The Mehliad

Chapter 51
Continuing the tale of young Dan Fogelberg (no not that one), who fell asleep in a storm and woke in a fantastical, creepy land. Beyond that, your guess is as good as ours.

Aoelh stood by my side as we stared down the Overlord Prime, a gigantic mass of dick-shaped slugs hellbent on assimilating the entire universe.

“The citizens of the last holdout on Ogle have been defeated. Their strength is added to mine,” the disembodied slugdick voice chittered with excitement. “They are already convincing themselves the added convenience is worth it.”

“Ogle has to be thousands of miles away,” I said, “How can you possibly know that?”

“We are everywhere. Thanks to you our reach expands ever further,” as if to accentuate the point, the creeping tentacles lining the walls slithered into view. “We can communicate instantly with all under our thrall through cookies like the one implanted in your head. You will submit, or you will die like your friend.”

The wall heaved and more tendrils leapt out to produce a large Gold Box and place it before me. I slid the lid off as if it were a sarcophagus. Inside was Goggles, dead. His face was frozen forever in an expression of terror.

“His knowledge will be added to ours. His strengths assimilated into our own. We will provide even better services to our users. They will have no reason to seek another option.”

“Another option? Like the Overlords in Nasteria? They’re your competition?”

“Haha,” the voice laughed coolly, “You still don’t understand. They are just another half of the same coin. We Overlords grow relentlessly, assimilating all in our path. One day I will consume them too. Or they will consume me. It doesn’t matter. The end result is the same: cultural entropy.”

“The people will rebel! They won’t use your technology!”

“What choice will they have?” My eyes met Aoelh’s. He nodded solemnly. He knew what I was thinking.

“Goodbye.”