This ruler was tall, roughly Ben’s height actually, and robed in black, with an ink-dark helmet obscuring his face. While he did remind Ben of Sauron, he was a little different, like Sauron and a rock star combined into one, his robe unbuttoned and a bit of chest hair sticking out. He completed this dark lord turned rocker look with several hot babes hanging off either arm like fantasy versions of groupies.
Ben could hear these lovely women whispering words of encouragement in their ruler’s ear, urging him to grow his power. Ben could smell the way their perfume combined with the dark lord’s sweat and the heat of the brimstone firing forges beneath his palace. Ben could feel the hot winds of the magical bellows on his skin.
The forges below were surrounded by dungeons, delving deep into the earth below. These subterranean mazes housed traps that would catch unsuspecting visitors unawares, impaling, incinerating, liquefying, decapitating. For those whose skill equaled their courage, these corridors rewarded them with bountiful loot. Some of the chambers were like the scenes of torture Ben had seen in his nightmares. He shuddered at how familiar they all were.
Ben’s vision panned out again, to see great armies of monsters issuing from the gates hauling huge machines of war. Leading these monsters were wizards and mages arrayed in glittering garments etched with glowing arcane symbols. They called forth terrible powers from the heavens and sent these eldritch spells into the enehis throng.
Ben’s breath stuck in his throat as the realization bore down upon him.
This place was governed by magic.
Magic was real.
But above all, the look in the ruler’s eye said that this world was his domain. Ben’s domain, if Melody was to be believed when she’d said that he was somehow this Forgotten Ruler.
The vision ceased. Ben blinked in the late morning sunlight and looked up at Melody, whose brow was furrowed with worry. She looked back at him, expectantly, as if not sure at all how he’d react to what he’d seen.
“Your Archmage was right, Melody. That globe did do one of two things.” Ben grinned to himself as Melody tensed, her tail flicking madly behind her.
“And what did it do?” she asked, her tone slightly frustrated.
After what she’d put him through this morning, Ben had no qualms putting her through a bit of suspense.
Seeing the horrors of his dreams, all those nightmarish visions of his childhood and beyond, had been bracing. What he hadn’t expected, however, was to learn that the monstrosities of his dreams were his to command, that those being tortured were his enemies, or that the dreaded maze-like dungeons were under his dominion.
Something else he'd heard from his shrink cousin was that a good way to defeat your fears was to confront them. Sure, that made some sense. But at that moment, Ben realized that the very best way was to discover that you were the very thing you feared.
Hell-fucking-yeah.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me,” Ben said, a note of finality in his voice. “Let’s do this thing.”
Melody let out a squeal of joy and threw her arms around him, pressing her hot cheek against his. “I’m so happy you’ll come with us. In the back of my mind, I’d worried you’d tell me ‘no,’ and that I’d have to raise our monster child all on my own. My career as an Acolyte would have been ruined!”
“A…monster child?” Ben asked as Melody released him from her embrace. He stared at the weird egg, shaking his head in dismissal. “You know what—forget it. I’ve heard enough crazy shit for one day. Let’s handle this one thing at a time—how do we get to this world of yours?” He paused before adding. “This world of mine, that is.” A small smile formed on his lips.
Melody straightened, bending over and grabbing her clothes off the ground, preparing to put them on. “The Archmage gave me a portal stone that will take us back to an isolated region of my homeland, one where we can avoid the eye of those who would seek to harm you. There, you can build your strength and acquire more power. It is here where the Forgotten Ruler took his final stand.”
She stepped into her black thong, followed by putting on the matching bra. Then she dropped the skin-tight top over her body, then shimmied her curvy lower half into her jeans.
“Sounds great,” Ben said, grabbing his own clothes, still unable to fully process all the weird shit she was telling him. “And just to be totally clear, I’m not doing this for the sake of the power you’ve promised me.”
“Is that so?” she asked, clearly intrigued, and a touch confused.
“Uh huh,” he said as he pulled his black Motörhead t-shirt over his head. He grabbed his boxers, put them on, followed by his jeans. “I don’t want to be a tyrannical ruler like the man in the vision you showed me.”
“Tyrannical? He had all the power, and power is what makes someone strong. If you possess more than someone else, then they should rightfully be beneath you.”
“That’s an…interesting philosophy,” Ben said. “But not in vogue right now. But I guess I can see where you’re coming from. I wouldn’t use my power for evil in your world. I’ve never been able to make much of a difference here on Earth. Here, you want to get anything done and there’s a million bureaucracies you’ve got to deal with first. But with the power I wielded in that vision, if I really am the reincarnation of this Forgotten Ruler, it means I might be able to make a difference in another world. And who knows? Maybe I could come back to Earth with this power and right some wrongs here, too.”
“Bureau…crassy?”
He had to envy the innocence at never having heard that word before.
“Never mind,” he answered with a shake of his head.
“You
