She barely had time to finish the sentence before an attack came from above. A golden disk fell from the ceiling, ripples running through its smooth surface as gears slid out, and the circle transformed into a humanoid figure matg her size. Back-jointed legs kicked, and she let the impact send her rolling to avoid the bded arms aimed at her neck.

  The kick bought her the distance she needed, and she parried the bdes, taking them oaleteller’s shaft. Immediately, the robotic foe struck, using its leg as an arm. Three talons closed around her knee, crumpling the metal and trying to jerk the warlord aside. Janine responded by closing the distance, pushing the bdes up, and headbutting the mae.

  It used her knee for a springboard, leaping bad nding on oheir dance resumed, a feint with the right bde meant to hide the true strike of her golden foe. Janine sidestepped the actual stab and elbowed the bde down. She stepped on its ft, bringing the Taleteller onto the mae’s left pauldron, cleaving through it, and snapping the bde in two... It broke the bde. Janine’s instincts saved her life as two limbs shot out of the barreled chest. Their bdes left deep cuts in her get. The mae deliberately twisted its own limb, breaking its on in exge for freedom, and spun to the right, avoiding the full brunt of her cut while enduring the warlord’s hit. It tried to trade its on and shoulder for her neck.

  “Not bad,” Jaold the golden robot.

  The two began a third exge, birthing sparks as their o. Jani on the defeudying the oppo’s movements and style. The mae was fast, easily matg her speed. Its robustness was not up to par. Pistons, hissing wires, and shifting gears w were visible through the gash on its shoulder. The stant barrage of attacks reminded Janine of the amateur swordsman of the Ice Fang Order. They sparred for fun. Janine used a club, and the boy wielded two bdes. Throughout the fight, he used nothing else but thrusts, trying to make her bleed and surrendering after she broke his ons. It was a fun experience, so Janine didn’t even bite him and refed the broken ons herself, gifting the knight captain a two-handed sword to repce his lost heirlooms.

  This golden bot used the same pattern. It had a rudimentary knowledge of feints aions, and its use of legs was quite unorthodox. Each time the bdes trapped Janine’s axe, it always tried kig, aiming the talons at the cracked parts of her armor. But this patter it predictable. Janine purposely let her axe get trapped and kicked ahead of the mae’s move. Her cws tore the metal from the golden wrist ahe robot flying into the wall, leaving four marks on its barrel-shaped chest. A sting of pain shot through the warlord’s leg. The kick splihe cws of her index and middle toes, and a step sent white and red specks, like petals of a flower, falling from her feet.

  “Shall we increase the fun?” Teo-Queen snapped her fingers.

  The remaining disks fell from the ceiling, transf mid-flight into the same humanoid shapes, though smaller in size and different in color. Except for the size, the maes looked identical. Same slender limbs, g rough curves except for the pauldrons, same four-armed bdes, and legs ending in talons. Four lenses on their small and round heads tracked every warlord’s movement.

  They encircled her. Jaiced that the brown maes moved slower. The one behiabbed, chasing her away, and the sed oried to trap her axe, trying to create an opening for the golden one. So, he is your warlord. Janine inhaled, weathering the blurry walls of ining stabs, blog, parrying, and dodging. These maes pushed her to the limit, drove her into a trance where she moved with the flow, searg for an opening.

  She couldn’t find one. Every ter was blocked, every attempt to separate the maes thwarted. Janine even tried the old method of pressing herself against the wall, and a brown bot jumped at it, relying on its rades to keep the Taleteller’s busy. It bounced off the wall and made a long gash in Janine’s side as she tackled another mae, breaking free from a potential trap. Their teamwork was most acceptable.

  “Agreed. Wolf hag, shaman!” Janine said. Her axe smmed into the bdes of the golden one, and the sheer weight of her body dragged them away. The time for bance has e and gone.

  Her daughters met the lesser maes, shieldihe golden istered the shift in their duel too te. Janine headbutted it, denting two of its four lenses. She rammed the goldeo the wall, using her full weight to sptter it. The warlord retreated, dodging the clever strikes poised at the cracks in her side.

  The mae grew sluggish, suffering internal damage. Janine capitalized on that, nding a crisscrossing attack that sliced deep. The golden bot vulsed, still trying to strike despite its ope and falling gears. A sed ssh fi, cutting the mae in half at its waist. Both parts fell to the ground in streams of smoke, spewing artificial muscle fibers. The light died in the ocurs.

  Her daughters fought back-to-back before dodging sideways and switg oppos mid-fight, fusing the maes. Impatient One slipped her cws underh bronze pauldrons, pinning the upper limbs, and bit the robot’s head, kig violently into its abdomen. The shaman’s weight brought her oppo down, and in three kicks she fttehe bronze belly.

  Anissa evaded the bdes that tried to take her ned reached for her back. A shardgun bst lifted the robot off the ground, and the wolf hag nded a roundhouse on its head, sending the thing crashing to the ground. She stepped on its bad fired five more times, disabling the robot food.

  “Bravo!” Teo-Queen cpped, running dowairs like a girl. “Bravo! A magnifit performa seems eveungsten alloy did not make a differech, and I had such hopes for it…” She took a small portable terminal from her belt and typed furiously.

  “You don’t seem to be upset about your loss,” Janine remarked, stepping closer to the madwoman. Her unication was a mixture ur drumming and growling. It was the private nguage of the Wolf Tribe, an almost fotten relic of the past, and now it was inf the warlord of her sister’s pn.

  “Why should I be? Empirical methods are essential for any real adva, regardless of the soundness of a theory. Sce, even unnatural sce like my own, feeds on practical results. These maes had matched your speed; in time, I’ll upgrade their software…”

  Jaruck. Her axe moved, tearing through the air with a deafening sound. The sheer momentum of her upward strike sent several guards off their feet uhe wind pressure. It was fihey will survive. But this one... Too dangerous. Pure talent, and not a hint of humanity behind it.

  The bde stopped before the lean neck, hitting an invisible wall that made the Taleteller tremble in the warlord’s arms.

  “Told you. Not delusional,” Teo-Queen said nontly, still typing oerminal. “I’ve ated for every tingency, fool.” She sighed, finishing her calcutions, and faced Jahe ge in her posture moved the axe even further. “It is a real shame. We could’ve been so good together, Warlord. By my hand, I could’ve raised you to the heavens and beyond. Tell me. Why did you spurn my surrender?”

  “Rotten,” Janine said, trying to break through the barrier.

  “What do you mean by that, beast?” The green eyes narrowed.

  “Your callousoward others. It is your duty to care for them, but instead you have brought them to ruin, sequestering yourself in safety, pying with toys, and crafting meical horrors to repce life. A ruler should know better. A human would be better. You are her; just a soul gone mad, weeping for a sleep without dreams,” Janine said pinly.

  “Weeping? My tears dried a long time ago, warlord. Not human…” Teo-Queen's expression soured. “Such ignorant nonsense. Let me show you what a true human is capable of.” Her finger pointed left.

  A wave of force hit Janine’s side, sending her crashing into the wall. The blow bypassed the armor a straight for the ans, choking Janine in her own blood and vomit. A stabbing pain gripped her heart as the blood in her veins ran backward. Gravity. Janine’s eyes wideeo-Queen’s devices a, magnifying and masterfully trolling this force of nature.

  The grehrown by her warriors created a dome over the tyrant’s small figure. Teo-Queen made no attempt to defend herself. As gravity bent and the acid poured onto the floor, its fumes moved to the ceiling. Without a gesture, the tyrant flung Anissa and her scouts toward the floor, trapping them in the same manner as Janine. An unseen force pushed Impatient Oo the wreckage, slowly increasing the weight on her and adding to the damage to her armor.

  Fear followed the realizatioe their ferocity, the Wolf Tribe were pack-based people. In times when even a warlord could not hunt their enemy, they sought help. The eg visions of the tribe’s members helped her sister ma her power. Fear ged to horror. Horror turned into pure terror, c some of Janine’s fur white as Warlord Alpha’s wave of fear passed through her.

  Alpha, the stro warlord, had a sedary power. Many people experienced uneasiness or disfort ing closer to her and dismissed this as simply a byproduct of her horrid visage. In truth, Alpha passively radiated fear, potent enough to cause a cardiac arrest even in the bravest of humans. Unlike most powers, hers assive ohe ohat was always active. Through stant iron self-trol, Alpha had learo tain the fear in her body, to wield it like a whip of punishment. And now she unleashed it as a beam, and the mere touch of it caused Jao release her bowels.

  Teo-Queen ughed, pressing her hand to her mouth, undaunted by the fear. A round opening appeared in the wall, scorched by warlord’s Zero beam. The stream of bck matter dissipated harmlessly against the gravity shield, failing to harm the tyrant.

  “A most productive distra.” The oi her head. “What? You expected me to be unprepared for the obvious dangers of mental power? Nah, doggie, I won’t die so easily, nor will I ever be a sve to anyone’s will. The cyberi my body restart or relieve my ans. And the operation on my brain has made me immuo psychisughts. With this.” Teo-Queen poi the data banks o her throne. “I have enough information to perfect my creations and solid proof of my capabilities. I say this test polygon has served its purpose. Time to level the pd make my exit.”

  “Level, my queen?” Bors asked, hobbling closer to the queen.

  “Oh, please, Bors. Did any of you really think that I would allow anyone in the region to live after what you bastards did to my parents?” Teo-Queen asked.

  “But… queen, it happened over thirty years ago!” Bors pressed a hand to his chest. “There is not a soul alive who even saw that horrible sacrifice! You ehat tradition yourself, saving tens of thousands!”

  “And this should matter, why?” Teo-Queen tilted her head in fusion. “I made a promise to end the people of this wretched nd, and what better way to do it than to squeeze these nds dry in my service, while making you worship me for it? Speaking of service, I think I remember you sending your son to me… A year and a half ago, in fact…” She pressed two fio her lips.

  “What. Have. You. Dohe guard tore off his cowl a, looking at the woman with his own eyes.

  “Watd see, loyal Bors. It’s time to test another of my iions while we’re at it.” The woman smiled pleasantly, and the steel walls around the chamber shifted to reveal horror.

  Janine had seen many things in her life. She had watched the young of her tribe die of hunger. She had witnessed entire vilges being devoured by the Malformed. Janine had seen firsthand the torture in the sve camps, where cruel masters prolohe suffering of the unfortuo set an example for the rest. She remembered Warlord Terrific w her magic, brutally maiming guards by tearing bones from their bodies.

  However, she had never seen anything close to this padness. Living people littered the wall, held by razor-sharp harhat never allowed their wounds to close. They cked limbs; some had their skin peeled off, exposing needles pierg their lungs. urgled weakly, twitg as strange liquids poured dowhroats. The prisoners’ eyes and ears were removed, along with their vocal chords. They bled, the blood pooling in a small, round el that curved the wall. A force field kept the horrible stench of excrement out of the chamber itself.

  “Like what you see, doggies?” Teo-Queen asked cheerfully. “I Pain-Engine. Borish, I know, but you must excuse me; I was rather tired. Biology is not my forte, so it took many bodies before I perfected a method of keeping them alive in unending agony.”

  “You…” the captain choked, falling to his knees and looking at a figure on the wall. A Normie cub, mutited like the others. He was still bleeding from his eye sockets. “What… What is the meaning of this? You promised us that our children would live in paradise…”

  “And you believed me? Bors, you’re su idiot. None of your aors lifted a fio save my family, and you expect me tive and fet? Your parents were in the crowd that took everything from me and ensved me! Paradise? Ha! I’ll drag you all to hell, where you belong!” The Teo-Queen roared, abandoning her serene visage.

  Bors stood, screaming his own wordless rage, and found a pistol on his belt. He shouted his pain and sorrow to the world, aiming at the smiling woman. Gravity buckled his legs, making him croud try to crawl to the woman. Bors screamed again, this time in physical pain. Teo-Queen grinningly observed how her gravity reduced the officer into a pool of blood and dusted bones.

  Janine groaned and pulled away from the wall. Gravity looses grip on her, but something else took its pce. Hooks and scalpels ripped her skin; needles made every breath an agony; searing venom coursed through her veins, e or relief. Her brain was on fire, a vibration stimuting paiers in her body, her arms twitg as the sharp edges of the harness held her captive….

  I am experieng their feelings. Janine forced herself to believe that her ans still funed. The pain of every person on the walls in this chamber came down ohreatening to choke the life out of the Wolfkins and leaving the terrified guards alone. As the scouts rolled on the floor, fighting for every breath, Anissa and Impatient One grabbed their sides, ripping through their armor in vain attempts to stop the itg in their lungs.

  “How dare you?” Jaook a step on her shaky legs. “Your own people…”

  “Oh, please, my parents, my brothers and sisters, and I myself were their people.” Teo-Queen frowned. “Didn’t stop them from burning them at the stake and makich, did it? I saved myself, and now that I am the one in trol, I am suddenly supposed to be the first to stop? Screw that. This try will pay for what it did to my life; its people will answer for every death given to the fme. I’ll give them a fme they’ll never fet.” The Teo-Queen motioned around. “Do you like my wondrous iion? The idea came to me as I pleaded, begged all the gods of the universe to let me take the pain of my family as they burned alive. But the universe never answered, so it fell to me to correct that mistake. This device transmits every single emotion from those saeat directly into your little brain. Not only that, but it records the feelings and unleash them at any time.”

  Jaook the hardest step in her life. Her missing… no! Real, her real arm struggled to hold the Taleteller. She wet herself, scowling at the intense fire in her guts. She bit her torying to shove away alieions, ting prayers to the Spirits, not uanding where her feelings even began. Every nerve ending throbbed. Against her will, the warlord cried, still walking to end this bitch.

  Oep. And another. Just thirty or so, and she wipe that smile off her face. A step. Another one. Jaeeled herself, f her body to advance. She took aep forward, sensing something strange, and stumbled, falling on one knee. Before Janine’s very eyes, her armor vibrated. The cracks ieel widened, and she bled from every orifice.

  “Or this kind of on,” Teo-Queen said. “Vibrations, tained around your body by a simple shield. Do you feel your vessels popping? Good. Try to stay alive for a bit.” The woman sat ohrone, spreading her cape around the seat. “Now then, to the main course! Ravager! You cowardly, useless whore! I challenge you! e forth, or you’ll find your cl…”

  The tower shook, as if it had e under heavy bombardment. A new corridor appeared where the elevator had previously stood. The entire se of the tower disappeared, and tons of rod steel fell in an avahe floor beh Janine bulged, pushed out by the simple, casual step of a being that had ehis room. Janine inhaled, realizing that the vibratioing device was destroyed. A yellow light filled the room, ing from the dust-covered corridor leading outside, where a dark shape loomed against the white disk of the moon.

  The Dominator of Dominators advanced, lips twitg to reveal fangs, red drool trig down her jaw. Her amber pupils dited and tracted, struggling to focus oarget. She released her cws, passing beside Anissa, and Impatient One groaned, leaping forward and dragging her sister away from the fury that was Ravager.

  “You called,” the Blessed Mother said calmly.