In the Tower's Shadow (for Lanania)

[Nebula]

He paused his assault for a moment with his head turned to the side. Hitting him in the head with bare hands probably hurt her more than him, but it was the burning armor that made him stop. He didn't recoil instantly at the heat, took some time to reach him. It wasn't because of his endurance, however, it didn't trigger due to his heart, but because of his heritage and rituals he had to go through. Growling he stepped back and unpinned her breastplate, dripping it to the ground.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora profited from this moment to grab a dagger she had inside her boot and prepared herself to strike him down now that he has no longer armored.

 

[Nebula]

He wasn't blocking or trying to avoid, as if accepting the blow. Only when landing the blow did Theodora realise that he had put a barrier spell on himself. It knocked the dagger back and struck her with a stattick shock, paralysing jer for a short moment.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora was surprised and shocked at the spell. She quickly tried to reach for the dagger with her left hand.

 

[Nebula]

Before she could reach the dagger the Overlord stepped on her already injured hand and pressed it to the ground - "That's quite enough" - he sighed and lifted his foot then kicked the dagger away. His foot landed on her chest which knocked her down and kept close to the ground - "I must admit. I was wrong about you. Even though you're just a woman with some assistance from the religion gibberish, you've stood up to me like no one else has ever done" - he knelt and grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up above his head, holding her collar with his right arm and squeezing at her throat with the left, almost chocking her. From his experience this setup should keep her from fighting back too much and instead struggle against his left arm for air - "That's why I desire you! I'll make you mine, mind and body, you'll serve me untill the end of your days! Someday you'll maybe even realize that you were wrong as well"

 

[Lanania]

{Was really fun... But it's 6 am over here and I think it's the perfect time to take a pause. Going off to sleep!}
Her only response was to spit at his face.

 

[Nebula]

{Aight! Looks like we live on completely different timelines. Sleep tight!}

He sighed annoyed - "Fight all you want. The outcome won't change.." - he paused for a moment and put his left palm on her face. Azure rays covered Theodora's face - it was his spell of domination, something he used to control his victims, but due to her strong will it didn't have a full effect, only rendering her docile for a time to prevent further violence. The Overlord lifted his arm into the air pointing at the sky. Horns echoed again and another flash of light radiated in the distance from an opening portal. It wasn't visible what they brought - "And this is what happens to those who oppose me. Not even gods will stand in my way! Let it be a lesson to everyone..." - he cleanched his fist and suddenly somewhere in the distance something started whistling. The sound was getting closer untill suddenly a barrage of catapult missiles bombarded the church to its foundations. From where they were standing the church was clearly visible and Theodora was able to witness the whole scene - her home and place of devotion reduced to nothingness. After it was over the gem on the Overlord's gauntlet lit up and a small portal appeared behind them - "Save your tears, there is much more to come" - with that said he tossed her helpless body into the abyss behind the portal. Theodora was falling through pitch black nothingness untill she passed out. Once she came back to her senses she found herself in a dark cell, cuffed to a wall.

 

[Lanania]

She tried to force the cuffs, but to no avail, and her arm was hurting her each she tried to force against the cuffs after a couple of tries she gave up and shouted "Why didn't you killed me monster!"

 

[Nebula]

There was no answer. The Overlord wasn't anywhere near the dungeon, probably not even in his den, wherever it was. She did, however, catch the interest of his minions. Footsteps and some minor gibberish could be heard from the corridor and they were getting closer. Not long after 3 heads emerged from behind a wall and curiously observed their new prisoner. After some more unknown to Theodora gibberish the brown one unlocked the cell and the other two blue minions ran in. They stopped a few steps away from her, unsure how to approach her. One of them awkwardly smiled and tried to say something in form of a greeting, but ended up sounding like a gargling drowner under water, a natural voice wavelength for the blue minion variant. The other tried to approach to her left arm and inspect it.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora simply cursed at them, shaking her legs like she was trying to push them away from her.

 

[Nebula]

They tried to walk around the hazard of getting kicked to death while heading towards their destination, but one of the still got hit on the stomach and collapsed, his body impulsively rolled into a ball. The other one stsrted babbling something in a questioning manner, as if saying "Why on earth would you do that". He then pointed at his left arm and gargled something further. Two things were obvious, the second one being more of a speculation: first - the blue variant of those minions wasn't tenacious at all when it came to physical harm; second - were they trying to help Theodora with her injuries somehow?

 

[Lanania]

Seeing that the imps meant no harm at the moment and even if they did she couldn't do anything to stop them she stopped trying to kick them. "Where are we?" She asked them

 

[Nebula]

While the second imp was still rolling around the floor the first one walked closer to her arm. He stroked his palms across the damaged area and his palms began glowing in bright shades of azure. Almost instantly Theodora could feel her arm slowly getting back to normal, just in a few seconds it was no longer broken and continued to heal further. The minion answered to her question with another wave of gargling, a long one. He probably added some effort to explain her situation in detail, but the young paladin just couldn't make any sense out of it.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora was a bit surprised by the healing magic, her church told her that only clerics of the force of good knew how to heal wounds, but now an imp was proving them wrong. Still she didn't liked it, even if he was healing her, she feared that he was corrupting her at the same time.

 

[Nebula]

It didn't take long for the process to conclude. The minion stepped back with a 'ta-dah!' pose whlist pointing at her arm. It was fully healed, not even a scratch remained. He took a step closer and poked at various sides of Theodora's body, getting rid of other smaller injuries. Once he was done he walked back to his kindred and helped him stand up. The two fish-man looking midgets waved at her and bid farewell in their language, then left the cell. Another moment of silence. The dungeon was damp and reeked of piss and fungus. Sitting there without any information for the future would prove quite tiring, even if it was just lying on the ground.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora took a moment to inspect her body trying to see if anything had changed on her by being exposed to their dark magic. After this she simply extended her legs trying to find a position more comfortable.

 

[Nebula]

Before she could settle in more confortably another pair of steps echoed from the path way near the cell. Another minion, this time with a brown skin, walked from behind a wall from the right - "Ten-hut! Alright, princess. The boys patched you up as commanded? Bah, who cares! On your feet, we're going for a walk!" - the creature strided towards a nearby wall and unlocked the chain that was holding her cuffs and pulled on it - "Alright, I'd rather if you behaved so I don't have to resort to violence, they don't pay me for beating prisoners into a pulp. In fact, they don't pay me at all! A boot up my arse is what I get if things go south, though! Since I don't like that at all I'll gladly pick the latter option!" - he pulled the chain again, encouraging her to follow.

 

[Lanania]

Pretty much having no choice then oblige she followed the brown minion, she did make sure to force him to pull on the chains from time to time, showing some defiance to him. "Where are we going?" She asked him along the way

 

[Nebula]

Surprisingly enough the minion had quite a bit of strength for such a small creature - "To get you cleaned. You reek like a wet dog, not like it's a bad thing, but apparently the Overlord doesn't like it. I say it isn't even worth looking at a woman if you can't sense her stench" - he bursted in laughter like an amused monkey. Surely he was a fan of pretty flat humor, or maybe it was his actual preference. Either way it didn't seem like a pleasant subject to discuss.

They passed by many different cells, each containing either dried bones or some interesting specimen. Somewhere in the middle of their walk they passed by a pretty wide cell that resembled a cave. Inside of it a brown minion carrying a piece of raw meat 3 times bigger than his body slowly tip-toed towards the hole in a pretty uneasy manner, mumbling something like - "Good lizard, very good lizard. Sparky bring food, Sparky feed dragon" - not long after he entered the cave a loud roar came out of it, followed by a terrified scream of the same minion. Seconds later he was running back through the cell literally on fire, crying for help. Just as he reached the exit another minion dropped a bucket of water on his head and Sparky ended up bashing with his whole body at a wall and recoiled to the ground, later gargling up a 'thanks' with the bucket on his head.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora kept her mouth shut but stopped to watch the scene. She was quite surprised to see the minion on fire. Dragons were things of legend but here she was in the tower of the long dead overlord watching a minion being set ablaze by what must be a dragon. Maybe she did injured the real overlord, maybe it wasn't some peasant trying to be him, but rather the true overlord having defied dead. The idea filled theodora with a feeling she didn't felt in a long time... Fear.

 

[Nebula]

"Heh, like our collection? Master always brings trophies from his battles. Of course, the dragon is now called an asset instead of a trophy. Don't get why, that thing just eats our food and sets my folk on fire all the time. Damn diva of a beast. Ah, but if someone asks then we don't have a dragon! Tell them it was a... a gas leak! Or something..." - passing by a next cage Theodora could see a group of inprisoned elves in tattered rags. They seemed underfed and generally miserable. They followwd Theodora with their pleading gaze until the jailer minion hit the bars with his club a few times - "Greetings our beloved guests! Asses started rotting yet? Hah, good!" - he pulled on the chain and picked up the pace a bit - "Filthy elves with their superiority issues, heads above clouds and up angel asses! Finally the Overlord dealt with them accordingly!"

 

[Lanania]

Theodora wanted to promise help to the elves, but she wasn't able to make such promise, so she kept her mouth shut and looked at them horrified. Theodora followed the brown minion, stopping from time to time in defiance.

 

[Nebula]

As they were passing through the last few cells they encountered three women walking their way. At a closer inspection it alpeared those were succubi - demons of pleasure and lust. They appeared as really gorgeous females with pretty faces, ample breasts and long hair that covered their jiggling pride. Their lower half however was more beastly than human - from waist and down they had a body of a satyr; in other words long goat legs covered in brown fur. Their heads were adored with round horns and flowers pinned im their hair. The trio alowed down to greed the jailer and get a closer look at the newcomer - "Greetings~! Who do you bring in today, Gobber? Oh, she's so pretty! What a nice figure! And that cute nose! Been a while since we had women for interrogation~" - the demons showered Theodora in compliments, clearly excited untill the jailer interrupted - "Sorry to disappoint ladies, but this one is going up the stairs, not to the interrogation chamber" - he struck a confident smirk and continued - "You can interrogate me anytime you want, though" - he said cheekily.

All three women sighed in disappointment but giggled amused at the jailer's proposal.
"Would you even last long enough?" - said the first one.
"Of course, he is the jailer after all" - said the second one.
"He did take your proposal back then and survived, though barely, but that's what counts!"
Gobber laughed obnoxiously - "Right, right. Welp, as much as I'd want to stay and chat I've got to deliver her to the higher floors. Till we meet again, ladies" he began strolling towards bog wooden doors. Before they parted the three succubi bid Theodora farewell - "Be seeing you, sweetheart" - the first one winked, the other one blew her a kiss and the third waved enticingly.

 

[Lanania]

Theodora simply stared at them in disgust. All her life she was told that demons were the worst thing in the world, now she had three of them string at her while she was a prisoner. But the thing that made her the most furious is that they were not as bad as she was told, she could even say they were nice to her.

 

[Nebula]

They shortly reached tall wooden doors. The jailer turned around and unlocked her cuffs - "Well, princess. It was a real short while, but I do hope you enjoyed your stay in our fine establishment. Come visit us again sometime!" - he bid her farewell as the door opened. Behind it stood another minion dressed in a jest mantle and hat. He greeted the young paladin and led her to a mechanism that appeared to be an elevator. As they stepped in the stone platform began to ascend taking them to the upper levels. Unlike the dungeon the upper levels were clean and nicely structured. The jest led her through the corridors while humming a few notes to a room filled with pools. Inside one resided a group of nymphs. The jest knocked on the door and slowly walked in while covering his eyes - "Pardon my intrusion, but this lass requires assistance. She must appear clean before the overlord within an hour!" - unlike Gobber the jailer, this jest appeared to be much more polite and well mannered. One of the nymphs stepped out of the pool and nodded - "Sure, be glad to help" - she took Theodora by her hand and led her to one of the pools. The minion left the room and closed the door behind himself.

 

[Lanania]

"Why are you so kind with me?" Theodora said not moving an inch as she took her arm.

 

[Nebula]

{Happy Holidays!}

"Something wrong?" - she looked at the paladin with a puzzled expression.

 

[Lanania]

"Why didn't you killed me? I'm a paladin, I will do everything to destroy you, I don't see why he would keep me alive, even less why he would treat me well"

 

[Nebula]

The nymph shrugged her shoulders and pulled on her hand - "I'm just a refugee. They ask me to clean you so I oblige. It's none of my business nor concern who you are" - she pulled on her arm impatiently - "Come on, I'm getting cold!"

 

[Lanania]

Theodora was dumbfounded by her answerd, why would the overlord take refugees? By seeing that the woman had no malicious intent she followed her inside the pool.