Lords of Creation (Story Thread 3)

[Zaleramancer]

Paean stared into the shifting glorious colors of the Godcloud.

He could sense the intricate interplay of divine powers, the dense bio-chemical solution of the cure perforating through it.

It began to rain shining colors, like a rainbow streaming to the ground. Twisted bodies began to resolve at it's touch. Healing power mended wounds.. and in the cases where that was not possible, removed the pain. An expanding wave of life and restoration began to flow over the oceans towards other lands.

His job was done here.

Paean's body flowed like silver, becoming a shining creature blinding to the eye. It leapt off and began to fly with the cloud.

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

A huge and colorful bird flapped wearily down onto the Five Isles, landing near the Babysitter. It looked curiously at her.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The crack echoed in Aox's ears, ringing as it faded in the silence. Aox froze. Somehow, he just knew whatever was behind him was evil. Perhaps it was a response from some primal part of his mind. Maybe it was the staffs influence on his senses. Whatever the reason Aox was certain that terror was forming behind him.

There was a silent, terrifying roar that chilled his bones to the marrow. Slowly, very slowly Aox turned his head. In the corner of his eye darkness pulsed and swirled. He turned his head more and a shape formed, looming in the darkened heavens. With the sluggishness of terror Aox forced his body to completely face the behemoth. His body racked with fear, Aox could only stare at the horrible vision before him. He could not speak, could not move, could not think.

Seconds seemed to stretch into years as he gazed wide eyed at the thing unable to act. Suddenly a bright flash in his mind jarred him from his stupor. A kernal of the staffs power whispered through his mind pushing back the terror induced paralyses. Aox focused on the kernal of power, allowing it to expand and grow. It spread through his body, rushing through every fiber, every cell, every molecule of his being.

A deep heat bloomed in his chest, the staff's energy filling him to the brim. Aox's skin rippled with bright, searing light that pieced the air and cut through the shadowy aura of the abomination. Every emotion Aox had ever expiereced floated about in his head. Pain, anger, happiness, fury. He let them all build up until the erupted from his throat in a roar that could shatter stones. Aox's body burst into a vortex of energy that swirled and spat white flames into the sky.

Eyes locked onto his enemy.

Fist raised in anger.

Power flowing.

Aox exploded across the void between him and the beast to deliver a devastating punch of apocalyptic caliber.

There was a Blinding light.

Silence.

Then the most traumatizing, thunderous explosion imaginable.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

And now it was raining.

She stood there, in the rain, and reflected that it had no sense of dramatic timing. It should have started raining hours ago when this whole mess started. But she didn't hear any thunder even if it was pouring. Maybe this rain was the cleansing sort, not the ominous sort.

Back in the cave, the fish people had stopped audibly thrashing. That had to be a good sigh, right?

She heard something alight down next to her. She looked over and locked eyes with a beautiful multicolored bird. She pouted at it.

"You left me all alone, so I filled your cave with fish. Have fun with that smell." She said, speaking not precisely the truth and being as teenagery as possible.

[Zaleramancer]

A shattered world began to heal.

Monsters withered and faded like shadows, vanishing into nightmare. Brilliant clouds of healing magic and science began to stave off the grand death. Though they could not save those that had passed, those that still clung to life would heal.. eventually.

But the wounds of the mind were stronger than those of the body, and harder to heal.

As the fire and death blossomed over the island of Gilgamesh, fire rained down once again. It remained, a furiously burning light to bright to look into- like a newly born star.

Monsterking defeated, the world could finally begin to recover from his rampages.

[Zaleramancer]

Long days passed.

The world was staggering to it's feet.

Divinities worked their will upon the world, and then received the call.


It was time for them to meet again in the city of the Watchman.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

With calm now settling over the land again, Uburra-Namall took in a contended sigh. Weary, but contended. Strange though it was, the mundane was most welcome about now. Alighting slow and gentle next to her lead Precious Sentry, Diamond, the Fair Goddess looked up to the handsome bejeweled statuess with a weak smile.

"Diamond, I should like very much for you to keep your sisters in check while I and my siblings are away."

The Diamond Precious Sentry responded, her voice ringing all the diamond quality afforded it, "Yes, goddess. And your Boquabians and Centaurs and Elves? What shall I and my sisters do for them?"

Again, the goddess lifted up; thoughtfully, she replied, "If they ask, tell them that their goddess sees them, and loves them. And she will not be gone for long."

With that, she raised a bit higher, and then took off into the sky, soon to be joined by Jassi, Jissei, Khadai and her Seven-Sin Handmaidens. If air traffic was clear, they would arrive to meet the Watchman in Spectropolis within the hour.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

It had been a long, long week.

Most of it had involved frantic investigation, pouring and fussing over every source he could dig up to try and piece together the timeline of this tragedy. Everything from the moment of Haels collapse up through the battle that had ended it all. It made his head ache.

Damage had been horrendous. Casualties numbered in the millions. At least 48% of all sentient beings living on the planet, not counting the ones who lived in the sea or tucked safely behind Mina's barrier, had been simply wiped out. That was'nt counting the suicides in the aftermath from those who had lost homes, livelihoods, family. It might have been as low as 30%, if it hadn't been for Gilgamesh's final act of selfishness. He had mourned the loss of the god in the heat of the moment, but after learning of that he couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for him. To many parents coursed into doing the unthinkable.

Bastard was probably happy, in the end. That's what really burned.

He walked down the street that was under re-construction, unseen. He entered a building that was still mostly intact, and climbed up to a room on the second floor. The roof was open in this room, covered by a pane of glass repaired with godly power, so that sunlight shown down in gentle streams. It was sparsely furnished, containing only a simple wooden chair and a bed. Large candles sat everywhere in the room, all burned down to their bases. The pile of soft toys littering the bed gave him pause for a moment, and he turned his gaze on the one of the rooms occupants.

The Babysitter shrugged and smiled slightly. "I thought he would be more comfortable like that."

The Watchman sighed a little affirmation and went over to the bed where a part of him lay. Gods do not need sleep. It takes a lot to cause a god to try and find solace in it. The Reasonable lay there, amid colorful rainbow critters of every size, and looked at peace. He lay his hand onto the boys forehead, and felt him flinch at the contact.

It was better than before. When he'd fished the Reasonable out a week ago, the boy had been inconsolable. He shrieked whenever someone came near, clawing and biting and unleashing random smites at whoever tried to touch him. He hadn't knows where he was, hadn't known who he was. For a moment, he'd pondered if the boy would ever recover his sense. But eventually, he'd calmed. He could talk about his ordeal, weakly, and up to a point, but conversing past that point would push him into hysterics once again. He spent most of his time now sleeping, trying to escape from the reality of his situation.

"Is he going to be all right?" The Babysitter asked, weakly.

"I..... I don't know." The Watchman replied. "What happened to him was a violation on it's most fundamental level. Honestly, I'd be more worried if he was acting normally."

She clutch the jar in her lap closer and tighter into her chest, acutely aware that this might have been her. The giant shadows she had seen in the treeline flashed into her memory.

She felt his worried gaze on her now. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

"I'll be fine." She replied, jar tight in her hands. "I'm just sorry I never got to kick that monster in the teeth." she said, but the enthusiasm died somewhere between the third and eight word.

Better, The Watchman decided, to let her deal with it on her own terms. As he turned to leave, she suddenly jerked her head up and said, quetly, "Wait!"

He stopped.

"That guy, y'know Painey or Pyan..." she continued.

"Paean?"

"Yeah, him." she said. "He's going to be here, right?"

"One can only assume."

"I need to see him. But..." she looked mournfully over the Reasonable.

"I'll make sure he knows where to find you." The Watchman said, walking down the stairs and back out onto the street. Inside the room, the broken god made a sad little sound in his sleep.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina finished checking the last part of the law, luckily there hadn't been too much energy drained from it by the stupid blade that the Monster King had wielded and much of it had come back after the blade had broken, increasing the law's power a bit. Soon it would be time to go to Spectropolis to see what the Watchman and the others would have to say. From what her Shadow-Scarred had told her, Mina knew that Môsôoriku had been the least damaged of all the gods' lands, with the lowest number of deaths total, most of them occurring among those who had left to see how others lived elsewhere. Ah, well, she hadn't expected many beings outside Môsôoriku to survive anyway, without the level of protection that was given by her pantheon.

Mina left off her musings and walked over to where Kyuuketsu was waiting for her. It was time to leave. They would fly relatively slowly and hopefully arrive just before the meeting started.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Two figures observed the Lord of Demons flight across the sea.

"The Queen is leaving The Castle, moving to intercept."

The pair of watchers dropped out of the sky and alighted next to Mina, ghostly forms nearly invisible in the blazing sun.

"Miss Mina." Stated the first one. "Please pardon the surprise, but we thought it best to intercept you like this. Less chance of prying eyes while most of the gods are in transit."

"Our lord requests a secret audience with you, before the conference, concerning information only the pair of you are privy to." Stated the second.

Meanwhile, the dragnet of watchers that had taken up vigil high in the sky around Môsôoriku scattered to the four winds.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina thinks for a second before replying, "Very well, then lead on."

Kyuuketsu follows her lead with the barest of nods to signal that she'd be following.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"We can not. Even the sea has eyes." The first says, regretfully.

"Make for the southwest gate. A watchdog will guide you from there. Our lord requests the utmost discretion in this matter. Mortal guise would be preferable." Says the second.

"All speed and happy travails, my ladies." They say, perfectly synchronized as they disappear into the glare of the sun.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina looks at Kyuuketsu, "Ooks-lay ike-lay e'll-way e-bay aveling-tray y-bay adows-shay."

Kyuuketsu nods, "Es-yay, Ady-lay Ina-may."

The two go to the closest landmass and Mina sends a message to Mikoto (her avatar in Spectropolis) and a few minutes later, Kagehana shows up to teleport them over for the conference with the Watchman

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

They port in right in the shadow of the South-west gate. The Watchdogs is there, as instructed. A whole group of them, tumbling and playing out on the sand. It goes on for a few minutes, until one discreetly breaks away from it's brother servitors and approaches Mina and her entourage. Inclining it's head in greeting, it trots off, not into the city, but along the wall.

Up on the walls of Spectropolis, no mortals are at work. Only Witnesses man the walls at this time.

It leads them to a large hole in the earth, the birth tunnel of the race of Vandals. Inclining it's head again, it trots down into the earth.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina follows the Watchdog, whatever it was that he wanted to talk about, looked like it was more important than she'd thought before if the Watchman was taking such precautions against being heard like this. Kyuuketsu follows Mina in making sure that no one else is watching them enter other than the Watchman's people.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Vandal tunnels are dark, cool, and totally empty. As the light of the entrance vanishes, the dark becomes a solid wall, to dark for any mortal sight to pierce. The Watchdog guides by sounds, letting out deep reverts as it leads the group down, down, down thought the tunnels.

Around them, they can feel the tunnel open up as their decent is brought to a halt. Then divine light blazes, lighting a huge chamber twenty stories deep and as wide as the stadium Gilgamesh had built. The light, looking like a miniature sun, hangs in the air, slowly floating upwards to reveal the whole room. Under it stands the Watchman, in the center of this great audience chamber.

"Thank you for coming." he says, relief barely visible in his tone. "Were you followed?"

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina considers the chamber quickly before replying, while the cavern was large and it could probably store an army, it still wasn't as large as the one in which she'd stored the Illusory Labyrinth in, but then that was meant to be as large as the totality of Môsôoriku, "As far as I know, no. Now what was it that you wanted to discuss with me without anyone else?"

Kyuuketsu stands to the side looking around in curiousity.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Gilgamesh. Specifically, that last wave of power he spread over the world. The one only we would be privy to."

"That curse he put on the world hiked up the death toll, shattered any collective resistance to the monsters, made people do horrible things that they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives."

"Gilgamesh was the god of Heroism. What will that word mean, do you think, if this information got out?"

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Mina considers for a few minutes, "True, that's not going to be good, but he was also God of Conflict. Those were probably two things that never should have gone together. I think that most people will attribute it to that domain of his... hopefully."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"True, but there is also his people to consider." He responds.

"Gilgamesh and his gods died when that amalgam tore itself apart. With them gone, I fear that the others may pick the next available target for retribution. Not just for the conflict wave, either. There is also no one left to punish for the disasters that overtook the planet. That's not even counting how the mortal would treat them, were they to know. As the only one of us who's land escaped without significant damage, you're the only other god I can be assured would behave impartially."

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

"Right," Mina replies. "I hadn't thought of that. So then that's what we're going to be discussing then at the divine summit? How to treat Gilgamesh's and Mik Hael's people? Personally, I would say that there is no point in punishing anyone but the gods. However with Gilgamesh gone, it's probably best if we don't say anything about the conflict wave unless it's brought up by the others, right?"