Lords of Creation (Story Thread 3)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Yet, not much ground would be covered by the Fair Goddess, before her trip came to something of a painfully abrupt stop. That is, for lack of looking where she was going, Uburra-Namall collided face-first into something of a great thick wall of pain. Indeed, only five seconds had passed, before the goddess was outside of the shack, and on the ground, ruefully rubbing the pain away.

"Ow..." Uburra-Namall rubbed her pretty little head, and looked up, only to have the words shocked stark shocked out of her. She could utter no more than a wide-eyed gobsmacked, "Huh-buh-wha---"

There, before her was stood an amazing construct, the likes of which she had never witnessed in all her many lifetimes. There had never been sun-eclipsing castles, in her memory, so astounding in height and pure depth. Certainly, knocking on it would hurt her more than it. And atop the first of a team of these towering behemoths, a familiar figure. No, it wouldn't be...

Her utter awe allowed her little more motor capacity than that necessary to blink, "C-C-Crav?"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Aox could feel the staff pouring power into him from a void. A deep bottomless void. He let the power trickle into his hands once again, slowly this time.

"You're right, I don't. But that's not going to stop me from ending your little charade."

The power in Aox's hand solidified into a long thing sword. The bladed glittered and shone brightly as Aox swiveled it to point at the Monster King.

"This can end in two ways..."

[Zaleramancer]

"Which would be?" The Monsterking said, adroitly avoiding the blow, allowing purple electricity to dance off himself towards Aox.

He noted the difference between himself and Aox. The mortal had more power than he could hope to bring to bear.. but the Monsterking had far more experience with his abilities.

Yet still, every second Aox continued to use the staff, he became more powerful.

This would not end well if it did not end quickly.

Glancing at the still expanding portal, he drew a spear from the air. It shone like crystal.

With it, he struck forward like a snake.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Crav smiled affectionately, "Were you expecting someone else?" Crav chuckled before continuing.

"I came as soon as I could to help you in any way I could. I also wanted to make sure you were safe."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The Fair Goddess' fair cheeks flushed red, and her ample chest clenched as bashful embarrassment at her clumsiness crept in. She brushed hair back behind her ear, straightened her dress sewn of raw magnificence, and stood slowly.

"Well, as you might have guessed, I could stand to be better. Though I am glad you arrived. My subjects worked with an emissary of Zaya (Omni rest her soul), and came up with a cure to whatever afflicts these awful shambling monstrosities. And I need you to help me spread the cure around. Do you think you can?"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Aox released a burst of force forward and pushed himself backwards with it to avoid the initial stab of shining crystal spear. His sword flashed downwards in a glittering arc into the spear to force it away from himself. Sparks exploded from the collision, lighting the air with eerie light.

"Either you give up, or I take you down! Your choice!"

With a shout Aox kicked off the air and leapt upwards above The Monster King. His sword flashed again and thousands of sparking bolts rained down.

[Zaleramancer]

The two clashed before the shimmering portal, sparks flying and thundering rings sounding across the isle.

Behind them, the portal began to flicker.

A dark wave of power erupted along the spear, towards Aox.

[Mik_Hael]

"Finally"

Amid a swirling maelstrom of chaos that was the dream world a lone figure dissappeared into the top of the black spire that was the castle of the monsterking.

"who would have guessed that climbing up three miles of smooth glass would be so difficult." Mik hael made his way across the cathedralic chamber that was the monsterking's throne room through a sea of black fog, which was actually trillions upon trillions of dusks forming a thick layer in the atmosphere.

"The master..our master is back....master." high pitched voices echoed in the fog belonging to formless creatures.

"...Riiigghht.....well that's not creepy in the slightest...There it is." Mik Hael stood in front of the throne of the monsterking, and sighed, "well let's get this over with."

Mik Hael approached the throne and as soon as he made ocntact with it tendrals of darkness from within the crystal stucture pierced his hand, attempting to eat their way into him, Mik hael Grunted and proceeded to fully sit upon the throne, instantaneously causing more tendrils to pierce into him, MikHael's form started to waver glowing a dim white. "Not yet..." The second the tendrils pierced into his core a burst of golden energy swept outward from him arching along the tendrils and into the throne, arching outward into the spire. It's dark form started to glow brightly from within until a ring of energy exploded outwards sform the spire,flooding the dream world in a wath of golden light.



.......................................................................................................................................

Outside of Mina's barrier a small portal opened and seconds later Mik Hael was spat out of it, landing on the gorund with a thud. "Okay, that alwqays suck, but at least..." He noticed the corpse of Gilgamesh to his right"...Damn, never going to get to have a rematch now...." Mik hael stared at the sky in meloncholy unti lhe noticed the screaming void of pure evil in the sky to his right. sigh, "There isn't any rest for the wicked I guess" Mik Hael jumped to his feet and began walking, until a crunch sounded from his feet."...What?" On the ground was the shattered remains of the blade of the monsterking, still exuding a sense of cold and darkness as it drained the life from the gournd around it. "...well this'll come in handy."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Aox clapped his hands together in front of his chest. The very air seemed to inhale deeply with a rush as a large shield of energy coalesced  before him. The wave of dark power rolled off the shield before it faded along with his sword.

With an expression of grim determination, Aox reached his free hand into the heavens above. The wind picked up and a low rumble echoed through the sky. The clouds grew darker and angrier as they began to roll and heave across the sky, spiraling into a cyclone above Aox.

Lightning flashed. Thunder roared. The clouds spun faster and faster as the cyclone descended towards Aox. The crackle of electricity and the smell of ozone permeated the air. Flashes of light within the spiraling funnel of angry clouds indicated lightning within. The cyclone touched down in Aox palm briefly before rushing downwards to form a massive sphere of boiling clouds, hot lighting and roaring sound.

Aox exhaled slowly and released the sphere.

A great dragon-esque stream of inclement weather and power thundered across the sky towards the Monster King.

[Zaleramancer]

The Monsterking ducked and dodged and wove, power dancing from him in an attempt to scatter the concentrated blast into something discrete enough to avoid.

Still, he was battered and beaten by the raw power of the blow.

Ragged, but still alive, the Monsterking darted out of the disastrous clouds, throwing spears of light at Aox. They danced around, trying to bind him.

The portal rippled like a flag in the storm as the energies of the two gods worked on it. Dark shapes darted in it's depths.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The portal was making Aox nervous, and starting to affect his emotions. Aox did his best to acrobatically dodge the incoming projectiles of light. They were blinding as they flashed past, leaving tiny light to dance across Aox's field of vision. Aox shook his head trying to clear it before returning fire with his own barrage of smoking, fiery projectiles.

[Zaleramancer]

Dodging the flames, knocking them aside with his spear, Monsterking unleashed a wave of roaring light- deafening to the ears and so bright it out shone the sun.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Anything for you. Just let me know how I can assist and I will happily..."

Suddenly Sonia's voice interrupts Crav's.

"Just get on with already."

Crav's cheeks could not have been redder.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Aox's ears rang and his vision blurred. The world was chaos, but in the back of Aox's mind the instinct to hide took over. The air bent and swirled to cocoon Aox in a shell as he tried to clear his senses.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

A sensual impulse crackled in Uburra-Namall's ear, and she sensed her godstorm was near. She looked up to Crav.

"Take hold of the godstorm as it flies about your head. Harness it, and imbue into it the cure that my thinkers have devised. Give it my order to go all about the world. Tell it to infect other clouds with my divinity, and to rain down the cure to this wretched plague of undeath. And after, I shall need your help to finish off the last hordes of nightmare beasts."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Crav recovered quickly from Sonia's outburst "As you wish, my love."

[Mik_Hael]

     Mik Hael: “ Aaaand that should do it.” The remnants of the blade had been reforged into a small bracelet carrying  the symbol of a cross.  The god fitted the bracelet onto his right hand and it expanded covering his hand in thin metal wires that together formed into an intricate cross of greenish blue coloration.  Clenching his fist the god gave an experimental swipe, and nothing happened.
A second later the atmosphere itself seemed to slant as the horizon twitched, and then shifted directly along the line of the god’s swipe, as if it had been cut in half.  A change in light caused by clouds shifting out of the way of the shattered fragments of moon allowed a thin outline of a large blade roughly the size of a man’s torso to be seen extending from the god’s wrist, stemming from a series of plumes barely visible that were covering the god’s forearm as a gauntlet.  The god relaxed his fingers and the blade separated into five ethereal claws “Yeah, that’ll have to do for now….It’s time to take care of some unfinished business.” His gaze turned towards the unnatural tear in the sky and the two figures in front of it.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....
     Monsterking: He looked at the swirling coccon that his challenger had erected around himself and smirked, "Well, isn't this a lovely opportunity." The god manifested a copy of the guantlet of chaos and darted towards the vortex, before swiping the air in front of him creating a portal facing Aox, simultaneously another portal opened behind him, reavealing an infinite array of the cocoons, as if two mirror had been placed on either side facing each other.  The monsterking Made two more in quick succession, one to Aox's right, and one above, and the hero was obscured from view by a cube of dimensional rifts.


     "Not bad" With that the Monsterking floated away from the cube and drifted to his original position,“…I’m starting to get tired of this game.” He glanced towards the portal into the void, “It still has a few more minutes before it stabilizes…maybe I can make it through anyway.”  The god blinked and then tilted his head slightly to the right, just as the sky itself appeared to split apart, taking a few of his hairs with it.  “Oh, you, I thought you would have died by now.” The Monsterking’s gaze never left the portal.

     Mik Hael: “Yeah, in all honesty I’m a bit surprised myself, but I guess that I’m just not able to, just yet.”

     Monsterking: “You never know, now might be the time you’ve been wishing for.”
Mik_hael: “True, True, I can’t say that I’ve been in a worse situation before at this point, fighting against yourself in front of a portal to hell, that’s got to be a new one.”

     Monsterking: He frowned slightly, “I’m not you.”

     Mik_hael: “fair enough”

     Monsterking: “You know, we don’t have to fight, you could join me, together we could take back what was taking from us, all of it, even her.”

     Mik_hael: “Maybe, maybe not, but while I was stewing inside of my own head, thanks for that by the way…an old frie…acquaintance of ours happened to pop up,

     Monsterking:”…”

     Mik_Hael: “He reminded me, that the past, needs to stay in the past, even if something or someone was taken from you, continually dwelling on it won’t do you any good, you need to move on and keep laughing, for their sake.”

     Monsterking: “…so be it."
………………………………………………………………………………………………….

     The Monsterking thrust his arms apart releasing a wave of dusks that swept towards Mikhael like a cloud of dust. Mik collapsed the sword into claaws and spun sweeping forward a wave of force that dispersed the dusks before they could reach him, and then twisted to the side just as the Monsterking swept downwards with a facsimile of The Watchman’s axe from behind. In the same motion Mik_Hael kicked the monsterking across the side of the head , righting himself in the process, and attempted to strike with the artifact in its sword form.
The monsterking blocked the attack using a facsimile of the guantlet of order and proceeded to swipe the side of mikhael’s head with his forearm, producing black chains from within the folds of his cloak which wrapped around Mik’s neck. The Monsterking smirked and whipped them foreward, dragging MikHael across the sky towards the ground.  Mik quickly cut the chains dissolving them into a black mist a second before landing and turned back towards his foe just in time to see the Monsterking grabbing hold of space itself and pulling foreword, summoning a beast from the depths of memory. A dark cloud emerged from the rift and sped towards a red glow quickly emerged from the cloud quicly forming into two piercing eyes that began to form into a humanoid figure as the column of darkness sped towards the god.

     Mik: “!!!” the god switched the sword into it’s clawed form and reared back  his forearm before striking foreword just as the darkness was about to reach,  “Devour.” The claws glowed briefly and expanded in size forming into a large clawed gauntlet that connected with the figure of darkness and started absorbing it, the clouds were funneled into the center of the gauntlet as if drawn in by a black hole the figures eyes glowed red staring into Mikhael’s until finally it disappeared into the artifact. The plumes covering the god’s forearm had darkened and glowed a dark red as an energy of rot began to affect the surrounding land killing what little life was left within it, “Expell.” Mik_Hael struck forward towards the Monsterking . The Plumes arched outward, expelling their load in a blast of darkness coated in red flames, that wept toward the Monsterking.

     Monterking: “ =.=” The god summoned a copy of the cylinders and pointed one towards the ball of energy pulled the trigger. The cylinder clicked and a large funnel of wind generated instantly, and the black flames were absorbed into the cylinder, cracks appearing along it’s surface as the power it contained attempted to break it apart, the monsterking simply lifted the other towards the portal and clicked. The Flames blasted out of the other cylinder towards the portal, before immediately being devoured by the gaping expanse.
Monsterking: “…You’ve become weak.”

     Mik_hael: “Yeah, going insane for a few universes will do that to you.”
Monsterking: “shame, I was expecting more of a fight from you…oh well, the gate’s almost stabilized so it doesn’t really matter I suppose…you know, being a god of memory has it’s perks I’m able to recall things from the past, remember them, and bring them back, not for long, just long enough.”

     Mik_hael:”…and?”
 
      Monsterking:”And, that means that I’m still going to get the pleasure of adding your power to mine, even though my sword has been destroyed” The Monsterking clasped his hands together funneling power into a small point between them, and then slowly pulled them apart, revealing a blade of darkness pulsing with forbidden power.”

     Mik_hael: “…crap” The god leaped into the sky just as a tendril of darkness  sliced through the ground instantly draining all of the life from the earth leaving it a barren wasteland. The Tendril followed him curving to chase him through the sky. The god turned swinging downward with his sword clashing with the tendril, the two swords met, and rebounded off of each other, but the tendril arched back towards him , but the god leaped forward dodging it’s strike. He sensed something to his right and raised his sword, just in time to block the Monsterking’s strike when it was an inch away from slicing through his skull.
And so the two god’s fought. Their swords classed, each time the other attacked his opponent parried. Portals opened in the sky that they disappeared into only to reappear in their enem’s blind spots in an attempt to the onslaught continued neither one giving the other an inch, but it was clear that Mik_hael was tiring. Finally a strong attack from the Monsterking sent Mik_hael reeling towards the ground producing a large crater and a cloud of dust as he made contact. The Monsterking spread downwards just in time to see a figure heading into a portal opened within the dust.

     Monsterking: “Not this time.”  The Monsterking charged foreward, and struck. After several second, the dust began to settle revealing the monsterking standing in front of Mik_hael, his sword piercing the god’s heart. “….It’s over” Mik_hael’s  body suddenly exploded into a flurry of golden dusk from which echoed with the laughter of several thousand voices, “!!Wha…” the god’s words caught in his throat, and he glanced downward. Five claws of energy were embedded into his chest from behind. The small portal they came from moved back and expanded as MikHael moved from the dream world back into reality.

     Mik_hael: “Yeah, it is over.”

     Monsterking: The god retched and coughed up a river of black ichor before letting out a weak laugh and saying , “you liberated the dream world and stole my creatures, didn’t you.”

     Mik_hael: “….”

     Monsterking: The god laughed again as more ichor erupted from his wounds,  “…I should have known, I was too cocky….but we’re always doomed to fail, no matter what we do aren’t we?”

     Mik_hael”…Good bye monsterking. Devour” The sword glowed briefly and began draining the very life from the dying god, the ichor flowed into it as  the god began to wither, all the while, laughing, as tears of darkness flowed out of the eyes of his mask as steam, until he was nothing but a withered blackened husk.

     Mik_hael:”…absorb.” The black blood of the Monsterking that had flowed into the plumes of the guantlet flowed into the god manifesting in flows of black energy that arched over his form before exploding into a ring of darkness that swept outward from his form.  The god stood silently , his form had changed, his hair was slightly darker, two horns protruded from the forehead of his mask, and the lines across his mask had thickened, almost as if they were a flow of tears. The god looked up silently at the portal, sighed, and then collapsed next to the withered husk of the Monsterking.

     A second later the cube shimmered, and then evaporated into nothing.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The shell around Aox faded into oblivion as Aox's senses recovered. His eyes snapped open to reveal dilated pupils and an expression of pure determination. He stood slowly, power leeching into his skin from the staff. With a gesture, power tore from his hand and wiped away the portals surrounding him as if they were chalk. He looked around and was immediately confused.

"What happened here?!?!", he called out to nobody in particular.

The Monsterking was a mere husk, lying in a crumpled heap before the portal. Near him, a god Aox had never seen had collapsed. The Portal itself was raging out of control, with nobody to contain it. Aox hesitated. He could feel the staff power urging him to act, urging him to wield its power. But there was nobody to fight, nobody to attack.

"What.......what do I do?" he asked himself.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Crav reached high into the sky, grabbing hold of the pink godstorm. He hauled himself into the air above it as it circled the island. He paused briefly before pulling out the cure and holding it above the godstorm.

With care and precision, Crav began to softly weave the cure in and out of the godstorm. His own divine power leaked into his actions and infused the cure into the clouds of the godstorm. His hands moved from side to side, deftly pulling the cure back and forth, crafting it as he would pottery. Suddenly, with a final curl of a finger he finished and gently pushed the godstorm on its way to spread the cure.

His job complete, Crav drifted back to earth.

[Mik_Hael]

An audible crack resounded throughout the world as the portal hovering just above the planet suddenly stabilized itself.  The gaping wound din space solidified into a jagged edged rip as if something had clawed it's way through a pane of glass.

Then, something, emerged from the center of the portal, it was long, thin, and entirely black, oozing shadows that twisted that atmosphere , as if it were water dripping onto a freshly drawn oil painting. The thing of darkness grew, and thickened until it took the shape of a tentacle, and then more followed, and more, and more, until dozens of writhing tentacles were reaching into the world grasping at existence and grabbing hold, in an effort to drag something through into our world.

What next came forth were three fingers ending in claws, attached to a gnarled hand and withered forearm cysts, and open wound. it was followed by two others, and the trio of raptor like appendages groped the air before them, searching until they came to rest on the edges of the portal, and grabbed hold, pulling the rest of the...thing, through.

The first thing that came through was an infant's head,  covered in the same cysts and wounds as the rest of the beast, it's hair was clumped together in patches leaving bald areas of gaping wound and open skin, it's face was slightly deformed on the right side, obscuring one of it's eyes in a bulging cyst. The eyes themselves were hollow empty sockets from which protruded an open flame. The flaming pits oozed the same darkness, which flowed forth as tears from the creature. The head was followed by another, and another, and another, each one in a different state of decay and malformation. Each of them, connected at the neck to a cancerous mass that joined them together into one being. their mouths were all frozen in a constant, silent, scream.

The Mass itself appeared to be the main body of the beast, and was large enough to take up the majority of the portal. A thin line ran across it's center oozing darkness.

Suddenly, as decaying wings on the creature's back unfurled, the line cracked open, revealing the gaping maw of the creature which took up the majority of it's form, it's mouth a writhing sea of teeth in the shapes of tortured humanoids and creatures of various ages shapes and sizes, young children, old men, mothers yet to be ,and all others, leading back into the throat, which was simply a black void, devoid of all light, threatening to devour the soul of all who dared to look upon it.

And so the creature roared, a thing that made no noise, but could be felt in the  hearts of all living things, as a resurfacing of primal fear and dread.