The Boy Who Burned the World-11

The former Chester Lame--now Lord Cygnus to the demons occupying the ruined world, and Trogdor to those resisting him--long ago put a trap in place for the event that someone would attempt to hunt down what records remained of his past. The questors cried out in horror as the last records, as they caught the light of day, erupted in flame and swiftly burned to ashes- thereby doing Lame's will unwittingly to sever all ties to the past. If not for their judicious study of those records, and noting what they could with the little that they had, none of that information would persist at all.

The hunters closed in on the questors, and they rushed the questors as an uncoordinated mob, each hoping to win the bounty placed upon them. As one would expect, a lot of backstabbing amongst the hunters contributed to the questors' ability to resist the assault- a flaw that they exploited as much as they could. Many hunters died at each others' hands, as often as not by their own treachery as by the cunning of the questors. However, the hunters' failures kept getting out and more came in their place.

Lame flamed the desires of the hunters to run the questors to ground, and he began strategic interventions to cut off their avenues of escape. As their room to maneuver dwindled, their ferocity increased and more hunters fell at their hands. The running and fighting went on for months, all to Lame's amusement- and to the thrill of the population, silently cheering on one or the other. But, now that Lame had things well in hand, once he successfully got the questors to cull the fools from his ranks and thin out the reckless amongst the subjugated he intervened directly.

This was no fight. This was sport, pure sport, and Lame made the most to humiliate them before he slew them in slow and agonizing manners one by one until only the instigator was left. This one he broke down, one limb at a time, until he backed the man against a wall as he struggled to wriggle his way into escaping certain doom.

This did not happen. Lame took the now-quadrapalegic man alive, and decided to make an example of him.