Read Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy for Free Online Page B

creatures artificially evolved far beyond, or behind, Humanity. So secret that only their names or designations were known, grim and sinister titles from a terrible past. The Shatter Freak. Blue Hell/ire. Screaming Silence. The Gray Train. The Spider Harps.
    No one knew for sure. Or if they did; they were too scared to talk.
    Lewis steered his gravity sled in beside Finn's as they approached the towering outer wall of the Arena, the grim gray stone rising up before them. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the rising wind.
    "How bad is it; do you know?"
    "Bad," Finn said flatly. "Maybe a dozen ELFs. More than have been seen in one place for over thirty years."
    "Enough to take on the whole Arena crowd?"
    "More than enough. They're stronger when they work together, you know that. First reports talked of hundreds dead. By now, it could be thousands."
    "Then why hasn't the oversoul sent help?" said Lewis angrily. "The Psycho Sluts; they've got a good track record against the ELFs."
    "Them? They're more trouble than they're worth." Finn's voice was entirely calm. They might have been discussing where to go for dinner. "I don't want those show-offs anywhere near me. Crazy as their progenitor, and dangerous with it."
    "We need backup on this, Finn . . ."
    "We won't be getting any help from the espers, Lewis. I already checked. They've got their hands full with an ELF attack on New Hope. The greatest concentration of espers on Logres is currently under attack by a suicide mind, broadcasting cannibalism memes all over the city. It's all the oversoul can do to keep a lid on its own people, and stop them from eating each other. Or themselves. They said they'll turn up when they can, so don't expect them any time soon."
    "What about the other Paragons in town for the Ceremony?" "Too far away. By the time they get here, it'll all be over, one way or the other. And all the local peacekeepers have been told to stand down and
    hide behind their esp-blockers. No point in giving the ELFs more minds to mess with. No, Lewis; it's down to us. Turn on your esp-blocker. We're going in."
    Lewis's hand went immediately to the flat box at his waist. Cloned esper brain tissues, activated by an electric current. Not alive, not in any way conscious, but once activated capable of broadcasting a telepathic signal that blocked all esper powers in its vicinity. For a time, anyway. Finn glanced at Lewis, grinned briefly, and then his sled topped the Colosseum's outer wall and plunged down into the Arena; and Lewis was right there with him.
    They could hear the maddened screaming and howling long before they were close enough to see the cause. Finn and Lewis descended swiftly through the sounds of Hell, into the heart of horror. The crowd were doing awful things to each other. Hundreds of thousands of people, raping and torturing and murdering each other, screaming and sobbing in anguish as they did it, their bodies moved by thoughts not their own. The ELFs had possessed the crowd; every man, woman, and child there dominated by an outside force beyond any human resistance. Appalling thoughts and needs and desires thundered inside their heads, and their bodies leaped to obey. Every foul thought and sick impulse ran wild in the blood-soaked terraces, while the hidden ELFs laughed and laughed, savoring the forbidden pleasures by proxy, and feeding on the released psychic energies.
    There were old names for creatures like this that preyed on Humanity. Very old names. Demons.
    Vampires. Eaters of souls. But no name was more cursed in the Golden Age of Empire than that of the ELFs.
    And the true horror of it; the possessed knew what they were being made to do. Helpless inside their own heads, they could only cry out at what their bodies were doing. Even those who survived this atrocity would Spend the rest of their lives remembering it. Mental torture was just another pleasure, another source of energy, for the ELFs.
    Lewis and Finn came roaring in on their