This occurs immediately following Slate 11, after the battle with Aah
Zaergo in Falcon's Keep

Dibbka chanted to himself as Slate sat holding Krista, caressing her
limp form and dabbing her wounds with a damp cloth. The injuries Krista
had sustained when the Demon possessed Slate sent her crashing into the
dark stone walls was substantial. While his healing magiks had
prevented her immediately dying, she was still in an unstable state from
blood loss and a head trauma. Krista's eyelids would not close
completely which allowed Dibbka to see her eyes roll around in her head
like a doll's, an ill omen which meant her brain was swelling.

The memory of her hitting the wall sent a shiver done the Buffalo's
spine and disturbed his chanting. The very walls of the chamber in
which they had been had seemed to drink of Krista's fallen blood, the
evil that was entrenched in this Keep seeming thirsty for the blood of
the living. Little wonder that Dibbka's attempts at further healing had
all failed. It was as if the pervading evil wished more of the innocent
girl's lifeforce to feed upon.

Dibbka looked again at Krista and Slate and noticed something had
changed. Slate was no longer dabbing the blood from her wounds, instead
he was just staring at Krista's face. Now Slate was trembling, as if
caught in some inner turmoil, the cloth in his hand dripping blood in an
erratic pattern as if molten iron falling from the forge. The pendant
on Slate's chest glowed wildly, it's blue light blinking against a dark
aura as a twinkling star alone in the vast night sky.

That is when the Buffalo Emperor noticed that Krista had stopped
breathing. A sound escaped Slate's mouth, a sound not unlike that which
escapes a near empty wineskin when opened, and for a moment Dibbka was
frozen as Slate. Caught in the moment of uncertainty, not sure what
could be done, and knowing that his healing powers would be no help at
the moment, Dibbka had to act, had to break free of the fear that held
him. He knew that if Krista died, so would Slate's resolve, and a demon
more horrible than the monster who was his brother would be unleashed to
wreck havoc on the living...

But more importantly than that, Dibbka would loose his friends.

And then instinct took over and the 7 foot Blue Buffalo leaped into
action with the speed and grace of a humming bird. With one motion
Dibbka drew a dagger, pulled Krista from Slate's frozen grasp, and found
the midline of her skull with the knife's blade. He quickly chanted an
arcane phrase used more often to gain passage through a wall, altering
it for the situation at hand. Dibbka barely noticed as Slate broke from
his statue-like pose, the black aura engulfing him as a blanket of
death.


Slate stared down at Krista as he had done for the past 6 hours, dabbing
the blood from her wounds, and ... praying ... yes praying, that some
greater power, some power to whom he had never given allegiance and from
whom he had never asked for so much as a blessing, would save this woman
that he loved. The woman which he had surely killed...

As if some greater power was mocking him, Krista stopped breathing. In
that instant, Slate felt his body stiffen as would a corpse under going
rigor mortis and the evil being within him surged forward trying to gain
control of his mind. Slate could do nothing to save Krista, so why
should he fight? Why?

The warrior felt fear grasp him, weaken him, and his own body tried to
revolt as the demon inside sought to free itself of the pendant that
held it in check. Slate resisted, and yet, the idea became tempting:
why should he continue to fight when all he loved was dying before his
eyes. His hand trembled, blood from the cloth dribbling blood on the
stone floor. What an interesting pattern was formed on the mildewed
stones, and what stark contrast, the red on black green made. It was as
if...

Slate felt Krista torn from his grasp, and still he could do nothing.
He could see where she had vanished to, could not move his eyes to
search for her. Perhaps she had passed on and her body had disappeared
with her. Again the thoughts of surrendering came, this time stronger,
almost deafening as they screamed within his mind.

A glint of steel caught Slate's attention, and then a horrifying scene
presented itself to his eyes: Dibbka, his friend, was burying a dagger
into Krista's skull. Slowly Slate fought to regain control of his
vessel, and ever so slowly he was able to bring himself into a tackling
position. Yet it seemed like an eternity before he was able to make his
move, to save his love. An in that eternity it seemed as if the Buffalo
had succeeded in drawing blood from Krista's already traumatized skull.

Like a rubber band stretched to capacity, Slate propelled his body into
the massive form of the Buffalo, channeling the hate, anger, and power
of the demon inside into the attack...


Dibbka realized what was happening far too late to avoid the full force
of Slate's attack. Truly, even if he had known what was happening, he
would have been hard pressed to avoid the enraged warrior. Fortunately,
the Buffalo had relieved the pressure on Krista's brain before he was
knocked unconscious, mangled from what felt like a thousand pounds of
stone crashing into his side. In slow motion the Buffalo felt his ribs
shattering as so many toothpicks. With a sickening whoosh, Dibbka's
breathe escaped from the holes made by the crushed ribs.

With his vision blurring and darkness overtaking him, Dibbka watched as
Slate picked himself off of the Buffalo's limp form and walked over to
Krista's near corpse of a vessel. It was almost comical as the enraged
warrior gingerly picked the woman up and placed her over his shoulder.
Slate then looked around for an exit. The trio was held in a stone cell
with a single iron door. Before now, they had no means of escape. How
ironic it was that in Slate's current rage, he effortlessly ripped the
iron door from its hinges and strode through...

How ironic it was that Dibbka would die in an open cell.


Aah' sat meditating in the deepest, most secure room of Falcon Keep, the
room where Aah' Zaergo had found the Ancient Tomes which had taught him
the powers of shadow magic. Truly, since Aah had become the Keep's
owner, the room had become even more secure, as now the room was sealed
with the secrets of shadow magic. Truly, it would be near impossible to
enter the room without the dark arts to aid you.

And so Aah contemplated his situation, the fact the he was nearly
destroyed because he had underestimated his foes. Truly his brother and
his friends were more powerful than he had previously expected a fact
that made the vampire wonder if he should just let the trio go free
until he better knew their capabilities. The power that Dibbka's friend
Slate commanded was a force to be reckoned with, a force which tempted
Aah, but he maintained his reason. Yes he would let them go free, at
least for now.

The vampire's meditation was disturbed as one of his shades materialized
in front of him. Aah's first reaction was to become angry at his
servant for disturbing his meditations, but reason stayed his emotion:
the shades knew not to disturb their master without due reason. What
the shade relayed brought back the anger to Aah's mind and defeated his
reason: Slate had escaped the cell and was wrecking havoc upon the Keep.
Many of his servants had already fallen to the demon possessed warrior
whose path was leading straight to this chamber. Violation of the
chamber was something that Aah could not allow to happen, and so he
prepared to stop the demon before it destroyed his Keep. And since his
shadow magiks seemed useless against the demon, he would have to find
other means of attack.

He knew, though, that there was little in his arsenal which would be
useful against a demon. Dark magiks were useless; only those which
utilized purity, light, and the sun would be truly effective against the
demon possessed warrior, which created a problem for Aah. What he did
have at his disposal, though, were binding rituals and a certain special
spell he had been working on for the past few months...


Broken corpses lay in the wake of a demon possessed Slate as he weaved
his way deeper and deeper into the complex of Falcon's Keep. Each time
one of Aah 'Zaergo's minions attempted to block his passage, the
unfortunate corpse was annihilated. Slate's mind was lost to a rage
which stole his reason and at the same time gave his primal instincts
control over the demon which had threatened his sanity so many times
before. With such a berserker's rage, there was little which could
stand in his way.
Wizened by his earlier failure, Aah was still in shock when he saw the
warrior burst through six feet of solid stone...

To be continued in Slate 12