to fourteen. Now, considering the giant that was just struck with magic, the number isn't surprising, but one key person is missing, that being Musha.

That steely expression that the Queen had on her face is now replaced with one of fear. She couldn't remember a time when Musha wasn't by her side, but now, she was nowhere to be found, and that deeply terrified her.

Clashing steel and roars of battle can be heard just over the chunk of stone that's used as the main table for the laboratory, and is now being used as cover from the magic.

"Musha's still fighting!" One of the Queen's group calls out.

The Queen looks over her cover, and sees that Musha is single-handedly taking on three of Hilfa's brainwashed minions.

Musha's hand slaps the taste out of the mouth of her attacker on the left with a backhand before delivering a jaw-rocking blow to the attacker in the middle. The attacker on the right doesn't go for any sort of blow, instead, she grabs the weapon in Musha's right hand to stop her from using it.

Musha tries to pull her weapon free from the grasp of the brainwashed giant, but Musha is **** to let go as the giant has an iron grip on it. Musha then takes a few steps back, assessing her situation. In front of her is three giants, all trying to kill her because of the brainwashing from Hilfa. To her left is the rest of her group, along with her Queen, all being pinned down by the magic of Hilfa's brainwashed assistants. To put it simply; she's fucked.

The trio of attackers move forward, weapons ready to cut down Musha as the advisor to the Queen begins to move back, trying to find something to help her out, but nothing stands out.

Musha continues backwards, passing by a hatch of some sorts, but it's too small for her to attempt to crawl through, even if she wasn't trying to avoid being slaughtered.

Eventually, Musha's back hits a wall, and the reality sinks in. Musha's fate may look sealed, but she'll be damned if she's going to go out without one hell of a fight.

Musha raises her fists, ready to start swinging bones when all of a sudden, the hatch behind the attackers opens up.

Before the trio of attackers can even look to their left, a spear is thrust through the neck of the attacker in the middle. The attacker closest to the hatch slightly turns just in time to see Clarva Mightenos **** her door-sized left shield into her chest.

Musha takes the opportunity given to her by the distraction, and hits the remaining attacker with a thunderous left hook. Before Musha can do any more damage, Kyuala is thrown toward the brainwashed giant by Clarva with her free hand. Just before Kyuala collides with the giant, she digs her axe into the temple on the left side of the giant's skull, but the momentum makes Kyuala continue forward, causing the axe to continue slicing from the middle of the left temple to the back of the giant's skull.

A torrent of blood pours down the giant's body from the gaping slash across her skull as the attacker begins to fall towards the ground. Luckily for Kyuala, Musha managed to grab her just in time to avoid the orc being squashed by the corpse that just crashed to the floor.

"Good catch!" Kyuala calls out.

"I have my moments." Musha casually replies.

A squish is heard from below as Musha looks down to see the centaur Kira, removing her spear from the neck of the giant that she dealt with. "It seems you are good for something that isn't ass-licking. I'll give you credit for that at least."

Musha's expression sours a little. "And what took you all so damned long? Decide to do a little sightseeing while we were actually fighting?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Next time, you can ride the **** trap from the hells!" Kira snaps back, clearly not happy with their trip down.

"I dunno what you're talking about. That was fun as hell. Can we do it again after we kill Hilda or whatever her name is?" Amilia asks with genuine excitement like a child at a theme park.

"Maybe if you eat all your vegetables next time." Kyuala says before chuckling upon seeing Amilia's annoyed reaction to the response.

Clarva clears her throat, getting everyone's attention. "Sorry to break up the family festivities and all, but shouldn't we go and save them?" Clarva then points over to the Queen and other giants who are still under a magic barrage.

"I got an idea! Let's go princess!" Karray buzzes past Clarva before grabbing Lani's arm, causing the fairy to be very confused as she's dragged towards the door where the magic is being fired through.

As they reach the door, Karray immediately throws up a ward to cover the door, but the barrage of magic is quickly becoming overwhelming. Lani takes that pressure off Karray as she joins the ward to strengthen it, but the magic is still causing a strain for both.

That strain suddenly disappears, causing both the fairy and pixie to look back to see Kira has joined the ward. "It seems Hilfa has empowered them. That's annoying."

"How do we deal with them?" Lani asks.

Kira thinks for a moment, surveying the firing line of mages that stand before them. She then looks back at the Queen, Musha, the rest of the giants, and the rest of the group. An idea then pops into the centaur's mind.

"Hey everyone! Gather up!" Kira calls out.

The Queen slightly cocks her head, wondering when Kira became the one in charge, but decides to allow it for the moment as everyone gathers up.

"What's your plan?" The Queen asks.

"The wings and I will push the ward forward, and try to back them up against that far wall. Once we do, we'll drop the ward, and that's when you cut them down."

Musha scoffs. "A basic plan for a basic horse. Why am I not surprised?"

"On second thoughts, why don't we just send her out to be the distraction since she obviously can't use a weapon to save her life? Literally."

"Oh, I will happily demonstrate how well I can use a weapon, you little-."

"Enough." The Queen interrupts, amused by the squabbling between the centaur and her advisor. "Let's deal with them, and then Hilfa. Afterwards, you can skin each other to your hearts content."

Musha bows her head. "Most gracious, my Queen."

Kira rolls her eyes before quietly mocking Musha. "Most gracious, my Queen. Please may I press my unworthy lips upon your royal rear end to show my eternal gratitude?"

"You ready, Kira?" Karray asks, eager to get going.

The centaur sighs before walking forward. "Follow my lead."

The ward begins to morph slightly as Kira moves ahead of Lani and Karray. The ward was previous just a straight line as that was all that was needed to block the magic, but with Kira walking ahead, the ward is now more of fluid in a sense. The power of three magic users in a combined ward making it much more malleable than a single users ward.

The group and giants follow behind, a little apprehensive about walking towards the magic trying to kill them, but it's much better than being stuck behind cover for however long.

Eventually, Hilfa's brainwashed mages are trapped up against a wall with Kira, Lani, and Karray successfully boxing them in.

The three keeping the ward strong all share a look, giving nods to one another in a silent moment of recognition.

Suddenly, the ward splits in the middle, and Kira is quick to send her spear into the heart of the nearest mage as the giants behind her cut down the other mages before they can get the chance to retaliate.

"Should we be proud that we basically executed them?" John asks.

"We should be proud that we continue to live, and that we freed them from Hilfa's control. We have a victory right now, but Hilfa won't be as simple to deal with." The Queen responds, giving a little wisdom to the human.

Amilia then asks. "Speaking of, where is that spooky bitch of yours?"

"Should be through that door." The Queen points to the last door that they can see. "Through that door is Hilfa's quarters. She moved her room down here to focus on research, but I should've guessed the reason was more sinister than not wishing to commute down here each time."

"Well, she's either doing some crazy evil shit, or she's rubbing one out, either way, I'm down to check it out." Amilia jokes as she heads towards the door.

Terra grabs Amilia before she can go too far. "We can't simply strut in. Who knows what type of trap she has set?"

The Queen doesn't heed the same warning, and struts forward before kicking in the door.

A few seconds pass, and no trap seems to have been activated, so the Queen walks in with her sword at the ready. Musha is almost glued to the Queen's back with the giants and the group following behind.

Hilfa's quarters are nothing special in reality. There's a well-made bed, a desk strewn with piles of papers, even a night gown hangs on the wall, but nothing screams evil plot to overthrow the Queen. However, there is one thing that makes Hilfa's room different than all others in the stronghold.

A large circular window sits in the middle of the stone, glass as thick as the stone they're surrounded by. On the other side of the window is the black stone of the volcano that they're currently in. Down below flows a lake of lava, bubbling and popping.

"Damn. She might be evil, but she sure knows how to pick a view." Karray comments.

"Yes. She sure does..." The Queen's words trail off as something through the window catches her eye. To others, it may just look like a protruding stone from the wall, but to the Queen, it looks like a gargoyle staring daggers through her.

The sounds of crumbling can be heard just a mere second before Hilfa's quarters begin to quake. Everyone quickly grabs onto something to steady themselves, but as they focus on not falling, the Queen looks through the window once again.

The stone that resembled a gargoyle on the fall wall has disappeared, along with the wall behind it. The Queen's eyes widen as in her vision stands the giant that they're all looking for.

"Hello, your majesty! I'm glad you've followed the path that I paved for you! It certainly makes everything a lot easier!"