Chronicles From A Warlock III: Slave of the King

Chapter 3

"How is the pain?" Omega asked as he hovered around my severed arm. "It hurts..?" I said trying to hide my discomfort with a chuckle. "Well there's no way we're reattaching it here, and without a ship I don't know when we will be leaving." 

"Still no luck getting through to the queen?"
"Unfortunately not." 

"Great." I said, as I pulled myself off the ground. I put Tlaloc on my back and stumbled my way over to the edge of the ship. It was open to the vast expanse of space.

It was beautiful. And for a moment, I was lost among the stars. 

And then a voice cut in, a voice I would come to hate for the rest of my existence. 

"Lovely, isn't it?" 

I whirled around, pulling Tlaloc  off my back and searching for the voice. But there was no one there. Only the bodies of the thrall, the smoldering debris of my ship, and my severed limb. "Foolish Spark." The voice boomed again. 

Then I realized that it was coming from in my head. Questions raced through my mind, but I finally settled on one to ask, "Who are you?" 

"My name is Oryx. The Taken King." His voice echoed in my head. "And now I will ask you, Do you fear the dark?"

As the last word entered my head, A splitting pain embedded  itself in my skull. I screamed from the pain, dropping Tlaloc and clutching my head with my hand. I closed my optics tightly but they were wrenched open and forced to look upon an ethereal image of the Queens armada, destroyed, damaged, and the queen.... I watched as she fell.... and then the image was replaced with another, this one of a great darkness with three singular points of light. 

The slowly came closer, and I felt something tugging at my light. Then it was more than a tug, it was pulling, draining, and taking my light. I began to struggle against it but it was too strong. I felt myself begin to slip. The bright light that I had thrived in was being diminished. 

I continued to fight, I wouldn't let him take me this easily. The pain was tremendous now, it felt as if my entire frame was burning from the inside. The Darkness was growing stronger, and it was pulling me down. I fell to my knees, straining against the darkness. 

My servo's whirred violently as I stretched my hand out towards my fallen rifle.  I managed to grab it by the grip, and raise it, against the force that was quickly overcoming my light. 

I strained harder, trying to raise it to have it aim into the face with the three glowing eyes.

I felt the supports in my arm beginning to groan under the stress or trying to raise my arm. But I put all my strength, all my light into one final push, and I raised the rifle.

And I pulled the trigger

And the grip on my light, began to fade, and a roar began to fill my ears. 

I again dropped my rifle, and I slowly fell forward onto my face, drained of all strength. 

"Fool. The Darkness cannot be stopped." The voice boomed through my head as I was lifted up into the air by a powerful grip on my neck. I was face to face with Oryx this time, with one hand he held me in the air, and with the other he wielded a massive sword. 

I struggled again at his grip on my life, trying to claw myself free, but he showed no intent of letting me go.

"YOUR LIGHT WILL PERISH" His voice roared and his sword caught the light of the stars as it pierced my chest, burying  the blade all the way to the hilt. 

I gasped as my vision began to fade, I clutched at the sword in my chest trying to remove it, as my light rapidly began to fade. Oryx dropped me letting me fall to my knees as he removed the sword from my chest. 

I watched as he hovered over me, gloating about his kill. Until my eyes finally shut, and the last thing I felt was the light leaving my body. 

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I awoke to a putrid smell in the air. I groaned at the throbbing pain in my chest, head and arm. I winced and opened my optics. I was lying down in a room with dim lighting. I tried to move, but I then realized that I had been restrained. My eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting and I could see large metal arms that hung over me. 

Then the previous events came back to me. I once again tried to break free of my  restraints, but to no avail. I looked at my frame in it's current condition,  Clearly not all my light had left me, for here I was with the will power to think. My chest had a gaping hole in it, which was making it very difficult to function. 

I then noticed my arm had been reattached with a olive green wrap of some sort. They had clearly redone the wiring because I had the ability to move my fingers. Then more questions raced through my head, Why was I still alive? Why were the Hive rebuilding me? What did they want from me? Where am I? How Am I going to escape? But this showed the Hive had some form of tech that allowed them to fix me, And I tried the restraints again.  

The chains that bound me were loud and they attracted the attention of a wizard. I watched as she hovered silently into the room to look down upon me. She had something moving in her hands. I watched as it wiggled around to peer down at me with an eyeless face. It screeched loudly and seemed to look back at the wizard witch then brought it closer to the gaping hole in my chest. 

My heart, if I had one, would have sunk. I watched as the little worm like creature "Skree" Happily as he crawled down from her hands and onto my chest. I had heard rumors of these worms. The hiverevered them as gods, greater than even Oryx. These worms were inside every hive creature, giving them a lust for conquest and to devour. But, if they bearer didn't satisfy the worm, it would instead devour them. 

The worm crawled around the hole in my chest. The wizard spoke, but I couldn't comprehend the language it spoke, The worm's "Skreeee" once again seemed pleased before it came to the edge of the wound in my chest. I wasn't going to let this thing inside me, I had no idea what it would do to me, but I wasn't going to find out. I let my solar light begin to build up as I felt it's pincers grab onto the wound in my chest. 

I let out a solar flare, and body began to burn with solar light, scorching the worm and sending it leaping from my body, screaming loudly in pain. The Wizard was furious at my actions and screamed nearly as loud as the worm did. It quickly picked up the worm and extinguished the flames. The Duo appeared to look at me in disgust. 

The wizard began chanting and a blue orb appeared in her free hand. As she chanted the orb began to change into a spike, and I watched as she moved over my head. She silenced her song and I yelled in agony as the spike penetrated my skull. Arc energy shot across my circuits, and I jolted against my own actions 

Then I was immobilized. I couldn't move, and my light no longer seemed to be under my control. I watched in horror once more  as she placed the worm on my chest. The eyeless creature once against stared at me before making it's way into the cavity in my chest. The pain the wizard was causing me ceased and I immediately felt a digging sensation in my chest. 

I gripped the sides of the table I was bound to before Oryx's voice once again entered my head. 

"Your Light will Serve Me."