Age of Blackstone - Spawn of Apophis

This is a new age - dark and brutal, woven with the shadow of the 21st century world. Earth has grown into a savage place where the age of man was usurped by the rise of the undead, the invasion of those from the stars, the awakening of the beyond things and the ascension of the machines.

The skies parted, angels descended and demons rose, whole cities turned to sand while other metropolises swelled to greatness. In these times of sorcery and mad science, one fierce and mysterious wanderer's tales are legendary.

They call him Blackstone.

NOW.

The dark-armored giant of a man known only as Blackstone dove in a somersault. Despite his mass and size, the warrior was superhumanly agile and narrowly escaped a striking blow. The attack shattered a nearby ancient stone pillar. As the supporting structure erupted in the attack, a sign soared by that said "Times Square 42nd Street Station."

Blackstone spun back onto his feet and stood in a battle stance. His ax "Vengeance" and sword "Retribution" ready in his large, gloved hands.

In the distance, the elvish princess he was sent to rescue. Clad in a sequin top and skirt, she was chained to the ceiling, a sacrifice for the demon-creature that had intent to feast on her and to crush Blackstone as well.

As the armored man's eyes glowed in the shadowy underground lair, there was the loud sound of something slithering and hungry hissing in the dark.

###

THEN.

The doors to the throne room of the elven Queen Lita SongStar flew open. That feat alone was impressive as the massive entrance required a dozen of the strongest elves in the land on both sides to open.

Even then, the doors were pulled slowly and with maximum effort.

Rolling into the room and bouncing on the marble flooring were several objects quickly identified as heads.

Each one was nearly identical - human, male, bald and each with a tongue hanging out their mouths - a forked tongue.

Each head was also covered in scales and warped with reptilian features.

Another surprise soared into the room. This time, it was a collection of elven warriors.

They were alive albeit beaten and bound together.

The guardsmen in the throne room fell into combat ready positions.

They split into two squads - one at the ready by the entrance, the second contingent surrounded their queen.

"Hold your ground," ordered Lita SongStar. "I have been expecting our guest."

Queen SongStar, like most elves, had pointed ears that jutted out from under her long silver hair. She wore a royal suit of armor woven from leaves, twine and crystals. A large cape of fine material covered her shoulders.

A crown of jewels sat on her head.

What entered the room behind the gruesome display was nothing less than a giant man covered in dark armor from head to toe. The horns on his helmet nearly scraped the doorway upon his entrance. The ground shook with each step. His shoulder pauldrons were spiked and one was molded in the shape of a skull. Chain mail covered his form where the armor plating met at the joints.

His helmet completely obscured his face - only shadow resided inside with two glowing eyes staring out from within.

Every guard in the room held his or her breath.

Queen SongStar narrowed her eyes and a wry smiled crept across her face.

"Greetings, Blackstone," she began.

"The heads belong to the Spawn of Apophis," and the armored man's every word was a whisper and a growl. "I was dealing with them when your warriors interfered and got in my way. I gave heed, they did not listen. However, they live."

The elven queen nodded her silver head gracefully. "For their interference, you have the apologies of the court. For sparing them, you have my gratitude."

Blackstone was silent for a moment until he took a large breath.

"I have my reasons for slaughtering the serpent worshipers. I am unaware of any grievance between the Jewel Elf Kingdom of SongStar and the Spawn."

"I have the greatest of grievances, warrior. They have my daughter and they plan to sacrifice her in two nights."

Again, the warrior was quiet.

"My daughter, Princess Tapia is the elvish embodiment of Afton Ex Mas."

"Your fertility goddess."

The queen nodded. "You are as intelligent as your are formidable, Blackstone. My soldiers are loyal, brave and a force to be reckoned with by any army."

"But this is not the work for an army and your soldiers are not me." The burning gaze of the horned man simmered as he apparently submerged into deep thoughts. "As I said before, I have bloody business with the Spawn of Apophis. I will see my dealings completed...and I will return to you your daughter. Your kingdom is to stay out of my way...your highness."

The queen nodded. "My daughter is a thing of beauty, warrior. I would prefer she be returned in her...pristine condition."

Blackstone looked the woman in her eyes from across her throne room. "I am seeking bloodshed not bedding."

The warrior turned and exited.

The SongStar warriors looked from their perches on the windows to see the armored man hop atop a crimson steed and ride it out of the elvish land.

###

Slayer was a mighty horse. Her red flesh made her supernatural origins apparent.

Her eyes glowed as her hooves pounded the cracked and broken ground beneath her; all while her rider remembered.

Memories flashed back through Blackstone's mind.

The village of East Hallows had given the horned warrior shelter during a storm. He had befriended the innkeeper and his family, in as much as Blackstone could befriend anyone.

The storm subsided.

Blackstone left.

He had not made it a handful of miles away before he heard the screams.

Fleet-footed and weapon drawn, the bejeweled wanderer had arrived too late. The town had been butchered.

Corpses defiled. Land salted and destroyed.

The bloodied remains of the innkeeper and his family were displayed in the town square, along with the slaughtered others of the town. Blood, bone and guts all arranged to pay homage to a dark god worshiped by snake-men.

The Spawn of Apophis banner blew in the night wind alongside the smell of burning buildings and charnel death.

Blackstone remembered the oath he made that night as he buried an entire town. His bloody business with the Spawn of Apophis would not be about justice, it would be revenge.

###

A collection of snake people camped out for the night. This small raiding party rested after another attack; this time it had been an unarmed caravan unable to fight off the scaly zealots.

There were six untransformed humans on their knees around a fire.

Glowing in the orange reflection, a robed armored reptilian man stood before them. He waved his left hand, claws and all. His right hand held a scepter that ran up and down with a serpent - alive and hissing at the mammals on the ground before it.

"You are most fortunate, humans," he began, "Once you have joined us, we will head to sacrifice a delicious tribute to a direct child of Apophis! Power undreamed of awaits us! DO YOU ACCEPT OUR MASTER APOPHIS AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR?" the leader bellowed.

The hostages were silent.

"Allow my god to give you a view into the tomorrows in front of you--!" And he waved the scepter and the snake began to dance in a frightening rhythm. Its eyes burned brightly and there was a shine that appeared in the gaze of the captives.

"--amazing--" whispered one man.

"--everything I've wanted--" gasped another.

And on it went as the bound five were each granted a vision of what was possible as children of an ancient snake god spat free during the Second Age of Man.

"Again, I ask you," said the robed snake-humanoid, "DO YOU ACCEPT OUR MASTER APOPHIS AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR?"

"WE DO!" answered five.

The sixth person shook his head violently against the visions showed him. "Falsehoods! Lies!" he said to himself.

The camp fell silent.

The five were released from their bindings.

The sixth sat bound. The leader of this pack of Apophis worshipers narrowed his slit eyes. "He will sit in witness."

Scaly zealots grabbed the man and turned him to watch the five that had accepted whatever form salvation had come in. The robed figure emerged from the ranks of the spawns. He held up a jar which, once placed upon the ground, spilled out with five large serpent-things.

A sixth coiled still within the container.

###

The snakes slithered up the legs of the newly converted members until the serpentine creatures reached the anus. The scaled abominations burrowed violently within. Each person screamed and writhed as the scaly monstrosities made homes through their lower regions. Blood and intestines spun and sprayed about.

There were heaves of vomit, bleeding of the eyes and the cracking of bone within each of the new hosts.

Blackstone watched in the distance. His burning eyes simmered in either disgust, anger or both.

Eventually each person stopped screaming and shaking.

Each of the five now rose to their feet transformed. Their hair had fallen to the ground.

Their eyes were slitted pupils and their skin was scaly - additions to the Spawn of Apophis.

"Such a transformation must leave a soul hungry," the robed leader continued. He pointed a clawed hand towards the sixth person, he who had denied the false god Apophis.

"Eat my brothers and sisters. Eat well!"

The five new Spawn of Apophis hunched down, about to leap upon the quivering human. Before the fearful sixth person could be devoured alive, Blackstone leapt from his place of hiding.

The five neophyte serpent beings hissed in unison. Together they snapped out their hands and a series of claws now adorned their hands.

The first slashed at the warrior. Blackstone dodged the attacks until he brought his sword into play and parried the swings and strikes. The horned man cut the hands off from his attacker. As the snake man hissed in pain while looking at his missing hands, Blackstone spun and took the scaly foe's head from his body.

The second and third moved forward and were quickly gunned down by the two pistols spun from Blackstone's side - Trial and Tribulation. The firearms smoldered as the snake men fell with gaping holes in their heads.

The fourth and the fifth attacked the horned warrior from behind. Their claws did find soft spots between the armor plating at his back. Blackstone snarled in pain before turning and slashing both of the new converts to their deaths.

There were a handful of the original spawns left alongside the robed leader. Before they could develop a plan of attack, Blackstone leapt up above the scaly figures. Their slit eyes caught the moonlight and the image of the horned warrior descending with blade in hand. The armored man made quick work of the remaining spawn.

The leader, robed and with staff in hand, pointed the scepter at the warrior. The snake on the shaft came to life and began to writhe as its eyes set aglow and the robed man yelled out at Blackstone.

"Allow my god to give you a view into the tomorrows in fro---" Before the enchanter could finish his magic, the battle ax Vengeance was buried halfway down his face, splitting his scaly head in half.

Brains and blood spilling into the grass, the leader collapsed. His staff returned to an inanimate state.

There was the one serpent creature left. This legless creature was of the sort that twisted the captives into spawns of Apophis once it entered their orifices.

Blackstone kicked its jar and shattered it, releasing the vile thing into the wild. Before it could escape into the weeds, Blackstone moved quickly and snatched it in his hand.

Dark green, red-eyed and hissing, the beast was powerful despite its size.

Just off from the battle and slaughter of the vile serpent men, the sixth hostage wept in both fear and joy.

"Oh God, thank you!" cried the surviving man.

The horned warrior nodded and pointed into the distance. "Go," he rumbled.

As the man ran off, Blackstone looked down at the writhing beast in his hands.

Despite its size, it was strong and were Blackstone not cautious, he knew it would seek his death.

He brought the serpent close to his face. Its eyes had a wild ferocity to them; something bestial and otherworldly.

"HOME," Blackstone growled. He then released the snake-thing and it slithered into the woods.

The warrior looked and saw the trail of slimed that he began to follow.

###

The last surviving serpent creature slithered through the massive overgrowths of many miles of forest and into the broken concrete of sepulchrous empty cities. The trail of slime secreted by the foul beast was tracked by Blackstone for some countless distances.

Ahead was a pile of rock and debris that, underneath, led to some subterranean dwelling.

The lair was deep below the ruins of a great city. Its name had been lost to the annals of history - it had been one of the first great metropolises laid to ash in at least two of the ages - the undead had torn it to rubble then a thousand years later a handful of Old Ones destroyed it once again.

As the Ages of Man had passed one after the other, it seemed that everything built stood atop the corpse of something that was once constructed as well.

As the dark-armored man studied the snake creature slithering towards a set of stairs leading below ground, he could see warning signs of the moments ahead.

Bones, and great bones of predators at that, lay strewn about. They were cracked and crushed. There were few things that could catch, kill and consume the dozens of gryphons, centaurs, dragons and other beasts whose remnants littered this field.

This gave the Blackstone pause, if even for only a moment.

Like his snake-like prey, down Blackstone went.

###

The underground area was dank and dark.

Consisting of ancient brick and steel, the floor was full of running metal tracks and a layer of stagnant water - mere puddles in some areas while feet deep in others.

As there was the ever-present smell of too long standing water, there was an unmistakable odor of oil.

Blackstone moved quietly despite his massive size. In the distance, at the edge of the nigh impenetrable blackness, he could see a dim light granted by an elaborate arrange of candles. It was a shrine of sorts adorned with gore and bones all arranged in an altar for the scaly false god Apophis.

Princess Tapia stood, arms bent and raised over her head, bound by chains leading down from a metal ring embedded in the ceiling. Given her location to the altar, this was the place of her impending sacrifice.

Her mother had described Tapia SongStar as a thing of beauty but had neglected mentioning that she was an epitome of lust. Her skin was smooth and had a slight tan to it not often found in elves. Her body had definition, muscles that did not take away from the perfect amount of fat that gave her round, supple hips and a pair of impossibly large breasts that moved all their own. Her face was like a wanton visage carved with a long but slight nose, high cheeks and full lips that promised they could wrap around anything.

As his glowing eyes simmered with distraction, something moved in the shadows behind Blackstone. Something large, something quiet.

"Who goes there?" The elven woman had a mane of hair that moved about her and over her crown.

"Worry not, elf," Blackstone said in as softly as a grumbling roar as he could. "I have been sent by your queen to retrieve you."

"My mother--?!?" the princess gasped, "Hurry, please! We are not alone! It's here!"

Blackstone paused in his movement. He had seen enough battle and death that he had an almost preternatural sense of when he was being watched, when he was being stalked.

The horned-helmeted warrior felt the same sensation again.

###

NOW.

The dark-armored giant of a man known only as Blackstone dove in a somersault. Despite his mass and size, the warrior was superhumanly agile and narrowly escaped a striking blow. The attack shattered a nearby ancient stone pillar. As the supporting structure erupted in the attack, a sign soared by that said "Times Square 42nd Street Station."

Blackstone spun back onto his feet and stood in a battle stance. His ax "Vengeance" and sword "Retribution" ready in his large, gloved hands.

In the distance, the elvish princess he was sent to rescue. Clad in a sequin top and skirt, she was chained to the ceiling, a sacrifice for the demon-creature that had intent to feast on her and to crush Blackstone as well.

As the armored man's eyes glowed in the shadowy underground lair, there was the loud sound of something slithering and hungry hissing in the dark.

In the flickering candlelight, Blackstone looked up towards his enemy - a cobra like monstrosity endlessly long and nightmarishly large. Its goliath coils slithered around with scaly doom. Its body was a sight of seemingly eternal coils sliding over themselves in the creature's girth.

The creature's knife slit eyes also caught the flickering of the candles and the reptilian gaze filled with the little horned man on the ground. Its face while snake-like clearly displayed the emotion of rage.

Blackstone sighed. "Of course..."

The snake rose to its partial height and now cast a powerful shadow over the armored man. Its gigantic body trembled as it hissed and trembled in fury; the circumference of the beast's rows and rows were the thickness of at least two of the ancient, desolate cars above ground. Its scales alone were like countless sheets of metal plating each the size of Blackstone's goliath hands. The serpent was clearly some level of being worshiped by the spawn and given its horrific stature, it was worthy of its cult.

As the demonic maw opened in slowness, the horned warrior could not help but set his glowing eyes upon the extending fangs which were at least the length of a grown man. Venom spilled from the beast's mouth and could be heard sizzling and burning through the wet stone ground beneath.

As the abomination moved, there were crushed corpses of its latest prey that fell loose to the watery flooring. It was clear why the bones of so many powerful beasts lay above, crushed and nearly shattered. Like many scaly things, this gargantuan coiled around its prey and crushed it while it swallowed the feast whole.

But Blackstone and the buxom princess would make for a better meal than whatever animal had been on the menu.

The warrior dodged a powerful strike of the snake's goliath tail.

Another whip attack evaded and this time Blackstone swung his sword Retribution hard and fast. However, the blow was deflected by the scaly armor. The snake creature struck the horned warrior in his chest and sent the giant of a man soaring. The sword spun out of hand.

The battle continued for what seemed forever.

The reptile struck, Blackstone dodged. He tried his firearms against the hide of the monstrosity but to no avail. The reptile struck, Blackstone was hit and sent hurtling.

One last blow and the crystal in the warrior's chest was cracked - heralding a pained roar from the horned wanderer. Many had speculated on the nature of the dark stone in the chest of the giant warrior. It was mysterious, its importance unknown but many speculated it was both a power and a weakness.

Blackstone could take little more of this conflict. There was one last tactic that came to his battlefield-tested mind. The snake monster paused and trembled while studying the weakened opponent.

Princess Tapia did her best to turn in her chains and watch her fate unfold.

Staggering to his feet, the horned wanderer stood still while the beast took aim and lunged. Its massive body coiled through the ancient subway, sending tremors through the very ground and earth around them.

The mighty serpent lunged forward and Blackstone swung his ax into the beast's mouth - the only vulnerable area he hoped and prayed existed.