"I have given you no choice," the Overlord repeated. "In truth, I can hardly fault you for opposing me, and for that reason, in all fairness, I should not punish you for the harm that you have done to my servants and my plans."
Thelvyn looked up in surprise, but he saw no compassion or tolerance in those cold eyes.
"But I have no concern with what is fair," the Overlord continued. "I must punish all my enemies when they have been conquered, except those who have been fortunate enough to die in battle. I know a special punishment for you, so that you will long for the escape of death until, in the end, your shall will yourself to die."
The Overlord continued to move slowly forward until he stood just beyond the edge of the pit, staring down at his captives. "They say that you spent most of your life unaware that you were a dragon. Do you still feel a bit uncertain of your dragon identity? I will show you just how much a dragon you are. I will show you what you fear most. I will show you despair such as you have never known."
Thelvyn prepared himself for the assault, expecting to be confronted with visions of horror, or perhaps with pain or longings that were unique to dragons. He was to be shown the worst that a dragon could endure, yet he was not yet dragon enough to anticipate the form that fear would take. The Overlord surprised him by doing nothing. Instead, he moved a few steps back into the dark mists.
"Attack me," the Overlord ordered him after a long moment.
"I promise the Masters will not interfere, no matter what happens. And I will not attack you in turn. I have no wish or need to harm or slay you just yet, I promise you. Come now. Show us first the terrible powers of the Dragonlord."
Thelvyn wasn't certain if he acted by his own will, although he wondered why he responded without hesitation. He changed form, teleporting himself into the armor of the Dragonlord as he did so. The weapons and armor, even the body that he had worn for so much of his life, now seemed strange and awkward to him. The Overlord merely stared down at him with vague interest as he drew the sword and held it out before him, commanding the tremendous powers of the enchantments of ancient Blackmoor.
But his weapon refused to respond to his will, remaining cold and lifeless in his hands. Instead, the weight of his armor seemed to settle heavily about him. He knew what was wrong at once, recalling too well the time that the renegade Fire Wizards had used the Radiance to nullify most of the powers of his armor and weapons. Clearly the Overlord was strong enough in his own magic that he could defeat the powers of the Dragonlord by the most direct means, by simply stripping away those enchantments.
For a long moment, Thelvyn could only stand motionless in surprise as he realized what had happened. Then he slowly lowered the heavy sword. In the next moment, he was struck squarely in the breastplate of the armor by some massive force, as if he had been struck a blow with a mammoth, unseen club. The usual protections of the armor had failed entirely, so that he took the full force of the impact. It lifted him entirely from the ground and hurled him backward against Kharendaen's chest. The dragon was so startled that she jumped back in alarm. By then it was too late for her to catch him as he fell.
Thelvyn struggled to move, but he had had the breath knocked from him in his fall, and he hurt all over. The weight of the armor was too much for him to lift. When Kharendaen tried to help him up, she found herself gently but firmly pushed aside by some unseen force. As the moments passed, Thelvyn found himself struggling for breath more than ever. In the past, the helmet had always supplied its own cool, fresh air by means of its native enchantments. Now even that power was subdued, and he was beginning to suffocate within the sealed armor.
Realizing he had only moments to save himself, Thelvyn rolled over so that he could push himself up against the dead weight of the armor and rose to his knees. Only then was he able to release the clips at his neck, yank off the helmet, and gasp for breath. In the next moment the armor vanished, tele-porting away in the usual manner, except that this time it hadn't been through his will. Apparently the Overlord retained control over his armor. Thelvyn tried to return to his draconic form, only to find that even that power was denied to him. His enemy could control him as easily as his armor, preventing him from regaining his true form.
"That didn't go at all well, did it?" the Overlord asked in mocking tones. "Your previous enemies worked so hard to fight the power of your armor. Why did they never think to simply take it from you?"
Thelvyn didn't have the breath to reply even if he had wanted to. He knew the answer well enough; no one had ever tried to take the armor from him by will alone because only the Overlord had the strength of will to accomplish that. He felt vulnerable, even rather frightened, to find himself isolated from the protection of his armor and weapons. He realized now that the Overlord's intention was to humiliate him. He tried not to give in to such a simple tactic, but he couldn't help feeling the deep humiliation that was being forced upon him.
"Would you feel better if you could be a dragon again?" the Overlord asked. "Do you think the Dragonking would have a better chance of fighting me? That was what you were born to do, was it not?"
Thelvyn shifted abruptly to his 'true form, although he had not willed it. He immediately gathered himself to spring, then launched himself at his enemy. The ill-considered move was by no design of his own; obviously his actions were planned for him. Clearly the Overlord intended to demonstrate the utter futility of any attempt to fight, whether Thelvyn wanted to play along or not. If he couldn't even control his own mind and body, then he could not hope to take on the Overlord. All he
could do now was wait and hope he didn't suffer too greatly.
Needless to say, the Overlord anticipated his charge and responded quickly, lifting his neck up and out of the way and stepping aside so that he could easily swat his much smaller opponent out of the air with the back of his claw. Thelvyn was caught by the blow in midleap and knocked backward. Kharendaen moved to try to break his fall, but once again she was pushed aside by some unseen force. The force of the impact was great enough that Thelvyn was thrown all the way across the wide pit, crashing his back heavily against the top of the low wall of the pit.
Thelvyn slumped to the floor of the pit and sprawled limply. Waves of pain exploded from the middle of his back, and he could only lie with his back and neck arched stiffly as he waited, trying to endure the first few moments of agony. Kharendaen couldn't help him even if she had been free to go to him. Isolated from the Great One in this strange world, she didn't even have her healing powers as a cleric to call upon.
"Now see what you've done. You've gone and hurt yourself," the Overlord said, moving to the edge of the pit to stare down at him in mock pity. "You should not have undertaken tasks that were beyond your limited abilities. But that was decided for you, wasn't it?"
Thelvyn could barely turn his head slightly to look up. The gray mists were gathering close again, and the darkness seemed all the heavier and more oppressive through the haze of his pain. The Overlord's nightmare face was hovering just above him, and now the Masters had also gathered about the edge of the pit to witness his defeat and humiliation. They did not laugh or ridicule him in any way, nor did they offer any compassion. They only watched him closely, with expressions he could only describe as patient hunger, like a dragon awaiting in pleasant anticipation of a roasted haunch of elk. He believed that they looked upon his defeat as the last remaining obstacle to their conquest of the world they had once tried to claim as their own, and the punishment of those who had once denied their ambitions.
There was nothing he could do to stop them, Thelvyn realized bitterly, not now and perhaps never again. He was too weak to stand up to the power of the Overlord. At that moment, he wondered if he would ever fight again. Pain burned like a raging fire in the middle of his back, and he couldn't move his hind legs or his tail.