Chapter 68

Cassie trembled hard, muscles in her arms standing out like iron bands, the edge of her sword scraping against the avatar's with a piercing noise that rippled down her spine. She poured energy into herself and the sword until the latter crackled with bright blue sparks.

She whipped her sword upward with another screech of steel on steel, and the avatar careened away. She panted from the effort. Her "body" was only a convenient form around her psyche, but it reacted like the real thing, reflecting her growing mental exhaustion in aching muscles and shortened breath.

Victor's avatar had retreated to the dais. Cassie glanced at Gina and Stephanie. They still lay prone and helpless, their ethereal bodies wracked with mindless sexual bliss. She was alone; it all hinged on her now.

She threw herself at the avatar. He parried her two blows, and butted her away with his shield without losing ground.

"You're drawing on some other power," said the vision of Victor. "I can as well. My Master will provide whatever I need."

He lunged. Cassie met his blow, her arms vibrating from the impact. She parried a second stroke, then a third. She channeled more power through herself and swung her sword hard, grunting at each impotent impact against his shield. On the fourth try, he attacked, forcing her to abort her intended strike to parry his blow. She yelped as she flew backwards and fell to the floor.

Cassie gulped in air. Her lungs hurt, and every muscle in her arms and torso burned. The distracting pleasure in her pussy had faded to a very soft, gentle throbbing, but she could not get it to stop. Each time she let her concentration slip, it tried to surge over her once more to cocoon her in helpless lust.

The avatar raised his sword and advanced. Cassie scrambled to her feet, biting her lower lip hard to suppress a moan as her pussy throbbed harder until she could get it under control. Suddenly, he stopped, smiled, and lowered his sword.

It hit her the next second: another wave of roiling sexual heat, worse than the last, her pussy throbbing even harder. The sword slipped from her hands as she fell, skittering over the stones out of reach. She wrenched at the link for more energy and quelled her panic that they were near the limit of what they had pooled.

Yet the touch with the link had confirmed a fear that she had wanted to ignore. Her friends were falling to Victor and losing their ability to channel power to her. In the instant that she opened herself to them, she saw the situation degenerate before her eyes.

Cassie took what she could, pushed through the horror, and fought to reclaim her place in battle. Freeing Gina was all that mattered now.

The avatar had yet to raise his sword. "You do realize, of course, that you are no better than me or my Master."

Cassie shook her head, choosing to believe that he was trying to keep her off balance. The delay allowed her to regain some of her strength. "We're trying to stop you from taking Gina! You've already ruined Stephanie's life!"

"Ah, so the other trespasser is Stephanie. I will take care of her as well. My Master will be quite pleased."

"We don't take pleasure in enslaving people like Victor does!"

"Oh, but don't you now? My Master told me about Diane."

Cassie opened her mouth, but nothing came out, save for her own panting breath as her orgasm rose to reclaim her senses. A gasp wheezed past her lips as she fought it down.

The avatar smiled. "You get hot just thinking about your little slave, don't you?"

"No ... I mean ... Diane is ... i-it's a special case!"

The avatar laughed. Cassie's words sounded hollow even to her. Why did they use Diane? Why had they taken her as their slave? She would never condone such a thing, and yet it made sense.

"You are a slave mistress, Cassie," said the avatar. "But then again, you should be used to that. You're Cassie Kendall, after all. A rich girl. An influential girl. A girl who can get whatever she desires."

"I don't want that kind of power!" Cassie shouted. "I never wanted it! I don't want to give orders and make people jump at my command like my mother does. I'm nothing like her!"

"And yet, you have a slave."

"But ... but she ... I-I..." Cassie sputtered. Her eyes glistened as her mind spun in circles. Diane was her slave. A Harbinger slave. She had to do what Cassie told her to do, and Cassie wanted to...

Victor's avatar smirked. "Perhaps you have come in the wrong costume. Perhaps... this is more in line with what you are."

Cassie's body tingled, and the air around her shimmered. She gasped and stumbled backward as she found her feet wrapped in tight, high heels. An elegant gown billowed from her waist, her bodice surrounded by bright silks adorned with flashing sequins. She lifted her hand to her head and felt the tiara encircling her head in her perfectly coiffed hair, adorable curls spilling down the back of her neck.

"Yes, this is more what you are. A princess."

Cassie shook her head, her throat refusing to work.

The avatar stepped towards her. "A princess. A royal lady who commands her lessers to do her bidding. Perhaps it was you who suggested Diane be taken as a slave."

"No, I didn't!" Cassie croaked. "I know that much. I never--"

"And yet, you let it happen. You took advantage of it. You used her."

A memory seared across her mind: Cassie struggling to get out of her clothes, demanding to be the first to use Diane to satisfy her lust. She felt her knees touch the floor beside Diane's head, her pussy grinding into Diane's face.

She still believed Diane was supposed to be her slave and would remain so for as far as she could see. It was the way things were.

"So you would deny my Master a slave, and yet keep one of your own," the avatar mused.

Cassie fell to her knees before the image of Victor, her pussy throbbing in terrible synchronicity to her thoughts of Diane. Her eyes flooded, tears dripping to the stones as she fell to all fours. She turned her head towards the blurry form of Stephanie, whose body appeared fuzzy and faded, as if she were about to wink out of existence. All because someone kept her body as a mindless slave for so many years.

Is that what she would have happen to Diane?

"You understand now," said the avatar. "You are no better than Victor. You cannot claim the role of the princess. You are a slave to your own desire to control others. Therefore, you should look the part."

The air shimmered again. Cassie became naked, and a weight dragged her down to her knees. She lifted a shaking hand to her neck, her body quaking as her fingers fluttered against cold iron.

Sexual heat overcame her, and her pussy exploded into orgasm. The end of a heavy chain appeared in the avatar's hands. He snapped it once, and Cassie's fell forward as her collar yanked at her throat. She lay on the floor, her climax forcing her surrender to the avatar's reality.

In her shock, Debby had not shed her panties, and she abandoned all thoughts of faking Victor's control. His gaze fell on her once more, just as Jason straddled Diane, and Heather and Melinda descended into moaning sexual abandon.

Debby saw the expression on Victor's face change. He was figuring it out. She had only seconds.

In her mind, she had tugged Diane's essence as close to herself as she had dared. She had wanted to be gentle and work Diane free by a careful unraveling of the tentacles of his control to avoid the trauma of an abrupt separation. But Victor's power was too invasive, and time too short.

Victor's eyes widened.

Debby clenched Diane's spirit, opened herself wide to their remaining pooled power, and PULLED.

"What are you--?!" Victor began.

The tendrils of false perception about Diane's psyche writhed, stretched, and snapped.

Victor wheezed as if punched in the stomach. He staggered backwards, the cultists' chant faltering in mid-syllable. His eyes squeezed shut, and he pressed his hands against his temples. Some of his cultists raised their hands to their heads as well, or looked about in confusion or astonishment.

Among the Harbingers, false reality unraveled with the force of a broken, tensioned spring. Richie, Ned, and Jason scrambled away from Diane. Debby fell to one knee beside her and helped her to sit up. "Diane, it's okay, it's going to be all right now."

Diane's eyes opened wide, her face suddenly pale. "Oh God ... what was I ... why..." Her voice grew more strident with each flustered syllable. She looked at Debby, and her eyes shimmered with grief and barely restrained hysteria. She turned her head and found Victor, and then her eyes blazed hellfire.

"Y-You did this ... you got into my head ... I... I didn't want it this way!" Diane screamed. "I didn't want it like this! You ... you f-fucking bastard ... you..."

Debby gathered Diane to her. Diane wailed into Debby's shoulder, her body shaking.

Victor's eyes opened, and his gaze became cold steel. Jason met it with his own icy stare. Richie and Ned drew behind him. Heather and Melinda panted on the floor, unable to hold a single coherent thought against the overwhelming desire that Victor still held as his remaining beachhead.

"No, Jason," Victor said through clenched teeth. "You will not have them. And you cannot do that again. You had your one chance, and now it is gone. I will be able to overwhelm--"

Master, help me!

Victor staggered. He spun around and looked towards the altar, then swept his gaze over his confused cultists.

Master, I need you!

"Why have you stopped?!" Victor shouted. "You will continue the--"

Master! Stop her! STOP H--

Victor stared, then let out a cry of anger, rage, and pain.

Cassie's perception stretched and snapped, and her mind reeled from the electric shock of emotions that had charged the link with renewed power.

"No better than a slave," said the avatar. "That is what you deserve."

Cassie drew in a ragged breath. Anguish and rage crashed like waves from the churning sea that was Diane's mind. It burst the remaining barrier that stood between Cassie and reality, carrying with it a cacophony of memories from Diane's mind. In that instant, Cassie witnessed what had transpired in Victor's office, and the words he had spoken to Diane's helpless subconscious.

The avatar snapped the chain, and her collar tugged hard at her neck. Her gaze rose to his.

"You see that now, don't you?" said the avatar. "Is this not the perfect way to deal with your guilt, to suffer the same fate you would so willingly bestow on another?"

Power flowed into her mind as the straw became a gaping tunnel. The memory from Diane crystallized in the center of it, a stone dropped into the lava of energy that now burned and ran molten with Cassie's growing fury.

"It is easier this way, isn't it? It--"

The avatar stopped as Cassie stood.

Cassie breathed hard, but not with desire. Her body trembled, but not with lust. She tried to quell her rage and halt the procession of violent thoughts that roared through her head. She tried to regain her calm and quench her fury.

She failed.

"I am not a slave!" Cassie bellowed.

The sword appeared in her hand. Metal flashed, and a single brilliant spark flared. The chain fell to the floor, the edges of the severed link glowing like coals.

The avatar stared in shock, then backed away when she advanced. "Master, help me!"

Cassie raised the sword over her head. "I am not a princess!"

The avatar thrust his shield forward as Cassie's sword came down. With a crack of thunder, the shield shattered.

"I am not Cassie Kendall!"

The avatar raised his sword. It splintered into sparks and shards at a single stroke from Cassie's blade.

"Master, I need you!" the avatar cried.

Cassie clenched the sword in two hands, her eyes blazing fire. "I AM STEPHANIE FOWLER'S AVENGER!"

"Master! Stop her! STOP H--!"

Armor splintered and steel screamed as her sword plunged into the avatar's chest, his last syllable echoing off the chamber walls and reverberating through Gina's mind.

In the space of the next few seconds, nothing moved. Cassie's hands gripped the hilt of the sword, muscles still strained. Finally, the avatar's face twisted in anguish, the edges of his form melting and fading to more putrid black.

The avatar vanished in a small implosion of psychic energy.

Cassie was tossed backwards, the sword thrown from her as she bounced down the steps of the dais. She leapt back to her feet, unharmed, panting with exertion and exhilaration.

"He's gone," Cassie declared. "He's gone."

New Gina -- now Real Gina -- slowly stood up. She stared at Cassie for a moment, then leapt towards her and almost knocked her off her feet once more. Gina embraced her and sobbed in her ear. "Thank you ... oh God, thank you..."

Tears rolled down Cassie's cheeks. Her throat closed up, but it was just as well, as no words could do justice to the emotion of the moment.

Suddenly, Gina extricated herself from the embrace. "Wait, what about Stephanie?"

Cassie whirled around. Stephanie pushed herself off the floor and shuddered in either pain or exhaustion, Cassie could not tell which. They raced over to her. Cassie threw an arm around her shoulders, greeting Stephanie's now substantial form with a gushing sigh of relief.

"Stephanie, are you all right?" Gina asked as she helped Stephanie to stand.

"Yes, I think so," Stephanie said in a voice that surprised Cassie and Gina with its strength. Stephanie was no less perplexed. "I am okay, aren't I?"

"I thought we were going to lose you," Cassie said, her voice cracking. "You were ... well, fading away."

"I know. I don't understand why I'm still here. I know I felt Lydia's mind ... that it..." She swallowed and shook her head. "I couldn't have imagined that."

"Does it matter?" Gina said. "You're here and you're safe."

"Don't you understand?" Stephanie cried. "I don't have any place to go back to! I'm just a disembodied spirit now."

"I can't believe that," Cassie said. "There has to be a reason you're still here."

"Wait!" Gina said. "Listen!"

In the distance, a wind sighed.

"Oh no, not again," Cassie said. "I thought once we destroyed Victor's avatar--"

"No, it's not that, it's something else..."

Heather stopped masturbating as the last of their pooled energy suffused her. She was drawing it into herself without understanding why. She didn't need it; Debby and the others were pushing Victor back. His false reality had collapsed when Cassie freed Gina.

Imagery surged through her head. She saw Victor again in the dark chamber, the glowing pit before him. The Book twisted and wrenched in his hands. She saw it as clearly as if it were happening now, juxtaposed upon her normal senses.

She saw the Book smolder. She heard Victor's hoarse voice bellowing. She heard the anguished wail of the Darkness. Her breath quaked in fear as it passed her lips, but the emotion was not hers. Her senses reflected what Victor was feeling -- will feel. Tentacles of inky black thrust upward from the pit as the Book screamed, its pages combusting in glowing scarlet fire. Victor dropped the Book, beating out small flames that licked at his sleeves with hands already scorched.

The Darkness coiled around the Book and contained what had not immolated itself, then constricted like a serpent and crushed it. Its surviving pages flared into raw energy that was sucked down into the pit. A voice thundered from below.

"You would have betrayed me, you bastard. You would have let my energies wane and left me to rot. You should be happy I did not punish you further."

"Remove your taint from me, and from my cult!" Victor begged. Actually begged.

"No. I have no reason to trust them now, except as my slaves. Or you, but I am sparing you that fate. Consider yourself fortunate. Get out of Haven and do not come back. You will never find me as accommodating as you did before."

The Darkness pulled the charred remnants of the Book down into the pit, and the vision vanished. Heather sat up.

On the altar, Gina blinked, and her eyes darted about in confusion. Her mind had fallen into a chaotic limbo when everything that had made her what she was had suddenly been ripped away from her. Her body relaxed, desire fading like smoke on the wind, the glistening substance on her nipples and pussy only so much mineral oil.

She turned her head as a man stepped up to the altar and looked down at her. She thought she should know him, though she was not sure where she was, or even who she was. She remembered being chained down, but the reason escaped her.

"Sixteen years," the man murmured.

Gina looked at him in wonder. Sixteen? Wasn't that how old she was that year? Yes, that felt right.

"Sixteen years of work," the man said, his voice rising.

Gina opened her mouth as if to speak, but she was at a loss as to what to say.

"Sixteen years of work!" the man bellowed.

Gina flinched. Something told her she need not fear, that everything would be okay in a short while. She would understand, and for the first time, she would live.

It had already started. She knew now that this man had done something bad to her. She had not realized it was bad until now. Perhaps that was why she felt so empty, like a blank slate. Yet someone was about to write on that slate, and all she needed to do was be patient.

The Glorious One had failed.

The thought had come to Kelly first. She knew it before it had happened, before she had felt the power he drew through her and the other cultists suddenly stop flowing into Gina's mind.

It had come to the Prophet as well; Kelly could tell as much from the dread and uncertainty on his face. Perhaps he had failed as well. Her suspicions about the Prophet made far more sense once her doubts had been realized about the Glorious One.

Or whatever this man was. Certainly not glorious any longer.

The other cultists stirred, some by Terri's ongoing sexual antics in the far corner. Kelly reached out with her will and helped them quell their carnal urges so they would remain in the ranks. Yet dissent still rose like a tide. Others stared at Victor now, not daring to believe what they saw. Never had he appeared so ordinary or so fallible.

Kelly soothed them, but not for Victor, and not for herself. Above all else, the church must remain intact. It must not lose face before the evil. Evil had managed to cow its former messiah but would not cow them.

And yet, she held out hope. Perhaps Victor only toyed with the evil ones now, lulling them into complacency so he could strike. Thus she kept his followers calm, and did not turn them away from Victor. But she would not let them be taken down with him. They would not be allowed to prop up a false god.

If he did triumph and show he was indeed the Glorious One, Kelly would submit herself to whatever punishment he saw fit. She would be guilty of the ultimate heresy, and would deserve his divine wrath, even if it meant being enslaved for the rest of her life.

In her eyes, everything hinged on what this man did next.

The wind in the avatar's chamber spun like a tornado, tearing the stones from the floor and hurtling them into the air. The ceiling crumbled and was swept up into the void that had opened above the heads of the three. A stone flew towards Cassie, then passed through her as if it were no more than a vision. Crushed rocks and mortar rained down in a brief torrent.

The void ceased being nothing. Inky black became purple, then deep blue. The throne melted and twisted as it molded itself into a tall, branching form. The dais ran liquid and spread out in ropy masses under their feet.

The air shimmered as the vortex vanished high above their heads. The throne had now become a large tree, the dais its roots, and the bits of mortar and rock a carpet of fallen autumn leaves, woven in patterns of gold and red. Clouds billowed over distant mountains across a valley streaked with gold, red, and brilliant orange.

"What is ... where are we?" Cassie breathed.

Gina stepped forward, staring in awe. "It's beautiful! Stephanie, do you know what this ... Stephanie?"

Stephanie stood still as a statue, numb with shock. She finally let out a ragged breath and fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Cassie and Gina rushed to her side once more.

"I-I'm all right," she protested, her voice cracking. She wiped her eyes. "It's just ... it's a memory of mine. Something I hadn't thought of for a long time. I was only ten. My parents took me to the east coast in the fall, right at peak color. We stopped ... we..."

Stephanie trailed off, then shook her head.

"What is it?" Cassie said. "Please, Stephanie, what's wrong?"

"This shouldn't be here. This is Gina's mind! Why is my memory here?!"

Gina stared at the gorgeous landscape, a beaming smile gracing her face. "For the same reason my room changed."

"But I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Stephanie, Gina has... I have nothing. Only a free will and some small comforts from a snowy country lane in winter. Maybe in time I'll have some thoughts of grander things, but right now, I'm empty."