DIABLO II: THE LORD OF DESTRUCTION

Heart of Ice

by PJ

 

Anya listened to water trickle down the rough, rock walls of her tiny cell. The water was ice-cold, it was run-off from the frozen fields far above. Anya sat on a knob of stone, her legs curled up beneath her, her arms held above her head, bound in thick, iron manacles. The young woman's clothes were torn in several places, she had struggled when Nihlathak's undead slaves took her. Anya's wool blouse was ripped open, her left breast hung free, freezing in the cold, underground air. The tiny cubicle was pitch black, but the darkness lightened, Anya could see torch flame through the small, barred window of her cell door.

A key clattered inside the iron door's enormous lock, there was a loud snick, then the door was pulled open, the rusted metal screeching shrilly.

Anya wrinkled her nose when the reek of rotting flesh assaulted her. Two naked zombies shuffled into the cell, they reached for Anya's manacles, clumsily unlocking them before seizing the young woman's thin arms. The decaying corpses pulled Anya out of the cell into a rock corridor, Nihlathak awaited her, flanked by two gorgeous women adorned completely in silver and gold chains.

The two women smiled and bared dainty fangs as they admired Anya. The pretty barbarian girl narrowed her amber eyes, the women's skin was dark blue, their long, lustrous hair was blood-red, horns sprouted just above their smooth temples.

"She discovered my bargain with your master," said Nihlathak, breaking the long silence. "Take her to the Frozen River, Frozenstein is supposed to take care of her."

"We know," sneered one of the succubi, shouldering past the cadaverous Elder to snatch Anya's left arm. The succubus purred as she sniffed Anya's brown hair and neck, she licked the girl's throat with a long, red tongue, then planted a soft kiss on Anya's flesh. Anya moaned as her legs collapsed beneath her. The succubus caught her with deceptive ease, she held the limp barbarian girl upright while her sister gathered Anya's other side.

Nihlathak watched expressionlessly as the two succubi carried Anya away. He regretted the sacrifice of the girl, but it was necessary to protect Harrogath from Baal's depredations. Anya's sacrifice was insignificant to the greater price Nihlathak had paid. The Elder sighed wearily and dismissed his undead servants, he walked alone through the silent corridor, holding a flickering torch in his gnarled left hand.

***

Zara felt rough hands shaking her awake.

"Wake up, woman!" growled Gorm, already in his leathers and fur pelts.

Zara rubbed at her eyes with the back of one hand, she didn't bother to cover her bare breasts from Gorm's sight. The towering druid dropped a bundle of clothing in Zara's lap. "Get dressed quickly! We go to Harrogath!"

"Why so impatient? I thought you scattered Baal's legions?"

"I communed with the Ancient Ones at the sun's rising, they warn that Baal ascends Arreat," replied Gorm, gathering food and supplies to stuff into a worn, leather satchel.

Zara rose and winced when she put weight on her torn feet. Gorm had bandaged her ice-cut soles, but they still pained her. Unmindful of her nudity, Zara slipped into the tight leather breeches and long-sleeved tunic that tied up the front. Gorm helped Zara place her feet inside warm, padded, white fur boots, then he draped a heavy fur cloak over her slender shoulders, and slipped her hands into bulky fur mittens. Evaluating his handiwork, Gorm stole a quick kiss from Zara before she could protest, then pulled up the wide fur hood that was part of her cloak. He grinned as he tied the hood securely beneath Zara's chin, ignoring her indignant glare.

Gorm shouldered on a wide bear fur cloak over his own massive shoulders, then slung his bulging satchel over his left shoulder before leaving the warm tent. Zara took a moment to look around the tent, there weren't weapons of any sort lying about. Sighing in frustration, Zara pushed open the hide tent flap that served as a door and re-emerged into the biting cold.

The sun was roughly a quarter of the way across the blindingly blue sky. The ice fields of the Frigid Highlands stretched on to the horizons, nothing seemed to live in the vast tundra, the only sound was the sharp hissing of the wind. Zara looked to the north, Mount Arreat stood, a solitary peak, a sentinel that guarded the Heart of the World.

Gorm marched effortlessly across the ivory-blue scree. Zara clutched her warm fur cloak to her body and followed the burly druid, her breath smoking in front of her cold lips. Gorm and Zara walked north-west, to the barbarian city of Harrogath.

***

Night cloaked the tundra when Gorm and Zara reached the walls of Harrogath. The aroma of rot teased Zara's nostrils, she looked out at a wide field of corpses, demon and human, all left for the scavengers and the elements to consume. Zara examined the bodies closely as she walked through the quiet battlefield, she halted abruptly and snatched a barbarian's sword from his blue, icy hand. She stuck the blood-stained blade through her belt before she resumed searching, she smiled when she found a strong bow and a leather quiver filled with war arrows.

Gorm waited a short distance away, watching Zara gather her weapons from the dead. The rogue tugged off a chainmail vest from a headless corpse, she replaced her mittens with chainlink gloves. Zara finished her scavenging with a wide leather belt adorned with several throwing knives, plus an empty scabbard for her new sword. Zara was smiling grimly while she worked the frost out of her chain gloves, she met the druid's gaze, her hand flew to the hilt of her sword.

"I should gut you for what you did last night!" snarled Zara.

Gorm smiled placidly. "Slay me and you lose your only ally against Baal. Only I can intervene with the Ancient Ones so you may pass to the summit of Mount Arreat. You will need my magic as well when you fight the Lord of Destruction and his minions, woman."

"Damn you!" trembled Zara, her gloved fingers clenching her sword hilt.

Gorm deliberately turned his wide back upon Zara and resumed walking to Harrogath's tall, wooden gates. Zara snorted white vapor from her flaring nostrils and marched after the burly druid.

Harrogath's sentries recognized Gorm and hailed him enthusiastically. The city gates were pulled open, Gorm nodded to the smiling guards and led the way through the barbarian city's winding streets. Gorm headed to a small shop with a picture of a green herb hanging above the wooden door. The powerful druid knocked sharply three times, then pushed open the unlatched door.

Zara walked into the shop and smelled sweet herbs and the cloy aromas of various medicines. A single burning candle sat on the shop's only counter, Gorm disappeared through a hanging wool blanket into the small back room. Zara brushed aside the blanket and found Gorm sitting on a stool facing an elderly woman stooped beneath a heavy, wool shawl who also sat upon a wooden stool.

"Sit, Zara," said Gorm. "This is Malah, a healer."

Zara snatched an empty stool and sat with the druid and the old woman.

"What news of the Elders?" asked Gorm gently.

The old woman raised her wrinkled face. She had been weeping, she blinked glittering tears from her bright, blue eyes.

"They said that they would send out parties to search for my Anya, but they are afraid that demons still linger beyond Harrogath's walls, they will not search the Highlands or the Arreat Plateau."

"You suspect something else?" prompted Gorm.

"Nihlathak. He disappeared the same time that Anya did, and something else has disappeared, the Relic of the Ancients!"

"Wolf Spirits!" breathed Gorm, his eyes wide.

"What's the Relic of the Ancients?" inquired Zara.

"It is a powerful totem that allows passage past the Ancient Ones to the Summit of Arreat! If Baal gains possession of it he could bypass the Ancient Ones without a fight!" replied Gorm numbly.

"We should find Nihlathak," suggested Zara.

Gorm nodded. He took Malah's limp hands. "We will find Anya!"

"She is more than my assistant, I think of her as a daughter. She has suffered so much already, the death of her father...,"

"We will find her, I'm sure she still lives," soothed the druid.

"May the Ancient Ones make it so!" sobbed Malah, dropping her face into her shaking hands.

Gorm stood and motioned for Zara to follow him out of the shop. Zara gazed sympathetically at the weeping Malah, since she could offer no more comfort than Gorm, she followed the druid outside into the chill night. 

***

Glistening, bone-thin arms wrapped around Zara's neck. She felt herself pulled back even as she slashed down with her sword, chopping deep into a Putrid Defiler's torso, spilling the undead's entrails onto the rock floor. A second skinless Defiler grabbed Zara's ankles, hugging her long legs together. Zara stabbed down with her blade, impaling the ankle-clutching Defiler through the skull. The gasping rogue kicked the undead thing's corpse away while the Defiler behind her groped at her chainmail-clad breasts, a clammy, gray tongue flicking over her right cheek. Zara reversed her sword and stabbed backward, burying her weapon in the Defiler's bloated belly. Blood and intestines gushed over Zara's right glove, she yanked out her sword and raced away from the collapsing corpse, sprinting straight for Nihlathak before the necromancer could cast another dark spell.

Zara ran past Gorm, who wielded fire in his large hands, summoning a storm of angry flames that consumed dozens of shambling corpses. Nihlathak's black eyes widened in alarm when he saw Zara charging him, he started performing sweeping gestures with his thin arms, calling upon more unholy magic. Zara raised her blood-soaked sword and chopped down, Nihlathak screamed shrilly and clutched the bleeding stump that once was his right arm.

"Where is Anya, scum?" snarled Zara, prodding Nihlathak's pale throat with the tip of her blade.

"The..the Frozen River," gushed Nihlathak, his thin, gray lips quivering.

"Who guards her?" growled Gorm, joining the fiery-eyed rogue.

"F..Frozenstein."

"A powerful Abominable," supplied Gorm for Zara.

"Did you give Baal the Relic of the Ancients?" queried Zara.

"Yes!"

"Piece of filth!" spat Zara, hacking the necromancer's head from his thin neck.

Gorm watched the gushing corpse slump to the blood-slick stone. He eyed Zara considerately. Zara flicked the blood from her sword and slammed the weapon back into her scabbard. "Let's get out of here, this place makes me sick!"

***

Frozenstein grunted as he flexed his wide, furry hips. He let his fat, pink tongue loll out the side of his maw while he humped the prone barbarian girl, his massive claws clutching her small knees as he thrust into the girl's little hole over and over. Anya lay naked on a blood-stained wolf pelt, her skin blue with cold, her lips cracked and shivering while she shifted back and forth, pinned to the fur and ice by the ivory-coated Abominable's immense weight. Anya's frost-bitten flesh was covered in scratches, when Frozenstein wasn't humping her, he allowed his pack brothers to take turns, and they were anything but gentle with their nubile prisoner.

Frozenstein stopped in mid-thrust, he raised his shaggy head and sharply sniffed the arctic air. The Abominable rose from the panting, spread-eagled, barbarian girl and lumbered across the large cave, following the faint odor of man-scent that wafted from the icy tunnel to the surface. Two of Frozenstein's pack brothers drew close to Anya when their pack leader's back was turned. One Abominable with gray fur stroked Anya's pretty face with a curved, black talon, then pried her chattering mouth open for his thick, hairless cock. The second monster sniffled Anya's open thighs, he let his heavy tongue fall and licked the naked girl's honey-drenched cunt, drawing a weak groan from Anya's prick-stuffed mouth.

Frozenstein roared when the tunnel vomited searing, red flame. The hungry fire devoured Frozenstein's fur, he danced around the cave, slapping at his burning body, screaming with agony.

The Abominable licking Anya's pussy raised his large head. An arrow sprouted from the monster's left eye, followed an instant later with a shaft in his right. The Abominable slumped to the icy floor, instantly dead.

A snarling, gray wolf sprung from the tunnel. The wolf was huge, almost the size of a horse, saliva splattered from his wide, jagged-toothed muzzle. The wolf pounced on Frozenstein, slashing deep rents through the smoldering monster's fur, fangs ripping into his prey's neck. Frozenstein, already weakened by the fire storm, couldn't deflect the powerful wolf's muzzle. Sharp teeth slashed through flesh and muscle, Frozenstein stumbled backward, then collapsed onto his back, twitching while the wolf tore out his throat.

The last Abominable jerked his drooping cock out of Anya's slack mouth and staggered back. Zara appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, she leveled her loaded bow and fired a shaft into the terrified monster's throat. The Abominable clutched his squirting neck, shuddering when two wide-headed arrows buried themselves in his chest, piercing his mighty heart.

Zara rushed to Anya while the Abominable crashed to the ice. Gorm knelt on the other side of the barbarian girl, adjusting his fur cloak.

"I do not know healing magic anymore, and I have no potions," admitted Zara.

"I can aid her," said Gorm. The wide-shouldered druid closed his eyes and clasped his large hands together. The ice beneath Gorm and Anya splintered and cracked, slender, black vines slithered free and wriggled to the bodies of the slain Abominables. Zara watched in amazement as the vines burrowed into the torn flesh of the monsters. Additional tendrils enfolded Anya's limp body, they wrapped around her like a cocoon. Gorm opened his palms and pointed them downward at the vine-wrapped barbarian girl, the vines began to glow softly, they pulsed like veins, drawing the last fading embers of life from the prone monsters and feeding the energy to Anya. Anya moaned weakly, her blue eyes fluttered open, she turned her head slightly.

"Gorm..,"

"Do not speak, child. Relax and let the magic heal you."

Anya smiled and closed her heavy eyelids. Gorm sustained the leeching vines until all of Anya's wounds were healed and her flesh was flushed pink with warmth. His task done, Gorm raised his outstretched hands, the black vines withered and fell to ash. The druid teetered on the balls of his feet, Zara caught his shoulders, but released him quickly when he flashed a smile at her.

***

Zara took off her blood-drenched clothes and armor, then poured clean water into a deep, wooden bowl and dipped a cloth into the water. The lithe rogue washed the sweat and blood from her body, wringing out the cloth and soaking it in the bowl when it became too stained with the blood of her foes.

The nude rogue snatched her sheathed sword when Gorm entered her room, bearing two cups of familiar, spiced mead. He smiled and openly admired Zara's naked body while he closed the door behind him with his muscled shoulder.

"Get out of here!" snarled Zara, raising her scabbarded weapon. "I'm not half-dead from the cold this time!"

"That night wasn't so bad, was it, Zara?" grinned Gorm, setting one cup on the wash stand and raising the other to his parched lips. He swallowed the cup's contents in three large gulps, when he lowered the cup his face was flushed and his eyes were bright with lust.

"I hate you!" shivered Zara, lowering her sword.

"Tomorrow we visit the Ancient Ones, and beg their leave so we may climb to the summit of Arreat. You know my price."

Zara turned away from Gorm. She leaned her sword against the wooden wall, she dropped the blood-soaked cloth into the now filthy bowl. Squeezing her blue eyes shut, Zara snatched the wooden cup and swallowed the sweet mead. The nude rogue slammed the empty cup onto the wash stand, she swayed, already the drug mixed with the mead was affecting her.

Zara didn't shrug Gorm off when he laid his large hands upon her bare shoulders. The tall druid led Zara to the straw-cushioned bed, he laid her out on her stomach, then took her wrists and tied them to the bed's headboard with two lengths of leather. Zara kept her eyes closed while Gorm stroked her bare back with one coarse palm. She bit her lower lip when the druid's hand caressed her left buttock, then squeezed it. Zara looked back over her left shoulder when Gorm's hand lifted from her buttock, she watched him undress in the candlelight, the glow of the dancing flames highlighting the taut muscles of his chest and arms. Gorm climbed onto the bed with Zara, he opened her limp legs, then caressed the backs of her sleek thighs, his fingers stroking her warm, velvet skin.

Gorm spread Zara's rounded buttocks apart with his hands before burying his bearded face between the firm mounds. Zara moaned loudly, her fingers flexing as Gorm sucked on her pussy, tongue working intently upon her clitoris. Zara gasped while Gorm licked across her clenched buttocks, he nuzzled her pussy again, licking the length of her pink slit, pressing his hairy face into Zara's luscious ass.

The naked druid knelt up and pressed his palms into Zara's cheeks as he slid his erection inside the rogue woman's damp sex. Zara threw back her head and moaned huskily, golden tresses spilled across Zara's shoulders while she shuddered beneath Gorm, her belly tightening with every inch of meat the druid pushed inside her.

Gorm dug his fingers into Zara's ass and started bucking sharply. Zara panted while Gorm's crotch slapped against her buttocks, her cunt enfolded Gorm's cock, milked it instinctively. Gorm smiled as he humped Zara's ass, he slapped her right buttock sharply, then rubbed the pink bruise on her sweet flesh. The wooden frame of the bed creaked and groaned from the violent thrusting motions of the burly druid. Gorm caressed Zara's supple back, he slid his palms underneath the panting woman, groping her soft breasts, tugging on them as he pumped faster and faster between Zara's quivering buttocks. Gorm licked the sweat from Zara's spine and shoulders, he buried his bearded face in the moaning woman's thick, golden hair, inhaling the perfume of her silky mane.

Zara's wrists hurt from the leather cords biting into her skin. She lowered her face to the sweet-smelling straw, she squeezed her eyes shut and moaned when she felt Gorm's cock swell and burst in her vagina. Gorm slipped his prick from Zara's soaked pussy and rubbed the moist tip across her trembling buttocks, leaving trails of cum across her beautiful ass. Reaching over Zara, Gorm untied her wrists from the headboard before climbing off of her flushed, gleaming body.

When the door closed behind the departing druid, Zara clumsily climbed out of bed, her mind still clouded by the drug-laced mead. The nude rogue tossed the bloody wash water into the chamberpot, refilled the bowl with clean water, then numbly began washing the sweat and semen from her hot flesh.

*****