Lords of Creation (Story Thread 3)

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"All right then! Loyal Students!" She says swinging around. "Divine might is on our side now! We can't lose!"

The assembled throw up a cheer, and Horizon clasps Junior on the shoulder and leads him down the street. The group Disappears around the corner, picking up rocks as they go. You always have to make sure to check your ammo.

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"Why didn't I think of that?" The Babysitter wonders aloud, before speaking with the head. "Uh, status report?"

[Zaleramancer]

We face heavy losses on all fronts, Commander. It appears that those mentioned have vanished. We remain unaware as to their locations within the dream realm.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"I see. Abort mission and report to base. We have another situation that requires urgent attention."

[Zaleramancer]

At once

In the twisted and hellish dimension, Janites began to give way and retreat.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"What's going on in there?" The Watchman asks Zaya as the Janites file into the room. "Did you see anything? Is it related to what's happening out here?"

[Zaleramancer]

"Nothing less than an all out assault on everything." Zaya announced, "As far as I can tell, at least."

She began to pace as Janites streaked as flashes of colour from the walls into the pithos.

"Has some sort of nasty sword with him too. I think we should make plans. Or at least move some of my to fruition."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"I don't have plans. The best I ever do is react to other peoples." The Watchman replies. "You've got plans? Let's hear them."

[Zaleramancer]

"Not so much plans as plots. A wise person steers after all.." She said with a smile, "I have a few tricks that could come in handy."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Name them. I'd take anythi-, no, not anything. But I'm fresh out of ideas."

He laughs bitterly. "Besides, the only time I ever made a difference on this level is when I was a part of one of your plots."

[Zaleramancer]

"You'd be surprised how things can happen."

"We should go to my mirror quickly. Information is vital."

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina and Kyuuketsu finally arrive where the group is gathered in time to hear Zaya's words.

Mina: "Yes, information IS important, so what's going on and whyare there giants, goblins and imitations of several gods and goddesses out there?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Let's go then. I'm at least well enough to fly." He say, stepping away awkwardly from The Veteran and striding to the door. The Veteran follows behind, in lockstep.

"This is good, but I'm gonna have ta break off before we reach her place and head for Spectropolis if ya don't mind. One pf us should be there."

"It figures that the thing keeping me from leaving the city happens the moment I leave the city."

They run into Mina just as they're walking out the front door. She gives her report of everything that happened. He looks up, and doesn't see the moon. The entire world is bathed in darkness. "Everything evil in the world. Or at least that guy you were helping us search for a few days ago. Come and see; Zaya's going to lay it out for us."

Inside the last f the Janites flew home to roost, and their commander carefully picked up the Pithos and stuffed it into her cloak. Watcher powers still came in handy, even for a god. "I'm ready, let's go!"

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina shrugs, "All right, then let's find out what Zaya's thought of. My people should be fine for a little longer."

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Fubuki and Koriko arrive at the cyrstal fortress and stop to take a rest, they'd flown and fought nonstop since they'd left Mina's lands and were exhausted. They'd rest for a little while before entering.

[Zaleramancer]

The gods set off into the sky towards the Five Isles, flashing over the rioting sea.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Tree branches and trees, rocks and lifeless bodies sailed above the crowd in the distance. The Fair Goddess's poor Boquabians were under attack. And it made her divine blood boil.

"Warriors!" she called, over the chaotic din of battle and slaughter below, "We're going to split up! Revei, I want you to take Bo and Zai to the western side of the crowd! Tyran, you and Mina come with me!"

The warriors nodded, and split up into their groups.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Over the raging sea the group flew on, but something among the crashing waves caught the Watchman sight. "Keep going, I'll be along in a minute. There's something I've been meaning to take care of."

With that he broke away from the group and dived, plunging into the sea. As he did, he caught the struggling figure he had seen in the current and dragged it down, deeper and deeper, until they came to rest in the calmer waters underneath the currents. Once there, he released the struggling undine.

It whipped about, snarling and hissing at him. He reached down and ripped the sword from his belt, causing the creature to start away from him. With a flourish, he presented the cerulean sword to the creature, hilt first.

"Take it." he said, voice level and carrying even under the ocean. "You know what this is, you know who it belongs to, and right now I have the feeling she needs it now more than ever."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Revei smirked as Geranfeit'r crashed to the ground with a loud boom. Ground rippled, and nightmare monsters were sent sailing back into the crowd. Where they landed, Bo would meet them with Victoraiyein, to break necks and smash skulls. Revei brought the mallet up again, and smashed into a nightmare beast before it could ambush Zai from behind. Zai caught sight of the beast, and bashed into it a second time with Tereiein.

He was rather getting the hang of this whole fighting thing, and was quite ready for more. And as though to grant his wish, another nightmare beast erupted from the crowd. A straggly, lanky thing, it barreled into Zai, sending him hurtling through the air. Normally he would panic, but deep down, even impact didn't feel so frightening or painful anymore...it felt invigorating. That in mind, he took full use of his new vantage point, and smashed his mace into another nightmare beast that had been sent into the air by Revei. On the other side of his trajectory, he landed on the head of yet another nightmare beast, and with the right angles on his side, resumed his diligent ferocity in the fray.

A prickling sense of danger ran up Bo's spine, and he whipped around faster than the looming crowd of nightmare beasts could blink. He burst out with a war cry, and tore through them with wicked speed. Enhanced by the burning passion of Uburra-Namall's Planes, Bo's staff could now easily take down beings many times his size. To his left, he cracked a nightmare beast in the knee; to his right, he bashed in a few heads. He slid past large foes and charged them again from behind. He leaped over foes, and whacked them in their backs, and in the backs of their knees. None could keep up. He would strike, avoid being struck and then, at a whim, be off to the next enemy.

He only skidded to a stop when he heard a sharp yell in Revei's direction. Turning on a dime (and dodging over yet another oncoming monster), he saw that his comrade hadn't gotten into full flight before another nightmare monster had caught him by the leg, and was trying to hold him down.

To Revei's fortune, his propulsive powers let him support the creature's weight, but Bo knew that others would soon catch on and attempt to take him down permanently. He rushed over, and swiped foes aside to clear the way to his comrade. He shoved the staff into a nightmare monster's gut, and whacked still more beasts aside until Revei was left hovering by himself.

He looked up smiling, but Revei was not so pleased.

"What the heck are you DOING?" Revei berated, "I can handle myself! Don't worry about me! There's plenty more UNarmored Boquabians out here, that need way more help than I do!"

Revei shook his head in annoyance and zoomed off, cocking back his mallet to meet with one of the nightmare beasts that he saw could fly.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Form rank and steady on, ladies!" Shoving called. "Don't go to them. Make them come in here and get us."

The fight had moved. They couldn't have fought off the likes of these creatures out in the open. Eventually, they would be overwhelmed. She had remembered a cave further back along their rout, notable for the way that the Boquabians had given it a wide berth. Now though they were all to eager to huddle in it for safety. Compared to what was out there, even a place that brought up terrible memories was preferable. That was what she'd told Draias. That was when they had decided to move.

The run to this little cave, so like the one where their brethren had fallen, had been the single most terrifying experience of Shoving Another Downs short life. Think cackled and shrieked around them. The Vandals had surrounded the group of pilgrims as best they could, but every once in a while you would hear a rush of clawed legs, a scream, and the sound of them eating. She looked around at her troops, standing shoulder to shoulder with her in the small mouth of the cave. She couldn't tell about the Boquabians, but she knew for a act that half of her troops were just gone. That left her with ten. Of those ten, 4 stood with her in the cave mouth, filling it to capacity with shields up ans spears thrust forward.

Behind her, the colorful people filled the cave, illuminated by a soft light. Gemstones filled the place, lining the walls, half buried in the floor and ceiling. She sometimes saw the light reflected back from the countless eyes that scrambled in the darkness beyond her vision, the light reds and purples somehow becoming dark and menacing coming from the creatures.

Behind her stood the other five survivors of her squad. Behind them, the Boqabians. In front of them, just from the eye-shine, was an enormousness number of the creatures.

There was a snarl, and the darkness moved as one, streaming into the light, eyes and claws flashing with it.

"Not one inch!" Shoving commanded, drowned out by the shrike but understood all the same.

Their forces met there, in the mouth of that cave, where numbers counted for nothing.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Left and right, black and gray and bloody hordes drew nearer. Twisted and horridly distorted beasts muttered murderous mantras, gave piercing war-cries, slashed left and right through the glittering woods of the Fair Goddess. All around, they smashed the ground at Mina's feet, scraped hatefully with blades and claws and bodies.

"Hey, watch it!" Mina hissed, dodging to the side as a nightmare monster hurtled backward toward her. She looked to the left of her, and whipped out Perincessai, bringing them full force, in quick succession, across the chest of an approaching nightmare monster. The beast sailed past her, skidded face-first in the blood-soaked mud, and Mina decided that now was not the time to be caught on the ground.

The next monster to come lurching near, she waited until it ducked low, and hopped onto its head. She found that bounding head to head was much more effective. Her path was clear to cover far more ground. And the nightmare beasts often took to bashing one another, in futile attempt to knock her down.

From this vantage point, their unthinking brutality was almost exciting. Or it would have been, had it not been at the expense of her homeland. As she ran atop the crowd, a nightmare fiend was sent sailing above the crowd. She ran toward him, vaulted off of the head of a taller monster, and met the airborne creature with one, two slashes from Perincessai.

Mina tumbled again to the ground, into the midst of yet more nightmare monsters. From her supine position, she flipped up nearly effortless, kicked backward, wrenched that leg forward to kick again, and elbowed the nightmare monster that thought to ambush her from behind.

Still, more nightmare monsters filled in, circling her in a menacing dance. And Mina would be more than glad to meet them. She smirked, and struck a coy posture, with one tessen in front of her face, and the other behind. Having taken the nightmare monsters aback, Mina gave them no chance to react. Her lovely weapons at the ready, she took off into a pirouette of the purest carnage; high and low she spun, holding her bladed fans deathly steady. She darted back and forth, ever aware of her fleeting dance partners, whose blood splattering left in her wake a trail of ribbons the color of gore.

She stopped only when she could no longer feel her weapons connecting with flesh. And still then, she was ready for more; her chest heaved, and she remembered now her sparring with Jissei. She was rather getting into the rhythm of things. For a second, she just had to take it in.

And then she spotted a cave, into which her countrymen hurried with the utmost frenzy; close behind, another band of nightmare monsters, many of which somewhat bigger than the others.

Time for round two.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Two dodged away from the front end of the shop as it simply exploded. The rocks and the fire flew out below her as she took to the air.

A knee met her on her ascent, sending her crashing back down amid the rubble. She hastily picked herself up and threw herself to the side, right as several tons of Imitation god slammed down where she'd been. He turned his glowing red eyes upon her.

She had jumped him in the alley, figuring it would give the big guy less room to maneuver. That had been a miscalculation, as Spectropolis now had a knew plaza courtesy of Gilgafaker. Despite the huge difference in strength that was making itself more and more apparent as time went on, she felt she was doing pretty well up until he started spitting fire. Okay, doing well dodging. She'd yet to actually hurt him.

She had hit him. It wasn't, she told herself, any fault of her skills that he didn't have a scratch on him. It was the armor. The color of high quality obsidian, it covered his vulnerable features and didn't seem to slow him down to compensate, which didn't seem fair to her. She couldn't get through it, even with her new sword which, she could tell just by wielding it, was a special magic sword like Kagehana had.

He opened his mouth again, and she lifted off and flew along the ground as fireballs pounded along behind her. She sailed out onto a street that rapidly engulfed in molten stone as the onslaught continued. Then she felt a kick connect and fling her through a window. She crushed the unused counter as something flung itself through the window and stuck a sword in her upper right arm. Her sword arm. She stared up, some sort of living armor freak staring down at her. He pulled the weapon out of her and, with what she could only think of as some sort of perverse glee, shoved it into her lower one.

She heard, over the fires and the screams, the deep rumbling footfalls of Darkgil, coming closer and closer fast and eager. She felt, in the pit of her stomach, a real fear. A terror. She feared death like this, pinned and waiting for an executioner.

She swung with her right arm, the black gladius sweeping through the air at knee level. The Armor let out a gasp of surprise as the weapon in the arm it had rendered useless took it in the knees, shearing through them and sending him falling down. She grabbed his black sword with her left arms and pulled it out of her small right one, never minding how it hung limp and useless. She took up the shadows sword, and advanced on the prone imitation, crying out and impaling it with both. It writhed there, not quite dead.

That's when she felt heat on her back. She turned back to the window she had smashed through to see her original opponent, mouth open and orange. She could see the ripples in the air in front of his mouth, distorted by the heat.

Even years later, Two Gods Sitting wouldn't know what compelled her to do what she did then, faced with unavoidable death.

She lifted the Armor God up, impaled on her swords like a pair of chopsticks. She didn't know where she had found the strength to do so, but she actually ran at Gilgamsh with it hoisted over her head.  In the space of half a second she brought the shadow god screaming down into it's brothers mouths. It met the flames just as they were coming out.It's head dissolved, and it died.

That's when everything exploded.

When Gods woke up she was lying in the street. She had not the strength to lift her head and look, but she could feel herself leaking. From everywhere, her life blood flowed from the shattered remnants of her exoskeleton and stained the street a greenish-yellow color. From everywhere, she felt it, except her arms. She turned to look at her right arm, that should have been useless before the explosion.

From the sword, filling in the cracked and useless bits, flowed a sort of tedrelly shadow stuff. Even now it was filling in the other cracks on her arm, cracks from the blast.

It would have been nice to know it could do that before, but she doubted it could save her now. After all, it's not like she could cover herself in the-

Something obsidian came down out of the sky and buried itself in the ground next to her head. The imitations breastplate, much to big to ever fit her and strong enough to survive even the hellish blast that had consumed it's master. Scream with the effort, she pulled herself up to it and used he weight to bring it down over her. She curled up beneath it there in the street, like a child under a blanket.

Or a caterpillar in a cocoon.