CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The giant figure shook it shoulders to free itself of its rocky afterbirth, while ribbons of energy spat and fizzled across the monster’s body. Its eyes, an eerie glowing blue, surveyed the disaster area. The living statue seemed to be searching for something, or to be more precise, someone – Konrad.
Ziegler, as any man would if he was face to face with his god, loudly and proudly displayed his loyalty. ‘Oh, joy of joys!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. ‘Heaven has showed itself to me!’ He then raised his arm in a Nazi salute. ‘Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!’
The god-like figure appeared to hear Ziegler’s blissful calls and moved towards him. More debris crashed to the floor, but this unearthly shower failed to dissuade Ziegler from his exultations, in fact, this display of raw power only made his shouts even more joyous.
‘I always had faith that your spirit survived the demise of your earthly shell!’ Ziegler shouted. ‘I heard the spire preparing for your second coming. It was like a drummer preparing for battle. Your presence is like the old Nazi legend about the Überführer’s statue. You heard my prayers, and now you have appeared in all your terrible glory to finally destroy all those who oppose you!’
Accompanied by the thunderous grinding and cracking of its mountainous body, the monster slowly stooped, bringing its sharp, angular face closer to Ziegler. Confronted with the living wall of rock, Ziegler’s face was lit with an almost orgasmic light.
‘Who can say that they have stood face to face with God – only I,’ Ziegler triumphantly shouted. Then, another thought occurred to him. Stahl’s resurrection had also defeated Konrad. All his former comrade’s actions inside the spire such as the murder of the colonists and his apparent destruction of Stahl had all apparently been in vain. Once again, it was a physical demonstration that the swastika had triumphed, and in Ziegler’s eyes, its power had also appeared to have even conquered death itself. The swastika had won. Stahl had won. Ziegler had won.
He excitedly pointed Konrad out to Über-Stahl.
‘See what I’ve done! I’ve trapped your mortal enemy, my Führer. He stands defenceless before you. He is beaten. He is my gift to you,’ Ziegler said triumphantly.
The stone face remained unmoved.
Ziegler then pointed to Elsa’s body. ‘I’ve taken everything he loved from him. I’ve liquidated his woman. A sacrifice to your glory!’ He stepped closer to his master, his pride all too evident. ‘I’ve rid our new Fatherland of her feminine filth,’ he cried. ‘Her pestilence will no longer pollute this world, nor will her repulsive charms corrupt and distract you from your great mission.’
Only now did Über-Stahl show any sort of emotion. Its eyes suddenly widened and flamed even brighter as if overcome with anger at what Ziegler had done. The streamers of energy flared and howled. In contrast, Ziegler seemed blissfully, and dangerously, unaware of the change in his hellish master.
‘What further do you wish for me?’ Ziegler asked. ‘I am but your humble servant.’
Über-Stahl replied. It raised one of its great fists, and with a mighty swoosh, it brought it down on top of Ziegler, squashing him instantly to a pulp.
The Nazi abomination raised its gore-covered fist into the air again before punching the floor again. This time his target was Konrad. A crown of jagged rubble sprang up around the fist as it drove deeply into the floor. Razor sharp splinters, varying in size from pebbles to cars, swirled into the air. These sharp projectiles rained down around Konrad, exploding and shattering all around him.
A second blow narrowly missed Konrad. The giant rocky fingers raked the floor, releasing a tangle of energy in its wake. The contorted, glowing plasma threatened to swamp Konrad, but he managed to roll away and escape. But the monster spotted the prisoner’s move, and in response, another set of raking fingers smashed and fragmented the floor. With a blinding flash, it started to collapse thunderously. A giant spear of the shattered floor sprang up below Konrad, separating him from Elsa’s body. It rolled away safely onto a shelf of the still-intact floor.
Stumbling forward, Konrad jumped from the ruined piece of flooring below him and landed on a horizontal slab close by. But at that moment, this too started to fall away below him. Once again he attempted to leap closer to Elsa’s undisturbed body – this time his luck ran out. The slab broke in half and threw him totally off balance. He slipped off his feet and landed painfully, catching his head on the edge of the cracked flooring. Disorientated by the fall, and blinded by the blood that streamed from his head-wound, Konrad pawed at the polished surface as he desperately tried to climb back towards Elsa. His blood-smeared fingers frantically clawed at the burnished rubble, but despite his best efforts, he slipped down the pitching slab into the gaping hole below.
Konrad smacked into the bottom of the crater. He howled in pain from the searing pain in his side. He rolled onto his back and pulled at his wet tunic. A rocky splinter stuck out from just above his hip. Thinking quickly, Konrad pulled at the razor-sharp splinter, stifling his screams as best he could. Flinging the blood-soaked piece of rock away, Konrad then waited for the inevitable claw to follow and finish him off. And as if answering his worst fears, the giant hand hovered into view. A bloody smear, the remains of Zeigler, dripped upon Konrad as he cowered, but when he expected the claw to swoop down and destroy him too, it hesitated…
Then, slowly, ever so slowly, the great hand withdrew into the darkness.
In the moments that followed Konrad lay amongst the rubble and listened to the eerie silence that had descended upon the spire. Was it the quiet before the storm, or the silence of a tomb? He decided to find out.
Cautiously he pulled himself up and climbed up the craggy wall that entombed him, but at the top of the wall caution took hold of Konrad. Was the silence simply a ruse by the monster to lure him to his death? He gazed up once again and only saw the endless darkness above him with its lack of movement and shape. It refused or was unwilling to give any hints as to what lay in wait for Konrad. And so despite this uncertainty, he popped his head up and let fate take over.
A large cloud of dust still hung in the air, but amidst the swirling cloud, Konrad could see Über-Stahl kneeling down over something. Konrad carefully clawed his way out of the fissure. He looked across the shattered floor to where Elsa’s body lay, and saw to his horror that her body was now gone. Confused, he then quickly looked at where Über-Stahl’s attention was focussed. A gut-wrenching realisation overcame him when he realised that Über-Stahl had taken Elsa’s body. He would be damned if he would allow the monster rob her from him, even in death. He would confront his mortal enemy here and now.
Emboldened, Konrad clambered from the crater and slowly stood. He moved forward. The damage wrought by the Nazi monster now started to work to his advantage. The large pieces of rubble acted as a series of covering screens for Konrad to hide behind as he crept closer, but each step he took sounded like a thunderclap in the silence. However, luck continued to be with him as it appeared that Über-Stahl failed to hear his approach.
A single triangular piece of rubble now separated the two protagonists. Konrad edged along the overturned piece of flooring, and a saw a glittering shape in its shadow. Stooping down, he found Ziegler’s discarded dagger, its blade still stained with Elsa’s blood. At first he planned to ignore the murder weapon, but he soon realised that he was blindly approaching the monster without any weapon of any kind. So, with this is mind, he quickly picked the knife up. It was better than nothing. But it was now only part of the plan he was quickly formulating. He turned and saw the entrance to the spire’s menagerie.