NOVEL NEXT 78
“Beastmen and elves? How delightful. Just need some dwarves to complete the collection.” The Keeper of Secret starts as he circles the barrier. Her claws repeatedly and rhythmically pressed on the barrier. Making the high pitched tortuous sound of metal screeching over and over again in differing length and pattern. For a human this will at most just be a minor nuisance. For elves with their heightened hearing, it is nothing short of deafening. But for the golden beastmen with their animal ears, the sound is ear-splitting. Added by the golden beastmen’s heightened senses, the Keeper of Secret has practically silenced the golden beastmen. Even Lak cannot lead properly now as everytime she want to speak, the ear-splitting sound silences her to the point she can’t hear what she is saying anymore.
“Aww, you poor little things. Come to me and you don’t need to suffer here anymore.” But the Keeper of Secrets voice is as clear as usual. Ringing within their head. Then like a professional tease, one, or more of her claws start to lift the veil on her face while the rest of her body is still under the cloak. Sensing danger, Lak manages to avert her eyes away. Lak cannot hear, but she can see the Eonir captain she admonished just a minute ago start mumbling something. Her eyes glazed over and started to move towards the daemon. Just one step before a furious punch from Lak knocked her out cold. Useless. Lak felt her mouth move but cannot hear as she immediately tries to cover her ears as the torturous sound is made again.
“Don’t spoil the mood.” The Keeper of Secret spoke again. This time her voice changed to something more familiar. So familiar, that Lak almost looked back. Her surprise is only halted by the annoyance that more Eonir than she expected has fallen to the daemon’s voice and visage.
Knock them down. Lak roars as loud as she can. But still she barely heard her own voice. She doubts the other beastmen hear what she commands but hopes the Eonir’s that still resist can hear her command.
“Good work. Now leave it to me.” Lak heard her mother’s word from another side
Then she looked. Only to find her mother’s head on a cloak. The Keeper of Secret now uses her mother’s face. Its face then contorts as she starts to hysterically laugh in insult to herself and her mother.
“You should look at your own face. Oh, how desperate you want to hear such a sentence. A well-behaved and neglected child, but a well-behaved and neglected beastmen. Now that's something new.”
“Mother will never make such a face.” This time Lak hears her own voice. Anger and humiliation rises as she realizes that the daemon has taken her mother’s face and voice and now her own voice.
“But what if she does?” Again the daemon uses her own voice.
Then with all her will and rage, Lak pries her eyes off from the impostor. Looking for something. A weapon or an unused spell slot.
“What if I never met her expectations?”
“Never trusted like the others.”
“Never strong enough.”
With that as the last straw, Lak channeled the magic herself and cast another spear of light at the Keeper of Secret. A huge risk to take as chanting a spell while deafened is like gambling with Tzeentch while blinded. Yet a spear of light manifests on her hand and she throws it. Even the Keeper of Secret is surprised by this feat and unable to dodge. The spear pierces the daemon, forcing the daemon a few steps back. But it is
“Weak.” The Keeper of Secret uses her own voice this time.
“You will never be as strong as your mother!” The Keeper of Secret lunges back at the barrier in rage. Now using all her claws on all her four arms to scratch at the barrier.
“Nor as beautiful!”
There is no word more powerful than deafening to describe the screeching that is made. One by one, the remaining golden beastmen start to fall, their eardrums rupturing and knocked out from the sheer pain.
“Nor as perfect!”
Even the shamans started to fall, forcing Lak to concentrate more on channeling the magic to sustain the barrier while assaulted by the noise. Hoping for her ears to be ruptured soon so that she won’t hear the torturous sound again.
“But that can be fixed.” The Keeper of Secret voice returns to being gentle and the sound stopped. Only now Lak felt something wet on the sides of her head, she knows it can only be blood spilling from her tortured ears.
“All you have to do is to just open the barrier.” The Keeper of Secret propose
“Offer all the Eonir to the Prince of Pleasure. I’m sure you know how vexing they can be.”
“You don’t have to tell your mother. This can be our secret.” The Keeper of Secret said before Lak can answer
“It won’t be a betrayal. We are still the Gods of you beastmen. After all, even your mother is still blessed by the Prince of Pleasure.” Lak’s eyes land again on the Keeper of Secret. The daemon smiles as it reaches to the hem of its cloak. Whatever resistance left will be gone after she reveals herself. Lak struggle to maintain her balance, headache filled her head, and the offer is tempting as ever
That is until a gigantic hammer struck the Keeper of Secret from the left, crushing both of the daemon’s left arm and throwing the daemon away. The bloodied Cygor finally arrives after fighting with the Bloodthirster. The smaller daemonettes that surround the barrier in silence to let the Keeper of Secret have her stage all scream in rage and indignation of a performance ruined charges at the lone cygor. The cygor recalled his hammer and simply stampeded through the lesser daemons. It’s singular eye focused on the huge blob of twisted magic that is already marked by the light magic. He throws the hammer again. This time the Keeper of Secret manages to dodge
“You ruined everything!” The greater daemon screams as she lunges forward. Only for her face slammed to the ground as she is struck from behind as the hammer flies back to its owner. The greater daemon’s anger now turned to hate from this humiliation. The daemon dodges a mighty hammer smashing from above by twisting her body in an unnatural acrobatic manner. The Keeper of Secret thrust her remaining two right arms and claws. Only to be blocked by a shield that has been split apart.
Another hammer swing is dodged and the Keeper of Secret has enough of this. The daemon drops her cloak, revealing her entire form for all to see in pride. But to the others, all they will see is what they desire the most. Unfortunately for the Keeper of Secret however, what a blind cygor desires the most is a soul to sate his hunger. The cygor bites. Tearing a chunk of the Keeper of Secret’s breast. She screams in pain, kicking the cygor away only for her to be the one pushed back. Sheer confusion from this kind of reaction prompt the Keeper of Secret to probe the cygor simple mind. Only to have her pride wounded even further as the cygor did not even register her as a threat and that the bloodthirster and the Grail Knight that almost kill him is scarier.
Whatever thought left the daemon have all turned to desire avenge her entire being. Only to be replaced by extreme fear and dread as she senses Slaanesh’s disappointment.
“No. No! I can still fix this!” The Keeper of Secret pleaded. Only for her to sense another presence, mighty and divine approaching fast. There’s no fixing this anymore. Thus already overwhelmed by Slaanesh’s disappointment, the Keeper of Secret ran.
