Lords of Creation (Story Thread 3)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Metal clashed against metal, and Tyran wrenched his sword upward to knock back an imposing nightmare beast. He turned around and brought Babaraina down on another brute's shield. A third time he turned, and brought the blade across the face and chest and stomachs of several more monsters. Jissei's grim and silken words rang in Tyran's head.

For the lives of allies, wield it as an angel. Against the lives of foes, wield it as a demon.

A smirk peeked at the corners of his mouth. He would do his damnedest to oblige.

Left and right he swung, hacked at bodies and armor and still more bodies. He dodged none, met every challenger who would face him. Tyran plunged his god-blessed greatsword into a bigger fellow's chest, and turned the big brute around to meet a hail of arrows meant for him. Then he snatched the sword from its fleshy sheathe, and swung it in an arc to take out what monsters quickly came up after the large one.

Shrieks and screeches and war cries rang out, monsters thundered past him, and he knocked some aside as they bounded after his countrymen.

A lanky one leaped on his back, beat his armor with both fists, angry but futile. Tyran reached back to throw him off at first, but then thought to hold him on a bit. With every turn, the little monster would take Tyran's licks for him, shields and cudgels and clubs and maces and finally arrows to the legs and back and head. Falling limp, the creature was tossed full force into a gaggle of yet more approaching nightmare monsters.

He was about to head off in the direction his meat shield had just gone, but he felt a stinging sharpness streak painfully across his back. Tyran cried out hatefully, and a shield's bashing force followed that attack in quick succession, knocking him forward to his knees. He whipped around, and hurried to his feet just as quickly as he had been knocked down.

His chest was heaving, as he turned to see his assailant. The squat little monster, he thought, narrowing his eyes. That really hurt. And then a thought hit him.

A mortal had laid a blow on him! It...it had...this scrawny little monster had landed a hit on him! And not simply run into him, tackled him brutishly and attempted to batter his armor, but actually cut him! And hard! He dodged a passing band of nightmare monsters, and drew his hand from his back. Blood! What did it mean?

Was...was he inadvertently beginning to slack in his duty to serve the Fair Goddess?

His heart felt an invisible clench all of a sudden. Through his soul, there came all at once a shaking impact, a bitter siege. His heart had been claimed, if only for a moment, by darker gods...

Winds picked up around him, and he looked down to his sword. It was still for a second, and then trembled. Shook visibly. Convulsed. Jumped into his hand. The monster's menacing stance relented, and its arrogant grin fell into confusion, and shortly, dismay. Tyran's eyes were wide, his countenance tight, deeply angry.

He reared back, uttered a cry from the depths of his diaphragm, and his blade lit aflame. The monster staggered back now, turned to disappear into the crowd, but before either of them knew it, Tyran burst forward in a flurry of rushing winds and angry fire.

He tore through the monster now nearly effortless, and half as much effort for any monster that followed. Earth now broke up at his call, winds rushed to meet his whim, bursts of fire suited his wrath and water surged where he sent it. Heads and limbs and bodies were sent flying with what seemed to him no more the flick of a blade.

And for his goddess, he knew he should not stop. And he would not stop. And he could not stop.

In his utter lack of control, he gained more and more control over Babaraina.

[Zaleramancer]

Across the world, the endless hordes of goblins and monsters died by sword and by sorcery, bleeding black blood and bile.

Anarchy and chaos reigned as people fled and fought for their very lives. Some, hidden away in fortresses thought themselves safe...

Then a new, fresh hell visited itself upon the earth.

Those suicidal servitors that exploded with such fury from false-gods and monsters did not all.. explode. Some simply drifted. Multiplied. Infected.

Deep within the bodies of mortals everywhere, save the domain of Mina, the moved into cruel motion.

Bodies began to twist and distort. Hearts and brains burst from their influence. A deep and unholy hunger visited itself upon them.

With one fell stroke, a third of the world's mortals became twisted abominations hungering for living flesh.

And that number begins to grow...

[Zaleramancer]

The artifact compelled the Undine, cleaving through the turbulent water like a knife through smoke.

It flew from her hands and landed in those of Coral. Glancing up at the surface, the Undine Queen wondered for a second, before rushing back to the chaos.

--------------------------------------------

In a smoking city, a watcher and watchdog faced up against horrible monstrosities when something huge leapt from a nearby roof.

It flattened the goblins like ants before a moving mountain.

Pike had arrived.

In the shadows, a crouched figure watched, eyes glowing violet. Almost time for her entrance.

------------------------------------------------

The land of Hazet was in uproar. Pushed into a temporary alliance by the threat, Knights of Cold Iron fought alongside Sorcerers of Power.

It was a very.. turbulent time.

As the dead and dying began to rise to fight, hope began to fade..

----------------------------------------------

"We are here."

After what felt like epoches, Zaya set foot upon her sovereign territory once more.

"No time for chatting", she said as she waved several fishfolk from her path, charging towards her cave with the straightforwardness of a juggernaut.

"All of you!" The goddess shouted at her Forewoman, along with the watcher and the large vulture-creature hovering near the mirror.

"Status report!"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Yeah, best we get that pronto." The Veteran says, striding behind her. "I want to know what exactly I'm walking into 'fore I head back to the city."

The Babysitter waited by the door, until she saw the dripping Watchman glide in from nowhere. "What was with that?"

"I was returning something." He said quickly, walking in. She followed him. "Both of you!" He shouted to the Hag and Watcher, not having heard Zaya's earlier proclamation. "Status report."

[Zaleramancer]

The Head Hag opened her mouth to speak when a sudden tremor shook the earth.

"Seismic Activity. Possibly related to the lunar destruction, or activities of further agents of whoever we're fightin' now." She said once the shaking stopped.

"I sent out people to the places and persons you specified."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Seismic activity?" The Watchman asks.

"It might be the crystal network." The Babysitter pipes in. "That stuff is like tree roots, it goes all over the planet. Bluebell, Spectropolis, The Iron Kingdoms, literally everywhere."

"That's how he domed the city." The Watchman says, almost to himself.

"If that Shadow Mik ass is in there," she continues, "He might have control. He could do anything he wanted with it."

[Zaleramancer]

"Science. It's very useful for collapsing waveforms in the least harmful manner. I learned about it in this on-" Zaya began, before pausing. This really wasn't the time for a lecture.

"If it's some form of crystal, then perhaps a resonance could be formed?" The goddess nodded to the head hag, who snapped her fingers. Sparkling symbols scooted through the air to find a hag. "I'll have someone look into it."

"For now, the Mirror?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Mirror?"

"What Mirror?"

The Babysitter and the Veteran bot step forward quickly, before The Watchmans resounding voice cut's them off. "I forbid either of you from looking in that mirror!!"

The both stop and look back at him as he hastily regains his composure. "I mean, we should leave the handling of artifacts like that to the professionals." he says, gesturing to Zaya.

[Zaleramancer]

Zaya slid slyly up towards the Watchman.

"I wasn't aware that my Mirror was a secret." She said teasingly. "Will you be coming with me, Watchie?"

[Philote]

Gilgamesh landed upon his Throne Room on top of the crystal tower within his kingdom. The heroic side of him understood there was something he needed to do before the conflict returned again and he went off to battle. In the Throne Room, Gilgamesh lets out the mote of power of Naram to return to his people.

As Gilgamesh leaves, Naram lifts his hands to the sky and it splits open above the tower. The Gate Stone worked its divine power to bridge the gap between the planes.

---------------------------------------------------------

In the Plane of the Genasi, Emere stood next to the other seven heroes of Gilgamesh's creation. Before him, his army stood, untouched by the perils of the physical worlds and at peak strength to move out and reinforce and purge Gilgamesh's lands of the vile intruders.

"Council of Heroes! And all armies that pledge allegiance to my name and Gilgamesh's! Listen to my call!" Emere speaks with authority, taking the leading roll  of the heroes in the purge. "Tonight, our brother races are facing their darkest hour. We will spread out to each corner of the kingdom and leave none alive of these intruders in our wake! Glory and riches to those who fight with the soul of a hero!"

With those words, Emere and the other heroes jumped into the portal to join with Naram. The remaining Shardmind sorcerers cast their spells to levitate the armies down from the skies. The chosen heroes of the pantheon cut across Gilgamesh's lands as nine blades of destruction with their armies in their wake.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"It's what I used to find you and the girl." he replied. "It wasn't an altogether pleasant experience. I..."

Do not wish to repeat it. He could say that. That was all he had to say. That it was one of the most painful psychic assaults he had even experienced, that it had shoved knowledge into his head. Even still, the mirror held a strange fascination to him. He wondered what it looked like, wielded by it's master?

"Yes, seems only fitting."

"What? That's not fair!" The Babysitter protested.

"You will keep an eye out here, this time. Veteran?"

The sharp sound of metal on metal signaled the god salute.

"You're to return to Spectropolis. I want at least one of us there when the next die is cast." He said, stepping before the mirror.

There wasn't a reply, simply a rush of wind as the Veteran departed with all speed.

[Zaleramancer]

Without a word, Zaya entered the dark and dripping cave. Past the rough hewn stone chair was the Mirror..

A wall of crystal covering the whole of the back of the cave, it was illuminated faintly with an iridescent glow. The goddess sat comfortably in the chair, one leg crossed and spoke.

"Show me."

The Mirror Flashed.

A ocean of information, a sea of shining images, a mountain of concrete concepts came from it.

A current of thought flowed from Zaya to the Watchman, allowing him to see as her mind changed.

Her memories told him that she had learned this technique from a mortal. A very wise monk who headed an order of mentalities, a telepathic web that covered a world.

Dozens of small thoughts in her mind grew into fully fledged perspectives, lesser copies of her mind with just enough variation to allow for a spectrum of viewpoints. Each of those gave birth to several more, even smaller perspectives..

It was like watching a fractal rapidly unfold, vanishing into infinity.

This mass-mind drank eagerly from the sea of knowledge.  

Heavy thought traffic exploded into being as bits and pieces thought, absorbed and exchanged information. Brilliant burning thoughts zoomed and twisted, as information flowed from and into the mirror. Images flashed by at light speed.

One of them, an image of a blue woman, hovered long enough to be seen. A few others, showing a durhian with a stick, a large sword and a shining object came and went.

Then, everything stopped dead.

In a shrieking halt, the fractal imploded light the collapsing of a star.

Zaya's face showed nothing less than total shock and utter horror.

She pointed at the mirror. A dark shape swam in the western most reaches of the ocean. Something of leviathan size.

Hunger radiated from it with such strength it could be felt through it's own captured image. Blurred and darkened, it appeared that even the mirror hardly dared to glance at it.

"THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE EXTINCT! THE LAST ONE DIED AGES AGO! I WAS THERE!" Zaya babbled.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

It was like being dropped in cold water after being before a crackling fire. One moment he was flowing along an infinite sea of perspective, gazing at the pure power and beauty of it.

Then he was brought violently back to his singular perspective, the shock of which sent him stumbling back.

Lords, it was as though he had been omniscient. He could know anything if he mastered this Mirror. It scared him. But not as much as that shadow.

"What is it? Zaya, what is that thing?"

[Zaleramancer]

Zaya took several deep breaths, despite not having required breath for longer than most universes lasted.

"It.. it.."

She gestured towards the Mirror, which began to shine so brightly even divine eyes ached to look at it. Power vibrated raggedly in the cave as the blurry image came forcibly into sharp focus.

Jagged teeth the size of cities, a head larger than most islands, reptilian scales of the deepest black, eyes like blackholes. A dragon unlike any other.

"Níðhöggr. Damos. Tiamat. Cr'zth.Typhoon. A thing of terrible hunger. The devourer of Gods. The last one was slain in another world.." Face pale and drawn, Zaya paused, "At least, I thought. I-I.. These things were nearly unstoppable. They only fed off our power. Juggernauts.. "

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Now, more than ever, the deep collective heartbeat of her beloved Elves and Centaurs and Boquabians rang loud and clear in Uburra-Namall's ears. Their secret prayers, their desperate pleas, their wondering and their doubts were all too clear in her mind. Her heart raced, and her deepest, sincerest love went out to them.

In return, that love reverberated throughout all her land.

It seemed to assist her even more in her already fierce and fearless combat. By the land's subliminal whispers, she instantly knew every footfall she stepped on, every tree, whether running forward or back. And at the same time, her weapon Heartbreaker seemed to know her heart.

Like some benevolent phantom, the great amorous warhammer would only ever lay harm on the bodies of her foes. Should a single Boquabian pass by in the mass confusion of the fray, or the goddess come near a single tree or a single Boquabian house, it would pass through them, as though they weren't there. It would instead home in on the nearest nightmare beast, and even hit with improved impact, for her land's sake.

Its capacity for carnage most pleased the goddess. And she intended to make full use of its creative destructiveness. She raised the great warhammer another time, casting her gaze about; the winds raised and tossed her hair back with triumphant flair. Both passionate love and deep, seething hatred glinted in her dazzling eyes, and Uburra-Namall began to smash all that crossed her path.

Great and small, beasts left and right fell at her hand.

Floored under the great weight of Love's Mjolnir, knocked out of their armor, into trees and the sides of mountains, it did not matter; the goddess found herself delighting more in her brutality than the brutes did in theirs.

She knocked heads, caved chests, shattered weapons and armor and limbs. She rammed Heartbreaker's head into a larger monster's chest, and brought it around in an arc, smacking lesser fiends aside with a fraction of an effort. A stocky one rushed up, and she floored him as well, smashing his head to the ground, against a large rock.

Still, more monsters quickly hurried to fill its space, with weapons raised. And so, to meet them, Uburra-Namall wrenched down her great warhammer, and vaulted herself high into the air. She brought Heartbreaker over her head, reared it back for maximum damage as she came hurtling full-force to the ground again. The impact sent earth rippling for a hundred yards out. The goddess made demure footfall in a circle of upturned earth, and broken bodies.

She tossed her dark flowing hair back with a grin. The game of whack-a-monster had almost grown monotonous.

Then...there was a strange tremor. It destroyed nothing, laid ruin to no possessions, did not even disturb the waters. Still...the goddess in the fray; her pantheon roused to wrath among the chaotic masses; her heroes; her Elves; her Centaurs; her Boquabians, huddled together in the relative safety of the caves, with the Watchman's brave-hearted Vandals; even the wicked nightmare beasts against which they had all waged war...it shook them all deep, to their core.

Something in the air changed in an instant. It was no longer right. As though some secret unknown part of Jissei's power had unwittingly gained sentience, and sneaked away from him in the chaos, something new made itself known, in a moment the goddess thought that she might be feeling vaguely triumphant.

The air grew stale and sticky and damp with the reeking, invisible miasma of death. The nightmare monsters, taken aback by Uburra-Namall and the sudden strangeness that encircled them, approached now a bit more cautious. Uburra-Namall eyed them, palming the Heartbreaker with anticipation.

Or, at least, she anticipated until she saw what the fog of death had brought with it.

As the nightmare beasts drew nearer and nearer, she prepared to knock them backward again, only to see that those she had knocked back before...were rising once more to join their living brothers. And they seemed darker, more malicious, still more wicked and vexatious than those which lived. Skin fell from their bones as though they were touched by weeks long gone. Gore fell from their exposed innards, and blood and bile trailed behind them; part of the goddess was mortified simply to see that the dead were alive once again, but even more of her was disgusted by the mess they left in their wake.

She stumbled back, and looked over to where she held onto the Heartbreaker; her hands were shaking. Not with fear, nor apprehension, nor anxiety...but instead with utter disgust, and the deepest indignation.

Their violation of her lands...that she could handle. And their violence, she would do her best to remedy. But this...this simply wouldn't do. What part of her was Jassi told her that these things did not belong in the mortal realm; they were best left to what afterlife they deserved. And what part of her was Jissei told her...these things were utterly revolting, and would have to die. Quickly.

So, it was settled.

The goddess gripped Heartbreaker, hoisted it over her head with authority. Her eyes aglow, she cast her angry gaze up to the sky. She opened her mouth, and her voice was multiplied.

ISLAND, HEARKEN TO ME, YOUR GODDESS UBURRA-NAMALL! ALL THE SKY GOVERNED BY MY SOVEREIGNTY,  ALL THE EARTH ENCOMPASSING MY DOMAIN, ALL THE SEA THAT BENDS TO MY WILL, UNDERSTAND MY WHIM AND OBEY!

She looked down again, the aura about her now roaring, fiercely ablaze. The skies darkened, rumbled now ominously, as though to voice what rage was building in the heart of the goddess. At their posts, the Precious Sentries looked up into the sky, and began to glow, instantly entranced by their goddess' influence. And the rippling barrier that encapsulated her land began to undulate now, as though preparing itself for what orders may come.

Uburra-Namall took one hand off of Heartbreaker, now. It had nearly lost all weight in her current state. She swung it, almost as though to test it out for the first time, but now it glowed red hot, and pulsated like the beat of a heart. And just when the undead were nearly twenty feet away, and their living counterparts had gained up courage again to attack, the goddess let loose.

Every which way the goddess pointed it, the Heartbreaker was a great gavel to deal the unerring judgment of love, as roaring pink energy blasts. This way and that, the living died, and the dead died again. And when they crowded in too numerous, became so dense a crowd that mere force would not knock them back...the barrier above gave freely of itself, seeming ever-supplied. As deep-pink, deadly-accurate lightning from that barrier, and from a growing, darkening doom-cloud --a coming Godstorm-- the wrath of the Fair Goddess rained down continuously, to deal with her foes.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Well, it only stood to reason, didn't it? Everything had predators, everything was eaten by something, it was only natural that gods had one to. That only made sense. That was the circle of life. It was fair. Above all, it was fair.

Nope, it didn't matter how many times he told himself that. The fear in the pit of his stomach didn't go away. It just got bigger and bigger. A monster, right out of the long darkness.

"How do we kill it?" he asks, the voices hollow. All of them, speaking precisely at once.

[Zaleramancer]

The dark goddess uttered a curse so foul that the world itself censored it.

"**** *** ****** ******!"

The mirror flashed to show the firestorm of pink over the land of the Fair Goddess, it shifted rapidly to show something else..

Far east of her island was another dark shape swimming in the sea.

"T-t-two. And that damn fool just caught it's attention."

[Zaleramancer]

"The last one was slain when all the gods and mortals of the world stood together against it. A single, unified effort that.. barely.. succeeded. I.. I doubt that's going to happen now. Much less two." Zaya's eyes glinted.

"There is a plague of undeath, tremors in the earth, armies of monsters, two god-eaters.. This is going to be difficult."

[Zaleramancer]

"Greetings hero." A raspy voice whispers into Aox's ear.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Right. I think I can take care of at least one."

Saying this cryptic thing, he turns and runs from the cave, past the Babysitter who's just been kicking her feet at the entrance. "He-"

"I'mabouttodosomethingveryfoolishDon'tfollowme." Are all he's able to get off before he's taken flight.

He shoots out across the ocean, faster than a speeding bullet. In his right hand he clutches the Equalizer, in his left he gathers power. Divine energy, the pure power of creation. He doesn't do anything with it, but lets it fill him wholly until he burns as bright as the sun.

He dived below the western ocean, the raw power leaking out and creating a new current behind him. That's when he see's it.

It's hard to miss it, It's head was bigger than Spectopolis. He see's it, moving inexorably to the north heedless of the roaring ocean. What he had done with Divine radiation it accomplished with pure size. For just a moment, he hesitated. After all, it wasn't his fault things were like this now. He could take Spectropolis off of the world, lead it through the long dark to a new, prosperous world.

Yes, that would be wonderful. It really was a shame he had to do this instead.

He gripped the Equalizer by the handle and let it fly end over end in the water at the beast neck.

"Did someone order a delivery dinner, God Eater!" He said, shining like a star and looking most appetizing.