Chapter 567: The Shadow
Laz looked surprised by her outburst as he didn’t expect to see someone like Roma lose her cool so easily. Still, Laz took the time to explain the photograph that had been taken by recon teams.
"When? When did they get this?" Roma asked, taking more that a few drinks to settle herself.
"Not sure. About a week ago. The people you’re holding should be able to give you a better explanation that I can," Laz suggest, causing Roma to rise from her seat, apologize and then run from the room.
"Well. That was a thing," Brittany said, not looking at all bothered.
"Right. Looks like their is a reason for them to be afraid and that the dragon shadow creature isn’t a good thing for the temple. Of course, that just raises more questions..."
"Anyway, Dalia, Amira. Would you like a moment to talk each other without others around?" Laz asked, seeing the two still at odds with each other.
"No!"
"Nope."
They both responded the same way, causing Laz to stand.
"Alright. Have the room then. Come on. Let’s see where this other door leads," Laz said, dragging Brittany with him.
"HEY!"
"WAIT!"
They called out to them, but Laz had already opened up the door and dragged Brittany inside before closing the door, leaving the two sisters alone.
"That was kind of mean of you," Brittany said with a smile, obviously enjoying the situation.
"That’s fine. They need to figure their shit out. I know Amira cares for her sister and what I learned from Dalia suggests she cares about Amira as well. So it’s best for them to talk it out now rather than waiting. Besides, if Dalia decides to stay, then they really won’t get the chance any time soon." Laz said back, reaching for the outlined light switch on the wall. There was a string of red lights that circled the three switch panel and Laz flipped all of them at once.
"Your assuming they won’t just sit there in silence with one... another... holy fuck..." Brittany said, before going quiet.
Even Laz didn’t have a word to say at the sight in front of him.
’Seems I have to take back what I thought earlier about this place not being as impressive as the queens pleasure chamber,’ Laz thought, seeing the walls lined with whips, cuffs, chains, restraints and ropes. In the back corner was even several racks of various outfits one could put on for both males and females. Then the entire rest of the room was filled with restraint and torture devices, not just those meant for pleasure, but many meant for pain and nothing but.
"Holy shit... this is a real sized iron maiden," Brittany commented, walking up to it and using all of her strength, opened the front hatch, revealing the spiked inside of the device.
"God damn... This... fuck. I mean, yeah, I know it was a thing, but to actually see one," Laz said, standing next to a giant, golden bull.
"What? It’s like some kind of idol, isn’t it?" Brittany asked, staring at it.
"Not exactly. The stomach is hollow, allowing for someone to be stuffed inside via this door on the side here. The door is then latched and a fire is started. See these holes in the nose? They are to let the steam out as a person is roasted alive inside of it," Laz said, thinking about what he had read on the internet back in the day.
"That’s... fucking gross. Would they eat the person?" She asked.
"Nope. It was just used as a form of punishment. Permanent punishment, but punishment all the same."
"Oh... I’ve seen this before..." Brittany said, picking up a strange device that looked like a pear with a screw coming out of it.
"Heh. Yeah. Honestly though, from what I’ve read, this thing wasn’t actually a thing that was used, more like an urban legend based on something else. No doubt it would be painful as fuck though," Laz said, looking at the device she was holding.
"Ok. So some of these things I get. I mean... that St. Andrew’s Cross.... I could totally get on board with that... but some of these things..."
"Well. I would say it adds an air of horror to the whole place, like to really set the mood. But..."
"But what?" Brittany asked, seeing Laz’s frown.
"But many of these not so fun devices have been used, at least somewhat recently..." Laz said, staring back at the iron maiden. His sharp senses could still smell the blood on it, despite having been cleaned. What was more, each non-pleasure based device was set up at a particular spot, one that looked arranged for it. For example, underneath the iron maiden the boards of the floor sloped downward and lead to a drain, allowing for either blood or the cleanup after words to not involve a lot of hassle. In fact, pretty much all of the torture devices had such a situation with it. The golden bull was set on a pedestal while under and around it was a pit in the floor lines with stones while above it seemed to be a shaft in the ceiling, allowing for ventilation.
"That’s fucked up..." Brittany commented, moving closer to Laz.
"Agreed," Laz said, looking around.
Roma entered the room and quickly made her way over to Laz and Brittany.
"This.. uh... this was supposed to be locked," Roma said, following their gaze to look at the various devices on display.
"I’m sure. After all, some of these things seemed to have seen recent use and I’m not talking about the fun ones," Laz commented, turning to face Roma.
"Yeah. I can uh... explain that. In fact, it has to do with that picture you mentioned. Also, all of the captives have been released and are being lead back through the forest. They mentioned they have the means to contact transport once they get outside... Oh! I didn’t ask if you needed to speak with them first?" Roma said, thinking about it as she spoke.
"It’s fine. I don’t even know them. I’m sure I can get any meaningful information once I get back. Did you learn what you needed to?" Laz asked.
"Yes. If you would join me, I will share some of the findings with you. I can tell you most things, but there are some closely guarded secrets which can’t be made known," Roma said, apologizing.
"That’s fine. Let’s go," Laz said, taking the lead to leave the room, back through the wooden door.
He found that Dalia and Amira were still somewhat distant from each other, but had at at least joined each other to sit on the same couch.
Sitting, Laz and and Brittany joined the two other woman and Roma joined them.
"This temple didn’t originally belong to the lust god. It was actually something he acquired quite recently from..." Roma hesitated.
"He stole it?" Laz said, finishing the sentence for her.
"Well... yes. The previous owner... was that shadow of a dragon you saw, well, his real body anyway. The shadow dragon’s real body is referred to as the nameless god, a creature of shadow and torment whose worshipers are some of the most depraved and sadistic pieces of filth you could ever meet. Those devices back there?" Roma said, pointing to the room they had just left.
"What devices?" Dalia asked, not having been in there.
"Imagine a sex dungeon without the sex," Brittany answered, sparking some interesting looks from both sisters.
"Well, they belonged to the nameless gods followers. The point of the room was to be an altar with every device available that could be used to worship that god of suffering."
"Even the kinky ones?" Brittany asked.
"They weren’t originally meant to be kinky ones. We just have some twisted hobbies in this day and age," Laz said, saving Roma the trouble.
"So no one uses that room for kinky shit?" Brittany then went on to asked, clearly more interested than she should be.
"No... In fact, normally the room is locked and unreachable so I doubt anyone went in there recently and forgot to relock it. So the fact that you got in there through an unlocked door is disturbing," Roma admitted.
"Anyway. Back to what you were saying?" Laz said, in thought but wanting more.
"So... I can’t go into specifics, but needless to say that the lust god stole this temple from the nameless god while he was sleeping and decided to repurpose it for his own use. The fact that the shadow dragon was seen in that picture means that the nameless god is both still sleeping, but that it also knows where this temple is and who stole it. Or maybe the shadow dragon clone found it. Either way though, this isn’t a good thing for us..." Roma admitted.
"How did you not know there was a giant creature just right outside?" Amira asked after Roma finished.
"It’s just a cloned body of the nameless god. It neither has any real strength or power so unless one were to see it, it would just appear liked a strange shadow in the sky. And who would bother reporting seeing a strange shadow? A guard would get themselves in trouble for something like that." Roma admitted, knowing that had they reported it at the time, they wouldn’t be so surprised right now.
"So what are you going to do now?" Laz asked, curious.
"The temple and the woods surrounding it are all one in the same. Our god has decided to move the temple further away to help hide us from the nameless god’s prying eyes. We shall move in ten days," Roma said, before turning to look at Dalia.
"Anyone who isn’t a part of the lust path will be free to leave before we move. They have until then to make their choice. As the lust god has gotten stronger, it won’t be an issue for them to move this entire place, but once we do it will be rather impossible to know where we will end up. So this is the last chance for those who aren’t completely committed to return to their old lives. I suggest you seriously consider that," she said, giving the young woman some advice.
Perhaps in the past, Dalia wouldn’t have thought twice about running away with them, but now, with her sister in the picture, there were more things for her to think about first.
"Until then, you are welcome to stay here, relax and enjoy what we have to offer to the fullest," Roma then turned to Laz and spoke.
Laz thought for a while, his mind doing circles as his eyes kept switching between gold and ice blue. Finally though, he came to a decision.
"Sure. Say... can I use that room?" Laz said, pointing to the torture room they had come out from before.
"EH!?!?"
