Chapter 31: Premature Celebration

Caulder sat in front of his monitors, a combination of annoyance and glee running through him.

By any possible metric, the operation to take that silly little refugee camp had been a failure. He'd lost more than twice the bodies he'd estimated to be gaining from the operation. He had sent that second force in more out of sheer bloody-minded spite than practicality and then that second force had been blown to shreds in the blink of an eye. As such, a certain amount of annoyance was to be expected.

At the same time, the way his troops had been defeated reminded him of an old colleague's handiwork. The enemies had looked like unaltered humans but with a depth of power humans couldn't fathom. And there was only one man obsessed enough with the idea of elevating humanity without the use of transplants and other physical enhancements who could have done this.

Stollos Cypher. The one that got away. The one who broke ties with Caulder once upon a time and who, unlike all the others who had done so, yet lived. Caulder had assumed Stollos had hidden himself away in his little pocket dimension, messing around with his silly little rituals until the end of time. Part of Caulder had been a little disappointed. When he'd joined the ranks of the Uncrowned King's vassals he'd half-expected to find Stollos there, finally having taken action against God and Lucifer as he'd always claimed he wanted. But Stollos hadn't been there. Stollos had apparently betrayed his own ideals.

Caulder shook his head. No, that wasn't fair. Stollos' dreams had always been for humanity's ascension first and the White King's downfall second. Just because Stollos and him no longer saw eye to eye didn't mean he would insult his old comrade's ideals. But that didn't mean he didn't relish the idea of crushing Stollos' little pet project.

“Well that was an utter failure,” the man behind Caulder said.

Caulder ground his teeth at the comment. The reason he was able to further his research in peace, the reason he was able to work with the Outsiders rather than hiding away from them like everyone else, had been because Caulder had struck a deal with the Uncrowned King, the man who had caused, or rather enabled, the Invasion and destroyed the world.

The Uncrowned King had selected several individuals to be his vassals, whom he'd given power to control the Outsiders. And Caulder had been one of the elect. It only stood to reason. After all, the Uncrowned King's family had been buying Caulder's technology for two generations and had been some of his best customers. They were rich beyond measure, the kind of rich you could only really get by having been around for five millennia and collecting interest the entire time.

But becoming one of the Uncrowned King's vassals came with one aggravating downside and that downside was currently standing behind Caulder, looking over his shoulder and giving mocking commentary.

“It's a good thing my liege no longer has need of your products. They're clearly faulty.”

The Uncrowned King controlled an army. It wasn't a very large army but it was comprised of extremely powerful people. And the elite of that elite force were the Zodiac Knights, twelve zealous warriors in nearly indestructible armor, each of the suits of armor styled after one of the Zodiac. The man standing behind Caulder was known simply as Aquarius and he'd been assigned as Caulder's aide. However, Caulder had no illusions about the man's true loyalties and so he was aware that Aquarius was, first and foremost, his prison guard. The Uncrowned King hadn't given Caulder many rules to follow but he was certain that if he broke any of them Aquarius would change from bodyguard to executioner in an instant.

And while Caulder was fairly certain he could take the Knight out with enough preparation, that preparation would be noticeable and Aquarius was anything but a mindless brute. The condescension and the subtle goading in his every word spoke to that.

“So what are you going to do now? Will you just give up? Or will you waste even more of your troops on this?”

Caulder ground his teeth once more but then he calmed down and smiled.

By any reasonable metric the operation had been a failure but few people had ever accused him of being a reasonable person. Logistically the operation was undoubtedly a failure but he wasn't an army commander, he was a scientist. The whole reason he'd started working for the Uncrowned King had been to further his research. In this ended world, Caulder had found his playground. Here he could experiment and play around to his heart's content, with nobody there to stop his research for being 'immoral'. And he had one experiment left to run, one that he hadn't gotten to try yet because he'd never faced the kind of opposition capable of withstanding it long enough for him to gather any useful data.

But now there was opposition strong enough to warrant its use. Not only that, but that opposition was Stollos' pet project. The one that got away was back. And Caulder was going to relish humiliating him. He would show him that his work was better, more powerful, more impressive.

He looked over his shoulder to give Aquarius an utterly deranged grin and said: “We shall activate the Red Rider.”

**

Francis smiled at the image of his lovely wife Charlotte on screen. Most days he could do the work expected of him and use the thought of her to keep himself going but he was only human after all and sometimes he needed a bit of a reminder what he was fighting for. And after his... close encounter with Rachel he felt especially vulnerable. He'd almost cracked there. If she'd made him an explicit offer then and there he wasn't sure he would have been able to refuse her.

He was desperate to blow off at least a little steam and news that the cadets had fended off two fighting forces had been reason enough for him to take a breather and call his wife for the first time in a week. They'd been married for ten years and he knew her well enough that he knew she was just as keyed up as he was the moment he saw her face on the screen.

They'd been having these video calls for months now and sometimes he regretted asking her to stay at one of the refugee camps, where it was safe. Especially now that it had become clear that these camps weren't that safe after all. He was already considering asking her and the kids to come live at the compound with him but if he did then his wife would see first-hand how shamelessly Nurse Rachel flirted with him.

He shook it off. Right here, right now, he had Charlotte with him, if not in the flesh then at least as close as they'd been in months. They chatted about everything and nothing but the more they talked the more he could see Charlotte shifting in her seat, rubbing her thighs together. It was gratifying for him to see.

Not only the knowledge that even after fifteen years she still found him unbearably hot but also the fact that she was feeling just as hot and bothered as him. Seven months of only seeing each other during these rare video calls had conditioned both of them to get aroused merely at seeing the other on screen.

“Have you been a good girl for me?” he finally asked when he couldn't take the way she shifted in her seat while blushing anymore.

Charlotte's eyes darted around the room, making sure she was alone, before she simpered: “Yes, daddy.”

He bit his lip at the words. Charlotte was seven years younger than him and, when they'd met, she had been far less mature than him. Barely legal and with a bundle of daddy issues, their relationship had not been one of equals for a good long while. She'd been all grown up but in many ways he'd raised her, taking the spoiled, undisciplined little bitch who had fallen for his looks and authority and weathering her rebellious streak, being there for her as she figured herself out. She had become a spectacular woman, one he didn't merely find insanely attractive but was proud to call the mother of his children, but their bedroom antics had never really changed. She still called him daddy and he still spanked her and called her his good girl afterwards. And while she'd stopped being a brat long ago she was still daddy's little girl in the bedroom.

But he was terrified of what people would think if they learned that a man with two sweet, precious baby girls made his younger wife call him daddy, was terrified they'd try to insinuate anything from their harmless bedroom antics. Which was why he'd reacted so strongly when Rachel had called him the same thing. The overwhelming mixture of fear, shame and arousal that shot through him at the comment had nearly driven him to do something horribly stupid. And, he could at least admit it to himself, a big reason why he'd called Charlotte had been to blow off some of the steam he'd built up thanks to Rachel.

“I've been so lonely, daddy,” Charlotte whined, unbuttoning her blouse and slipping it off one shoulder. “And I'm sure you've been having fun without me, surrounded by all those beautiful young women...”

“You're the only one for me, baby-girl,” he growled out. “Now slip a hand into those panties and tell me how lonely you are.”

Without hesitation Charlotte shoved a hand into her panties and started working herself, roughly grinding her palm against her mound as her fingers slipped inside her wetness.

“Are you sure you don't want to play with any other women, daddy?” Charlotte whined. “I would love to see you with other women.” She paused, then added quietly: “Younger women.”

“Where's this coming from?” he asked.

“I've been a good girl waiting for you,” she said, “but there's no reason for you to deny yourself anything. I've seen how many pretty women are at that base with you. The idea of you having them...” She trailed off as she started fingering herself even harder. “It's gotten me through so many lonely nights...”

He wasn't sure if he was just too horny to care or if he honestly believed her but before he could stop himself he said: “There is one woman who has been flirting with me.”

Instantly Charlotte's other hand shot into her panties. “Who is it? Is she pretty?”

He bit his lip and then sent his wife a picture of Rachel.

The moment the picture of the beautiful redhead arrived he saw a line of drool running out the corner of his wife's mouth. “She's so gorgeous.”

“She is,” he admitted.

“You need to fuck her, daddy,” she whined.

“Are you sure that's what you want?” he asked, then he dropped his dominant voice and said: “I don't want to cheat on you.”

“You're not going behind my back, I'm asking you to,” she almost growled at him. “All I'm asking is that you send me a picture or something when you're done. Show me her pussy full of your cum, show me her face glazed with it, just give me something I can use...”

He took a deep breath and came to a decision. “Alright. You'll get what you asked for. But only if you come for me, right now.”

She shoved her hands even deeper into her panties, her motions practically turning from masturbation to self-abuse, when Francis heard it:

“Mom? Are you talking to dad?”

Charlotte yanked her hands out of her panties as quickly as she could, her face a mask of embarrassment, as their two daughters Amanda and Vanessa stormed into the room.

“Hey there, sweethearts,” Francis said, smiling at his daughters despite the interruption. Yes, it was aggravating to be interrupted when they'd been about to have fun but there was absolutely no way he would ever be upset at seeing his lovely daughters.

He talked to them for a while, just chatting about everything and nothing, when Charlotte finally said:

“Don't forget about your promise, honey!”

He had to bite his tongue, shocked at how bold she was to mention this in front of their daughters, until he realized the girls didn't have the context to understand what she was talking about. Finally he smiled and said:

“Of course, honey.”

**

The Red Rider was Caulder's magnum opus. Centuries of research into biotech and magitek, into fleshcrafting and genetic experimentation, years of forbidden research into Outsider taxonomy, and numerous raids against Heaven and Hell to steal technology, had gone into this project. And he held more pride in it than in anything he had produced thus far.

The Red Rider was the unholy matrimony of the Queen in the Woods and the King in Yellow.

Caulder's extensive research had shown that no matter how he approached it, one Outer God's power could not corrupt another's. A Dark Young could not be resurrected as a zombie and a Yellow Wraith was immune to the Black Goat's corruption of the flesh.

However, that only applied to true Outsiders. A mortal body could be corrupted by both at once.

And it was that loophole that had made the Red Rider possible. Part resurrected tissue, part cancerous mass, all stuffed with so much Outsider energy that even a Shoggoth seemed like a blip on the radar in comparison.

To be fair, the thing still had some minor kinks to work out, like its tendency to tear itself apart if it wasn't continuously fueled with necromantic energy by creatures of the King in Yellow, but a true trial by fire would show off its full potential. And once he'd seen where the problems were he would be able to iron them out for the next version.

And wasn't that a grand plan? He would be able to humiliate Stollos and show him that his silly little ideals were like grains of sand against the tidal wave of Caulder's genius and he would be able to gather invaluable combat data at the same time.

The grin that split Caulder's face was terrifying to behold.