Desolace Omnibus Edition by Lucian Barnes

Author:Lucian Barnes [Barnes, Lucian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2016-06-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

The citizens of Elysia scurried through the streets, fleeing to find any safe haven they could from the crazed man who seemed bent on destroying the city.

Carrying a busted plank in one hand like a torch, George stomped down the cobblestone road, overturning the carts of vendors and setting fire to everything in his path. Ahead loomed his biggest challenge thus far, a towering stone fortress looking like one of the enormous castles from a fairytale. He almost half expected Rapunzel to be leaning from one of the upper windows, her golden hair cascading down the walls, waiting for some idiot to use her locks as a rope to climb up and save her.

No such sight greeted him as George strode purposefully toward the enormous structure. Instead, armed guards began pouring out from the gaping archway at the bottom, locking their determined eyes on him and raising their swords.

Somehow he managed to keep their attacks at bay for a short time, swinging the burning plank like an ogre with a giant club. Bones crunched beneath the inhuman power of his blows, sending quite a few of the guards desperately trying to crawl away, leaving smears of blood to coat the cobblestones in their wake. Others were fleeing, their cloaks set ablaze, searching for a trough to douse the flames before the flesh on their bodies began to sizzle and pop like meat on a campfire.

Grinning, George paused for a moment and relished the sight of them fleeing like frightened sheep heading for the slaughterhouse. Within seconds he was caught off guard and his legs were swept from under him by one of the castle legions, causing George to land hard on his back. Since he was already dead and just inhabiting the body, he felt no pain. A twisted smile played across his face as he stared into the man's eyes.

Uttering a loud battle cry, the soldier brought his blade down in a frenzy of strikes. Every limb of the body George was inside of was severed, leaving him twitching on the ground like a turtle on its back.

Retreating deeper inside the machine, George pulled his head back from the faceplate and watched the flickering lights begin to fade once the power source of his energy had disengaged. Soon the only light he could see came from the openings of the severed appendages. Hoping that since the machine seemed beyond repair he would be able to break free, George tucked his ghostly form into a tight ball and concentrated on drifting toward one of the larger openings.

A thin mist seeped out of the stump of one leg as George floated up and away from the body. As he allowed his shape to re-form, he couldn't help but cackle with mad laughter as he gazed down at the guard, standing with one foot on the machine's chest with his sword thrust high into the air, crying out triumphantly in what he thought to be victory.

Fool! You can't kill someone who is already dead! Your moment of glory will be short-lived, I promise you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.