[PDQ] The Grand Mythos Game Thread

DarkRawen

Awe-Inspiringly Awesome
Apr 20, 2010
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Dåre 25, 2

The feeling of familiarity inside the portal was one that had its origin in two things. One, despite the rather colorless appearance, it was looking very like the world they were used to. The second one was an odd one, but far from unexpected. The madness in him had longed for this place. Dåre flew up, towards the sky, hoping to see more. Now that he was there, he didn't want to leave. Frikk could always deal with Ilea, and through the ages, Dåre had explored the world they already lived in over and over. Even if this was the same, it was also definitely not the same. He flew further up, trying to spot something interesting.

Scry an area the side of a Large City or a town and surrounding countryside: DC 11, 4 AP

Domains: +6 Madness (It seems to be a world of madness and wrongness, so it would surely aid him.)
 

Floris2123

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Apr 26, 2011
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Melanthios 30AP, 2MP

Melanthios saw the beasts coming through the portal and froze. He studied them as some of the other gods fought with them and was ready to step in if needed. Still it didn't seem necessary and soon all the creatures were all dead, most of the gods decided to step through the portal. He decided to join them, his children knew what they had to do after all. "This will be interesting." He thought to himself, as he stepped through the portal. Perhaps he would finally find the answers, to the questions he had.
 

Dogmatic99

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Jun 24, 2012
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Zareth 30AP 2MP

Densly packed trees, buzzing insects and an orchestra of birdsongs. Through the thick green, Zareth could see great lumbering creatures in the distance. Most of them adorned with scales and spikes, their roars and howls rumbling through the canopy. The humid heat circled and clawed at Zareth's physical form, his body's instics cried out for it to sweat and for that sweat to soak into his suit, ruining the fabric and making it cling to his slender frame. He quickly overcame the shock of traversing the portal and silenced any natural effects the world might have on him. Afterall it wasn't as if he was some mortal changeling, despite appearences.

The place had certainly changed since his last trip. If he hadn't seen the scuttling creatures it had vomited forth on the other side Zareth might have sworn he had taken a wrong turn and ended up on... On Eld... but it couldn't be.

He made his way through the jungle, now more shadow than flesh and blood. The others were gone and he didn't want to get caught unaware or alone by whatever was lurking in wait. For now he went towards the nearest signs of life in hope of finding some answers there.
 

DarkRawen

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Apr 20, 2010
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As Daare scouts out the surrounding area, he sees a number of what seemed to be Mizzen whirring around, gathering something. Something however, seemed different about them. There was no experimentation, no innovation, nothing. Just a bunch of Mizzen entering a large hole under ground. Daare could detect the slight sound of whimpering coming from the hole, but little else.

Aside from that, there was also a significant feel of dread that washed over him. As if something else was near him. It wasn't like the other gods, whatever had sent out this aura was clearly different, and powerful. In fact, there were two of those signals spread out.

Daare was surprised by what he saw, he had felt the place was more empty than it seemed to be. Lonely. But even with the Mizzens there, it was dread he felt. Something was there, something powerful. "Hello? Who's there?" Wait, there wasn't only one, but two. Two things? Why two? Why not one, or three, or 42? No matter, Daare decided to go in the direction of one of the sources of the dread he felt, flying the carpet at a frightening speed towards it.

The closest one to Daare was directly at the hole. As he approached it, the whimpering sounds only got louder, a quick scream was silenced as a metallic clank was coupled with the crushing of bone. Then more whimpering. Daare began to notice that the source had a hint of familiarity to it. If faint, he couldn't place his finger on it though.

Daare flew over the hole, trying to spot just what was going on. It seemed odd, a bit familiar, although he had no way of remembering where or when it was from, or who it was. The noises were worrying, but he tried to smile as he spoke. "Who are you?" he asked as he carefully let the carpet fly closer. If something reached out for him, he would be likely to still get away, but he went even closer. Curiosity and madness, as well as a desire to end those noises. The crushing of bones, the whimpering. What was going on? "Would you describe who you are with a single word or less? I mean, more?"

There was no response from the hole. Whatever was happening there, continued unhindered. If Daare wanted to investigate, he would have to go in.

Daare frowned, it seemed this creature had no manners. Or, it simply wasn't able to speak or answer. He then went into the hole, not about to be ignored like that.

Upon entering the hole, Daare found himself surrounded by tunnels upon tunnels with entrances going this and that way. At least five different openings showed themselves to him. One of which had a much more intensified whirring noise, another had the whimpering noise and the others all seemed silent for now.

Now, first one hole, and now five more. If Daare had a coin, he would have flipped it just for the purpose of deciding how to choose. But now, he felt more more drawn towards the whimpering noise. It sounded pitiful, and he didn't like that. Part of him wanted to just make it stop, peacefully, and part of him wanted to see why it was there. He entered the hole with the whimpering, conjuring up a small light in case it would be very dark there. As a god, he wasn't sure if he needed that light. But it couldn't hurt, right? Not a lot, perhaps a bit. Probably.

Entering the tunnel put Daare through a winding and twisting bit of a corridor. It seemed devoid of life until it made a sharp drop off which led to a series of stairs overlooking a horrific factory style movement. In one corner a massive number of Girigori, Changelings and Deus Filli were stored, seemingly put together with a sign that said "Breeding chamber". Daare watched as a particularly large Mizzen grabbed a random Changeling and took him to a large metal frame. Strapping the Changeling in, several more Mizzen surrounded the poor man and began forcibly causing him to cast magic, which they then consumed. This particular changeling was a master of fire magic and in an attempt to escape, he started emitting an immense amount of heat. But before it could reach anything, the flames were simply diverted to the several Mizzen surrounding him. This continued until the Changeling was entirely devoid of power. His crying was put to an end when the contraption holding him put out a base and a top, slowly crushing him until he was but paste. Once that was done, the Changeling's remains were sent down a nearby hole which emitted a putrid smell.

Daare's eyes widened, as he watched what was going on. This was horrible. Dreadful. Insane! And that was coming from him. "Hey!" he said. "That's... cease what you're doing!" he yelled at the Mizzen. However, he stopped trying to reason with them, that would be far too logical for the mad fool. Instead, he attempted to inflict madness on them, a calmer, not hostile madness. That similar to a dream, and both his madness domain and flute was used for him to try to do this.

The Mizzen seemed to stop. All the whirring and the buzzing ceased and they simply sat, wide eyed at Daare. One of the Mizzen in an adjacent room came in and began shrieking. The noise was unintelligible but it would clearly alarm anything in the near vicinity.

One of the mizzen shrieked. "Stop it, Or I..." Daare said, but he didn't continue. Instead, he flew over to it, and looked at it, puzzled. "Why are you making that noise either way?" He pushed it, slightly, wanting to see if it would react to that. "Why is this happening?" he spoke not to it, but was rather speaking aloud to himself. He doubted it would answer, after all.

The Mizzen ignored Daare as several other entrances began to send in marching Mizzen. There seemed to be no end to the mechanical creatures pouring in, one after another. They had Daare surrounded and one of them spoke up in broken english. "Surrender, consume, all."

Daare looked around, although the amount of Mizzens around him didn't frighten him. It just puzzled him even more. The carpet rose a bit, away from their reach. "What if I don't want to?" he asked. "What if I don't like it down here?" He remembered the purpose he had entered for, and tried to see if he could pinpoint where the exact feeling came from, find the origin. It wasn't like these could threaten him, if they tried to, he would just teleport away.

The presence that Daare felt suddenly got stronger. A metallic banging was heard as a chair seemed to be pushed in. From far away, the steps got louder and the other Mizzen began to scurry out. Those in the breeding chamber began to hide behind one another. "It's coming! Oh gods not again!"

Daare didn't move, this was why he was here, after all. However, the reaction of the mortals were... a bit troubling. He just waited, although he shrouded himself in madness as a protection of sorts, in case something bad was about to happen.

As the presence drew close, one of the upper levels showed a decaying, rust bound Mizzen. He seemed to walk with a cane, but was clearly divine, in a terrible way. Now it was clear who this was to Daare, Ven. The Demigod of Nivix he had seen so long ago. But, at the same time it wasn't. The creature coughed and said "And what, are you?"

It looked like the demigod that had called the trial about the mizzens, just rusty and old. Daare didn't feel like it was the same demigod, though, it seemed wrong. "And what, are you?" he mirrored. "I asked first, way before you entered the room. So you answer first."

Ven had a cold look at Daare. Something was being planned. "I, am the one they call god here. I took the power of Nivix and have used it to finish the true master's plans. This was what it had in mind for the Mizzen. So I obey. You might as well surrender now, it will save you some pain."

Ven coughed a few times before making a very powerful looking glove appear in his hand. "I took this from Nivix after ripping him apart. Pretty useful, don't you think?"

"But you can't be a god. You're just a demigod who stole Nivix' powers!" Daare exclaimed. He didn't like to hear that Nivix had been torn apart, and Ven seemed to be gloating. "I am a god, however. Daare. And this true master of yours sounds like someone who could need a cup of tea, a biscuit, and some fun. Or just a beheading."

Ven's metallic laugh filled the room. "It granted me powers far beyond that of a demigod. I have kept my Mizzen alive through all of this, no others can claim such a fact! Not only am I superior to you, I am superior to all of the others as well. Except for the lady of course, but that's...a given."

Ven gathered himself and looked Daare dead in the eyes. "I don't know who you are, where you come from or why you are here, but I think I can use you to feed my Mizzen for a while. Who knows, maybe you just saved these mortals through your sacrifice?" Ven laughed and launched himself at Daare with startling speed and precision.

Daare used attempted to get away, using both his carpet for speed, and the madness surrounding him.

As Ven crashed into the ground, he made a last second decision, snapped his fingers and appeared in front of Daare on top of his Carpet. "You should know by now, that trying to avoid a fight with a god is futile." He then tried to punch Daare's face.

"I guess not," Daare said. "I'm sure we can work this out somehow, though." He smiled, trying to cause Ven to hesitate and decided, randomly, to face the punch head on, only to attempt to barely avoid it last second, and counter it with all the madness he could think of.

As Ven tried to punch Daare, his mind was violated by pure dribbling madness like he had never felt. He reached for his glove but he was rusting even worse than before. Unable to form a coherent thought, Ven collapsed on the carpet and murmured "Mercy."

Daare looked at Ven. "Do you want me to spare you? What an odd thing." He tilted his head. "Didn't all the people here ask you to spare them? Didn't Nivix want to live?" Daare laughed, but he then stopped, more smiling. "Yeah, sure, I'll spare you. Or. Should I?" He conjured up a coin, and held it out. "Do you want to check?" Something odd had come upon the usually peaceful god. Something odd. Influence from this world? Or anger? He wasn't sure.

"What? Please I..." Ven looked down at the carpet, and saw the pit he had cast his Mizzen into. Why had he failed so easily? This wasn't how it was supposed to be. "GOD! WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME? WHERE ARE YOU? HELP ME ALREADY, KILL HIM!" There was no answer.

"I've come to realize that you're not very nice. But I do think I know the reason. Who is this "god" of yours? I want to meet them." Daare went ahead and took the glove that Ven had used. "Does this still work? Because, sadly, I think I don't want to leave you alive. You're bad for the mortals, and you seem to destroy creativity and curiosity for the purpose of... this? That? The whole killing thing. I'm sorry." He aimed his abilities towards Ven, for a killing blow. "But I don't think your kind of madness is good."

As Ven's body was entirely destroyed. The glove seemed to almost talk to Daare. Wordlessly, it was trying to convince the god to put it on. He almost felt compelled to.

He felt bad for having to kill Ven, but what the other had done was not reverable when it came to a lot of mortals. They were dead, dreadfully so. Daare wasn't entirely sure what to do with the glove. He could use it, but for what? The other source? Daare didn't put it on yet, it felt off, and he didn't want to kill someone unless he had to. He tried to influence the Mizzen again, this time to stop what they were doing, and starting to help those they could help. It was a mix of madness and charm, an odd one, compelling them to become friendly towards those they had hurt, and the other to do the same.

As the change swept through the Mizzen, all of the Mizzen in the room seemed shocked at what had happened. They released the Girigori, Deus Filli and Changelings and said. "Do not go out, they will consume you if you do." The other mortals nodded, seemingly aware of what had happened. One Girigori went up to Daare and tapped on his shoulder, whispering. "Thank you. It will take some time, but eventually they will all starve and we can live here in peace. No more Mizzen might give us a chance eventually."

Daare nodded. "Yeah, it might." The mizzen would die, that was right. Ven had mentioned that. But whose right was it to let one race live, on the expenses of another? Daare wasn't someone for morals, he simply wished for everyone to be happy. And even if he couldn't do that, all he could do was to try. "I'll see you later, or perhaps not. I hope it goes well." He looked towards the Mizzen. "I'm not sure what I can do to help you. I'm sorry." He then exited the hole, and went towards the second source of dread he had felt, glove in his hand, wondering what would happen if he put it on, but keeping himself from doing so.

However, if it really could help him that much, shouldn't he put it on? Daare took another look at the glove, it tempted him again. He had to put it on... He had to make sure the source of power was gone. Something told him it was bad news, the same way Ven had been. Mortals or other gods could be hurt, and he knew it now, the portal world was as much home as the world he knew. So it mattered to him that whatever was going on was righted. He put the glove on, finally. And then everything got weird.

Daare wasn't sure what had happened, not at all. He was in the middle of nowhere, although it wasn't too far from where he had arrived through the portal, on the top of his carpet, but also on the ground, rather than in the air. Most of what had happened after he had put the glove on had been wiped from his memory, what he did remember was impossible, far too colorful and random to be true. All he really knew was that the second source of powerful dread, dreadful power, was gone. And he had been the one to get rid of it. Messily, if judging by the blood. Or perhaps it was just paint? Strawberry juice? It could be.

The glove seemed to sit naturally on his arm now, its influence... Was it over? He wasn't sure, but he decided to see if he could find any of the other gods, not at all worried that he might horribly murder them if the glove actually possessed control over his mind.
 

Dogmatic99

New member
Jun 24, 2012
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As Zareth landed, he noticed that the trees surrounding him seemed to almost move towards him. Some of the vines were starting to crawl towards him. The jungle itself was curious about what this god was.

His shadow form raised what vaguely resembled an eyebrow, brushing off the braver vines and continuing down a rough path. Plants had never been one of his strong suites or of great interest to him. Still his hands began to fidget in tension, normal jungles were not in the habit of acting like this.

The jungle began to rumble, it was clearly reacting to what Zareth did and it seemed to be communicating with itself. The bushes were shaking, the trees bending and the vines taking a greater interest into Zareth. A slight howl was heard in the distance accompanied by a larger snarl.

"Hmm." He frowned. this was just another reason Zareth had never cared for jungles or forests. They were always such moody life forms. Still at least they were never boring. Perhaps he'd have found them more interesting if he was more inclined towards the primal... Oh let's not even go there.

From seemingly nowhere, three animalistic creatures with blades for arms came rushing through the jungle, they seemed intent on simply hacking Zareth into pieces. He noticed no detectable divinity towards them. Clearly the planet did not know who he was.

The three of them howled with bloody fury, circling him like some lost lamb. What in the world are these?

One broke of from the group and charged Zareth while his back was turned, putting it's whole body into the attack as it lunged for him. Zareth looked down at his midsection, surprised to see the blade poking through it. Though he wasn't as surprised as his attacker as their whole body passed right through him and fell to the ground on the other side. It looked completely unharmed and healthy, except that it was dead.

"Oh my." Zareth looked up at the remaining two as they gawped at him in a mixture of fright and confusion. "Well go on then! Off with you!" Zareth chided them as if he was talking to a pair of naughty school children.

Seemingly unhindered, the other two ignored the lifeless body of their comrade and went straight for Zareth. Upon closer inspection, Zareth could easily notice a large amount of fungus growing around the heads of the creatures.

It was over in seconds and Zareth was left standing over the fallen trio. He had barely moved. "Carnivox probably would have found them more fun." he mused. It was only after it was done that he returned to his usual corporeal form, kneeling down to inspect them. They were like no living thing he'd seen before. Zareth absentmindedly picked at the fungus that grew over them, holding a piece of it up to the light.

The fungus was unlike anything Zareth had seen before. It raced in an attempt to escape and rejoin the forest, and after about ten seconds of this, turned to dust. The bodies of the fallen creatures also turned to dust around Zareth and the forest began consuming the remains. In the distance, the death god could feel a power being awoken.

Well it was as good an option as any that he had right now. Perhaps there he could get some answers. Zareth took flight, gliding through the forest faster than his small crow wings would suggest. A tiny drop of black against the green canvas. He couldn't shake the feeling of there be eyes upon him as the nearby vines rustled restlessly.

Without words, without noise, without emotions, a wolf-like creature appeared in front of Zareth. The left side of it was covered in yellow pulsating fungus, but without a doubt, it was Carnivox. He lashed out at Zareth without thinking and without remorse. The trees began to shake in approval and Zareth could feel thousands of eyes upon him now.

"Car?!... CAR!" Zareth squawked, dodging his attacks. "Car, what are you doing? What happened to you?!" The wolf went on, unabated. This didn't make sense. He had left Car just a little while ago at the court. He was fine. And the trees... what was going on here?

Carnivox did not respond as Zareth dodged his enslaught. The demigod made a suicidal rush at the god of death and made a mindless snarl.

"Car!" Zareth whirled around the air. Shouting out in his normal voice and flapping at the wolf's head, still Carnivox came at him, driven on by bloodlust. "Car, please talk to me!" Zareth called out desperately. Still no response. The vines were getting closer, encroaching in on them and leaving less and less space for Zareth to move.

Perhaps he could have done something smart to break or phase free, but his mind wasn't in that. Seeing Car like this, he was even yellow again. The pulsing puss filled growths were just the same colour as his eyes had been when they first met. When he was Despair. I promised I wouldn't let that happen to him, promised I'd protect him.

"Car, please." Zareth called out to him, his voice almost cracking. "Stop." Carnivox didn't stop. "Please." The vines closed in. "Don't." The unseen eyes widened in anticipation. "Don't make me do it!" Carnivox widened his jaws, ready to swallow the small bird whole.

It was like Zareth exploded. Hundreds upon hundreds of black birds filled the forest. Their eyes burning like the eye of the dead king. Their beaks and talons sharp as midnight. Their feathers shimmering with the entropy. They filled the world around them. Not a swarm or a flock but like a tide, a great wave that enveloped everything in their path. Tearing apart every tree and vine in their path, gouging great scars out of the earth and throwing the mad wolf against the trunk of a mighty tree like he was a ragdoll.

The forest recoiled in shock. Its champion, first line of defense, defeated almost effortlessly. It seemed to be in pain. The fungus that was on Carn's left side then spread to the rest of the demigod and in moments, consumed him. What was at least the body of Carnivox, was now gone. Something worse shreaked out in the forest however. From a distance, it seemed as if reinforcements were being called, albeit from halfway across the world.

That wasn't him... it couldn't be him.

Zareth forced his mind to focus, to ignore the urge to run to the fallen hunter and hold him close. Even if it was a delusion, even if it was denial, he couldn't afford to believe that was Carnivox. That, for a while at least, that was the person he had allowed himself to call Son. No! He was in an enemy world now, one that wanted him gone, or worse.

Still, whatever source was against him had left enough of a sign to make itself known. Zareth may not have known whatever it was yet but he was going to find out. The shadow casting mass of feathered death turned as one and flew straight for the origin of the primal maoning.

As far as Zareth could see, a large winged beast was gatheing its strength along with at least four other signatures. It had yet to find him but if he wasn't careful, he could end up alerting all of them.

Each crow fell low, flying close to the ground and weaving in and out of trees and thickly clustered vines. They spread out, dotting out over the vast forest floor like ants. Only one of them Zareth and yet all of them were. Something that only a god could accurately describe.

It seemed to Zareth as if all of the demigods were moving as one. They were highly coordinated and despite making no sounds or obvious commands to one another, scanned the area very cleanly. Upon discovering one of the crows, a plant-like demigod Zareth had never seen before began prodding and poking at it.

The crow perched placidly taking the prods. Quiet in the knowledge that the rest of the murder was gathering around it. Perching on nearby trees and on the flesh of this new being itself. Inspecting it with beady eyes and lightly pecking an scratching at it as they tried to gather what it might be. Each acted simply, as one might expect to look at them.

Yet all the while Zareth's true mind moved between and through all of them, gathering it's thoughts and forming plans as fast as it could.

Quickly, the demigods backed off and a voice began permeating the air. It was distinctly female but forceful, as if the hopes, dreams and despairs of an entire planet were within. "Stop this madness at once. What are you, creature?"

Thousands of crows broke into an ear splitting chorus. Their high, shrill shrieks drowning out the deep voice of the forest. Their cries sounding spiteful and primal to mortal ears. More the mindless cawing of territorial beasts than anything, but behind it all was a clear intention. "Show yourself and find out." The murder took flight again, gaining height and looking for any possible sourse of the voice.

The voice echo'd out and laughed. "I can not. For I am all you see here. I am this planet, I, am Ekiruru."

Zareth was at a loss to that. They were the planet? They were the species? No... this couldn't be Eld. This was the broken realm's fever dream. But what could he do, what SHOULD he do?

"What have you done here?" He called out to the world.

The leaves rustled as a very large ent rose from the ground, clearly not the source of the voice, but something from which the creature could speak. "I have done nothing. We were merged as one, and thus we are one. This planet is one organism, I am Eld, I am Ent, I am Ekiruru. I know nothing of how this came to be, I just am. The one you destroyed was me, the ones who may destroy you now, are me and if you are not careful, you too, shall be a part of us."

"You make it sound so tempting." A crow spoke out in Zareth's voice, it's mouth making noises which should have been impossible for something with a beak. "But I find I have a finger in every pie I come across these days." Stated another. One of the crows landed on the ent's shoulder and whispered in what was passing for an ear. "No rest for thw wicked is there?"

The ent turned and whispered to the crow. " I think I recognize you now. You are the return of the god of death it defeated so long ago. But, we did not feel you break from your prison....strange. How has this come to pass?"

My prison? Well this was interesting. Did that mean there was another version of him in this world? Perhaps it had warped them all like it had once twisted Tsuronte.

Well there was one way to find out, assuming they'd fall for it. What have I got to lose?

"Take me to the prison and I can show you." Another crow said.

The trees rustled in debate for a while, hours even. Eventually an agreement was reached and the Ent spoke again. "We have agreed. Your prison shall be shown."

In front of the ent, a massive fissure split the ground in two. The trees were shaking and the demigods watched. An amber crystal rose from the ground, still covered in molten lava. Black lightning sparked across it.

The murder's feathers all ruffled as one. Was this what waited for Zareth if he stayed here too long? Trapped like a fly in amber. They cawed and flapped their wings in frustration, giving away any unease he felt with blatant action. The lightning crackled louder as they got closer. Some pecked at the blazing hot crystal before the sparks shooed them off.

"What is this? Why is this?" They all cried out, Zareth's thoughts running rampant. He could feel something inside it... a presence. Something raging just beneath the surface. None of it felt right.

The Ent sighed. "We know little of this. It appears however, that you are not the creature held inside. It was captured by our god. Tried to rebel and was summarily destroyed like all who oppose our god will be."

Zareth felt a calling. Something inside was reaching out to him. That if he could as a whole reach inside somehow, he might be able to enter as a visitor.

----------------------​

Bit by bit the murder came together, strands of entropy coming together and covering the glowing shard like tendrils. Until they could find even the faintest cracks and enter the prison. What followed went beyond the physical plain as Zareth's presence, his very being sought out that of the thing inside the ember.

"What...are you?" He echoed, reaching out.

Zareth heard a scream as he was pulled inside the prison. A cry of anguish and of desperation. The prison was pure black nothingness, Zareth knew that the voice had been alone for an untold amount of time.

"Calm! Caaalllm." He let the thought resonate though the void and into the heart of...of whatever was lurking there. He had had enough experience calming the recently dead and the souls that struggled against their natural end to say that he was an expert at this. He reached out to the consciousness, soothing, holding it. Comforting it.

"I'm here. I'm here now." It was an old routine but one that had it's purpose. From until the end of time no doubt.

"Lies! Lies! They are all gone! Alone. Just another damned projection! Alone!"

"No!" Zareth's essence cried! And for that moment it made itself clear. The two stood, simply and plainly before each other. No tricks, no illusions. With none of the metaphors or pomp and circumstance that their kind were used to adopting in fron to others. He took his true form. In all it's glory. In all it's horror. For all he was. There was Zareth, in front of his mirror self.

"I....no." Zareth's mirror self cried. "Why are you continuing this? Isn't this prison enough?" He started mumbling again. "All dead. All gone, alone. Alone."

"If they were dead; if they were gone... you'd be free. We both know that. You know why you are what you are. If you and I are the same person then the mirror was held up to us a long time ago. And if you were as strong as I am - and I'm not all that strong - then you'd have made your peace with that by now." It wasn't something a mortal mind could really comprehend but, to put it simply, Zareth moved closer to his mirror self. Stepping closer to it. "They aren't gone. You know that. Deep down."

"Imprisoned then. You know as well as I then, that I can never escape." Zareth's mirror wasn't sure if he was actually with someone now, or if he was simply seeing another delusion. But it couldn't do him any worse now.

"It doesn't matter!" Zareth screamed out, infuriated. "We are what we are! Prisons do not matter! Forms do not matter!" He circled what passed for his other self like a wolf, almost disgusted by how pathetic it was. More so because... because he had been through it himself.

"You and I! We aren't like them, we aren't gods, we aren't ideas or people given voice and form! We are life, nature, the only damn certainty! Only some things begin but ALL things end! When did you forget that? When did they? Eldarwen thought she was all life, thought she was all creation but she discriminated by what suited her aesthetic! She warped her nature and the task that she had to serve and it destroyed her! But she-"

His thoughts trailed off, overcome by the conclusion they all added up to. "Was this Eldarwen?"

The mirror laughed. "Eldarwen? She destroyed herself rather than face torture. It took everyone's power and twisted it! It wanted to ensure none of us could escape, none of us could make this prison more bearable."

He looked down and asked quietly, "What happened to Flight and Carnivox? If you are real, then you must have come from outside? What were their fates?"

Zareth began to piece the puzzle together, what had happened in this horrible world, what had happened to things that had stood against whatever had done this. He didn't know how this had happened, he didn't know what this form of himself was but it seemed genuine... and genuine things deserved the truth.

"Carnivox was... he was covered by that fungus if something took this world then... I'm sorry but it took him. But I know he hurt it. He lived his life fighting, he'd never let anything tell him what to do, make him live a way he wouldn't want to. He's at rest now." The last part was said faintly, in mourning. A tone Zareth was all too used to. "I can't speak for Flight. I'm sorry."

"I see." The mirror Zareth spoke. "You talked about an end to all things. I think, I am ready to die as well. Could you do this?"

The two waited in silence for a long time. It might have been minutes, hours; it might have been years. In places like this, the beings like them, time was meaningless. But they could see each other. They SAW each other. For all that they were and for all that they had done and for all that had happened to them. Zareth had tried so hard, for so long, to fight against what he was and what he was made to do. In their own way he thought this version of himself had done the same. Just in a different way. He couldn't say they were right, her didn't think so looking at what had happened, but he couldn't say they were wrong either.

This was their way out. Even if he freed them from the physical prison he could never free them from what had happened. Who was he to deny them?

"As you wish."

He reached out to them, embraced them in warmth and comfort. They did not die in pain or fear. It was as if they fell asleep, like a child in their parent's embrace. They faded into something that was not life. Like sleep or peace. Not dragged or taken into it but welcomed by an inevitability that waited, oh so patiently.

"Don't worry." He soothed them. "I've seen what awaits our kind. "You'll be home soon."

Alone. Zareth was alone again. The maddened god of death was now gone. Zareth felt he could exit at any time if he wished to.

It was just like when he had embraced the voice of his creation. The promise of ascension, the idea that he could see above the pedestrian way he had viewed the world and truly know what he was and the universe around him. It was so tempting, so... words couldn't describe it! He longed to embrace it, needed to! But this wasn't his world, it wasn't his place. He needed to join the world that he had made his home and had made it's home around him.

But first he had something to finish.

----------------------​

He flowed outwards, leaving the amber prison, not as a murder of crows or a great black shadow. No at first he was a thing beyond imagining as only gods can be but, eventually, he came together. Taking together his usual form. The pale, horned man, wearing an impeccable black suit with a bright silver pocket watch tucked into the breast pocket, the chain showing on the outside. Inside the jacket pocket is a tiny knife, black as night.

His eyes do not burn or glow. They aren't things that one can get lost in. But they see you, see more than you would like. Right now they are looking at the ent in front of him "What do you have to say for yourself?" He asks in a voice that sounds far younger than he - it - is.

"Are you seeking to destroy us? We would ask for you not to. It was not I who did this."

"But you are all the same person. you said so yourself. So it was you that did this." Zareth didn't WANT to destroy anything, that wasn't his purpose in the world. In fat it would defeat his purpose but this might prove the exception. Deep down; he knew it did.

Several demigods began to hop on the Ent's shoulders. They stared at Zareth. "We would prefer if we did not have to fight. It matters little because our god will simply destroy you later, but do you truly wish to kill an entire planet?"

"Entire planets die. Sometimes in pieces, sometimes as wholes. but I don't think you understand that. Do you? You say it is your god... but you're your god or your god overtook you. Tell me, did you just not trust the mortal creatures to their own devices or did you wan this, as if they were toys or tools?"

"We were combined by it. We simply exist to survive as life does. We do what we must to continue. That is true life, can you condem us for surviving?"

"And who is talking to me now? The beings or the fungus? The god or the mortal? Carnivox... the wolf headed hunter. Did he ask for what you turned him into? Did he want you to consume him?"

"We were all made as one. Those who did not wish to become part of the whole had to be assimilated by force. That was the command of our god. The one you call Carnivox had already been claimed by our god and was simply repurposed as our defender. You speak to us all now."

So he was dead, in one way or another. And he had died fighting. However morbid it was it could drag a smile onto Zareth's face. However much this other world differed from his Carnivox remained the same. That was fitting. Despite all that had happened to him across all of time and space, despite all the wisdom all others claimed... it was always Car that really knew who he was and what he wanted to be.

But what the being had said confirmed everything he had suspected. We simply exist to survive...

"Life is never simple. Life does not exist to survive... it exists to live. You seem to have forgotten that."

"With all that has happened, it is all we can do. Please, leave us be. We have done little to harm you. This world is not your own."

True they hadn't... but in a way they had. And this world wasn't his own to lay claim to but did he owe a debt of similarity to his other self?

"What happened? What is ALL that has happened?"

"We have no answers. It wouldn't let us know. It seems some other false gods were destroyed resisting the true god."

But there was no true or false god, that was just something his kind let their egos tell them. And it denied them knowledge of things that directly involved them, not unlike others he knew. But what were these thing? They were drones, barely alive. Simply existing, breathing from one second to the other. Mortals had protested against this kind of thing for years. Euthanasia they called it.

Could he do that? It wouldn't earn him any friends here but Zareth had been so concerned with losing friends for so long. So afraid they would reject him for being what he was, for doing an unpopular task.

Perhaps it was time he took Carnivox's advice? He looked into the eyes of the things that surrounded him, looked deep into them and through them. He had a lot to decide and very little time to decide it in. At least if you viewed time as simply as mortal minds viewed it and not as death viewed it.

----------------------​

Some time later a dark feathered phoenix flew over the skies of a warped Evalon. Much like the Eld Zareth had encountered, it looked more or less the same at a glance. But upon closer inspection the whole place was a stark contrast. Zareth had yet to get a good look at the various lifeforms that littered the planet surface but this was his best chance of getting out of this world, or at least finding the others.

Evalon had always proven a hub of life and activity, attracting gods and mortals in equal measure. If the others were anywhere, or the source of all this turmoil had chosen itself a lair, odds were it was here. Either way he certainly wouldn't find anything on the alternate Eld. For now, Zareth continued looking.
 

Floris2123

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Melanthios found himself above what was clearly Salustius. Only, he couldn't feel the Deus Filli. In fact, he could barely feel anything at all. The whole planet felt empty to him, no signs of power, no movement, no magic. The pylons were clearly either destroyed, or they had never existed at all. Something was strange.

"What is going on here? It looks just like Salustius.. But at the same time so different.." He said as he flew over to the planet and landed on it. "If this is.. Salustius then where are the Dues Filli?" He wondered out loud, as he tried to find a sign of life.

In the far far distance, a small trace could be felt my Melanthios. Though it wasn't magical in nature, it certainly had a heartbeat.

He cast a spell on himself, which made him completely invisible. He then quickly took flight and flew over to it. He also cast a spell to hide any sound he might make, or smell he might have.

As Melanthios observed, the creature had a distinct look of the Deus Filli. It wandered aimlessly through the barren landscape and glowed a distinct purple. It was a giant mixture of rock and flesh without thought. Upon closer inspection, the rocks seemed similar to what the Deus Filli used primarily to make golems with.

"Oh no.. What have they done?" He said looking disgusted, he then flew over to it and tried to study it using one of his spells.

The fusion seemed to be viral in nature. A mixture of magic and biology, the Deus Filli was permanently fused with the golems he tried to control. While it could be possible to undo the transformation, the process would likely kill the creature. It took no heed of the spell and continued to walk on all fours.

"This is horrible... I can't imagine that either the other Melanthios, or one of his demigods would do such a thing.." He tried to look into its mind, trying to determine if it could still think.

Its mind was blank. Something was missing, a controller, a master it clearly used to have. Whatever that was, it wasn't with it anymore. The creature was like an ant without a queen.
"This.. This simply cannot be..." Melanthios stretched out his hand and tried to give the creature back its ability to think.

The pile of stones became cognate again. It looked down at the ground, looked up and in moments, fell to the ground. While it had no mouth to speak with, Melanthios could hear its thoughts were of nothing but pain and agony. It would scream if it could.

"What have I done?... Life once again, be what you were once!" He shouted, as he began to use all the power he could muster to turn it back into a Dues Filli.

The Deus Filli began to change, rocks no longer merged with flesh as the magus was cast back. The process however, created another being. A parasite that by now had grown inside the golem creature and attempted to once again attach itself to the Deus Filli. The parasite was an undulating blob of red flesh, stringy and difficult to identify.

"You will not torture him any longer!" Melanthios shouted, as his spells wore off and he was once again visible. He then summoned an spear in his hand and threw it right through the parasite. The spear was clearly electric and once it touched the creature it completely fried it.

The parasite fell to the ground, a single twitch occurred but then nothing. It was dead. The Deus Filli looked beyond reasoning though. "So many...why? Shields...how? I...Why did you bring me back? Wait. Are you?"

"Yes.. I am Melanthios.. But not the one you prayed too, I am from a different universe.." He summoned clothes and food for the Dues Filli. "What happened here?" He asked as he landed besides him.

The Deus Filli couldn't eat. He was too sick from the parasite's effects for that now. "We watched you do battle, all the gods were supposed to help you, but your sons turned on you and we watched as you were..." The Deus Filli looked down and said "After that, we tried to hold them off, all the other mortals on Evalon had been corrupted. Once the Mizzen arrived, they ate through our magic somehow and there was nothing we could do. Everyone was infected, killed and turned into one of those. The last thing I remember is looking towards Coelus."

"... I hope this helps." He said as he cast the most potent healing magic he knew on the Dues Filli. "This.. Who did this... This shouldn't have happened.."

"If you leave, they will come." The Dues Filli said.

"Who... Who will come?" He asked sounding worried.

"All of them. Sharp teeth, ready to sink in and then the dwarves will..." The Deus Filli shook his head and began to cry. "There isn't anything anyone can do now. It's too late."

"Perhaps there is...On my side the Dues Filli yet life.. Their magic is far beyond anything you can imagine... Let me take you there... Let me safe you from all of this." He said stretching out his hand, looking hopeful at the Dues Filli.

"Do you mean it?" The Deus Filli looked up. "That would be great!" He took Melanthios' hand and said "But how are we going to escape?"

"Simple.. I can't leave yet... But I can take you in, allow you to exist within my body until we are safe.. But in return you must promise me, to tell me everything you know of this realm." He said, as he grabbed his chest and seemed to open it making a strange portal appear on his chest.

This was probably the easiest decision he could have made. Join his god or die horrifically. "Deal." The Deus Filli began to move to the portal.

Melanthios took the Dues Filli in and the portal closed behind him. He quickly cast every cloak spell he knew on himself and then retreated into his mind where the Dues Filli should be right now. The inside of his mind had always been kept clean and looked like a small library with a few chairs.

The Deus Filli sighed and seemed much more comfortable now. It had been so long since he had felt a library. It seemed like this was a dream. "So, what do you want to know?"

"As much as possible.. What age was it when this fight happened and who did they fight?" He asked as he sat down. He also moved his hand, once again making food appear and also some good quality wine.

The Deus Filli sighed. "Back in the third age, that was when this all happened, the gods started acting weird. They said someone was coming, a mistake they had made in the first age. We called it the first folly, but it had yet to harm anyone. We had no idea what it could do though. Even as the gods began to unite, enemies making temporary alliances, it was in movement. As the gods separated to make final arrangements, it struck and soon every single demigod was corrupted. They turned on their fathers, brothers or masters and the Dark One then sealed the gods in prisons. After that, the dwarves were turned into carriers of its disease, soon taking all of Evalon. The last thing I remember was when the Mizzen took down our shields and the dwarves began infecting us. Coelus probably fell soon after."

"That sounds horrible.. " He said as he placed his glass down and after a few seconds of thinking he asked "But what is it that they feared? We have not been attacked by anything and neither do I know about a mistake.. Tell me who were you before all this happened? A mage, or a scientist? And how long did the Dues Filli hold out?" He wondered what else was different about this realm.

"I was a scientist. The Magi got it much worse, dragged off to be turned into food for the Mizzen. I can't imagine what is happening on Evalon now. Either way, they are all dead by now. They have to be." The Deus Filli thought for a moment. "I don't know what it is exactly, Ailish tried to open a portal, but when Seith hindered her and the other gods, citing that it would end horribly, a few others, namely Pentar, and yourself agreed and it seems by your actions, something had been made. Something more than a god, it hid beyond sight immediately, but around the third age, it began to make moves and the gods finally decided to strike it down."

"Ailish." He spit out the name, sounding disgusted. "That... That thing.. It was a portal creature, just trying to corrupt us all.. Luckily I managed to strike it down, but got wounded in the process.." He said remembering his scar. "Still... What did he do to all of you? It looks like you were merged with an golem... And what was that parasite thing?" He asked sounding a mix between disgusted and curious.

"I...I don't know. The Dwarves carry it but I don't know why it did that. Perhaps an idea of irony? I can't tell. We were doing fine, blocking the space whales for years until it finally reprogrammed the Mizzen to feed on magic. I imagine that's how they got the Girigori as well."

"The dwarves carry them? And the Mizzen feed on magic? That sounds troubling... What happened to the demigods after they betrayed the gods?" He then asked worried.

The Deus Filli's face got pale as he spoke slowly. "They were either brainwashed...or they died. All of them."

He shuddered and then looked into his glass. "How many are left? And what did they do with the gods after they were defeated?"

"Most, actually. Your demigods sit in the palace awaiting further orders from their master. As to what happened to the gods...almost all were imprisoned, except for two. Eldarwen destroyed herself and Roe..." the Deus Filli sighed. " Roe got it worse than anyone else."

He slowly nodded as he finished his glass. "We should have never come here.." He said as he stood up looking miserable. "Do you think it would be possible to either save the demigods, or free the gods?" He asked as he grabbed his staff.

"Honestly, I have no idea." The Dues Filli said replying to his question.

"Fair enough... Well then enjoy your stay here, I will appear here again when we are safe." He said as he walked over to a door and put on his robe and other items of power and activated them.

At this point, all of the surges of power from Melanthios had attracted a tiny bit of attention. Far in the distance, he could detect his children, they were awakening.

He landed on the planet and made a clone of himself. "I should be able to take them out separately without too much of a problem." He thought as he and his clone both flew in a different direction.

As Melanthios was racing to the opposite ends of the planet, he could feel a massive action being taken place. His children were scrying the whole planet for him.

Melanthios closed his eyes and made another four clones which all split up. He then focused all the power that he possessed and tried to stop their scrying.

All was silent for a moment, Melanthios heard a voice from beyond which he had no recollection of ever witnessing before. "As hard as you try, you can not escape." Within moments, Akladai and Maeglin appeared before Melanthios.

Melanthios landed and all the clones vanished. "Hello." He said as he looked at them and put all the power he had into defending himself.

Maeglin spoke. "Our god has told us to kill you again, father. Try not to scream as much this time." Maeglin and Akladai immediately lunged out at Melanthios.

He deflected the both of them and then jumped back as he spun his staff around. "I see you have grown stronger.. But you are still not strong enough to win. I am saddened that I have to strike you down, but at least in defeat you will both be saved." He said with a pained face, as he pointed his staff at Maeglin and fired a controlled beam of pure dark magic.

As Maeglin and Akladai rushed in for a second attack, Maeglin found himself consumed by pure darkness. Their attacks did no damage to Melanthios and Maeglin fell defeated onto the ground. Akladai paid no heed to this and made another attack at Melanthios.

"How did you fall this low?" He asked as he looked at Akladai with an angry expression and focused a bit more power into defending himself. He then pointed at Akladai and fired off a million small black knives.

As Akladai saw the unending torrent of knives. He screamed. "YOU SHOULDN'T BE BACK! I DEFEATED YOU AND TOOK YOUR THRONE! I WON! I-" Akladai coughed up a torrent of blood and dropped to the ground near his brother. Melanthios could feel that neither were dead yet, and if he left them alone, they would eventually recover.

Melanthios looked at both his sons and he felt his knees shake heavily. He then fell to his knees and looked at both his sons as tears began to gather in the corners of his dark eyes. "I should have protected you..." He said as he began to lift himself back up using his staff. He then slowly walked over to them and tried to say where their power came from.

Melanthios could identify three different items of power on Akladai and Maeglin. Inside of Akladai, he could identify an orb and a staff, they were woven into his being, artificially increasing his power. The object inside of Maeglin, Melanthios could not recognize, though the same process had clearly occurred.

"He will pay.." He slowly said as he looked at them both. "I will make sure this never happens again... Now rest you have deserved it." He said as he focused his power and then attempted to destroy Maeglin and then Akladai.

As Maeglin was destroyed Akladai made a hateful look at his father. "You can't stop it. It will devour you again." The blasts ripped their bodies apart, but their items remained on the ground, calling to Melanthios.

He looked at them both and wanted to pick them up.... But something inside of him said refused. These had aided the horrible things his corrupted children had done.. They needed to be destroyed. Melanthios focused his power once more and attempted to destroy the remaining ones.

While the orb was destroyed, the other two simply absorbed the power Melanthios sent into them.

He looked surprised he then focused his power once more. He tried to bury them underground, making them unreachable for now.

As the objects were sent into the planet's core, Melanthios could now sense something very faint. The existence of his sons was covering it until now. It felt...like himself.

Melanthios shivered as he grabbed his staff tighter. "This thing is strong... Stronger then anything I have ever seen before.." He then tried to sense if there was anything else on the world and he tried to listen if he could someone praying to him in this dimension.

There was nothing but silence.

He looked up at the sky and focused trying to see if he could see another god or anything else of interest.

The faint power still existed though, Melanthios was able to figure out he could possibly go to it.

Melanthios flew upwards as he slowly headed over to the power as he braced himself for what was waiting for him.

he neared it, the desolate ruins of a palace could be seen. Something felt familiar about it, though at least a tiny bit different. The power was inside, weakly struggling.

He flew inside as he tried to hide himself as good as possible using his spells.

Inside, Melanthios saw a dark gem sitting on a table. It radiated power and was the size of a small glass for drinking. Then it dawned upon him, that this was a prison, much like the one he put Seith into.

Melanthios flew over to it and tried to look into it, feeling a bit bad as he remembered what he had done to Seith.

Melanthios couldn't see anything inside it, though he noticed a way to enter. Likely whoever made the prison wanted to be able to enter it himself, at least as a visitor.

He walked inside of it a bit hesitantly, as he ended the spells to hide himself.

Inside of the gem, wasn't what he expected. A long hallway presented itself to him. It only went in one direction, but he could feel an intense presence of magic nearby.

He slowly walked towards it, holding his staff ready to defend himself if needed.

At the end of the corridor, Melanthios saw an impenetrable glass looking view, with horrors inside he had never expected. Inside, he saw himself, being assaulted by an unending torrent of a twisted version of his own magic. The mirror of himself seemed calm now, though occasionally he twitched.

"Hello Melanthios..." He said attempting to remain calm, but his face betrayed anger and guilt.

"I could feel you from inside this prison. The one who put me here, he let me feel everything outside, so I would know my children belong to him. Welcome."

Melanthios looked at himself and suddenly everything came crashing down, the pain of having to murder his own sons, the pain of being tortured for 5000 years and having to live every moment knowing your children were still in pain. It was almost as if he knew what the other him felt like and in return his other half looked at him his eyes holding a bit more power then before. "This is the first time in my life, that I feel true pity for someone.. " He said as his human form began to wash away, revealing the dark shade which had hidden its face for ages now.

The other Melanthios looked at him and then spoke again "Thank you.. You gave my sons peace, now I can finally be put to rest. " He said sounding hopeful.

Melanthios shook his head. "You know I cannot set you free.. Not as long as the questions still remain. "

The other Melanthios looked at him, with nothing but sadness and pain. "Please, set me free, I have nothing left anymore.. I just want, peace. "

He looked back up at himself as he once again shook his head. "You have everything left, when we were just created.. What did we have? Nothing only questions, but now we have answers.. The thing we have always longed for, you and I both know we can't find peace unless we find all the answers."

The other him looked at him with a sad look in his eyes and it seemed like time froze around him. Neither of them even blinked as they felt the information going back and forth. Soon they would both perish and in their places a single Melanthios would be born.. This one would have two bodies.

---------

A few hours later Melanthios walked out of the prison as he grabbed the gem and placed it inside of him. The old him was gone and so was his other tortured half.. The thing that remained was different, but he wasn't sure himself how he was different. He looked up at the sky as he flew off, he intended to find out just what had changed.
 

JoJo

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Petal - 8

Buying the ship had been the simplest part of Petal's journey, it was easy enough for her to summon the necessary credits out of thin air when the craft dealer's eyes were turned elsewhere. It was a small craft with just two rooms, an accelerated nuclear core and a basic AI command system but it was perfect for the game she wanted to play. Soon enough the little demigod was piloting the ship out from the high spires of Neor into outer space. Or not so little really, since Petal had quickly found it was most practical to disguise herself as an adult woman on her space faring trips, it garnered far less questions than the alternative. She preferred her natural child form of course, but even so she thought the dark Rowan woman with an eye patch staring back at her in the dashboard reflection was rather beautiful.

"Having boobies is fun," the young girl told Woof, who sat loyally beside her chair in his usual canine form, "they wiggle if you shake them, look!" She demonstrated to the dog, who barked appreciatively. "I wonder if Roe would like them..." Suddenly a flashing light appeared in front of her.

"You are entering Quadringa state airspace, please identify yourself," an automated voice droned out of the speakers.

"Wha... I'm eh... pilot Crimson Cedar!" Petal said quickly, blurting out the first name that came into her head. "My ship is number 720 JAS and we are carrying food aid for the Kinderven,"

"Welcome Ms Crimson to the Children's Republic of Quadringa, the thirteenth state of the United Republic of Evalon. Please land in docking port C for inspection."

A small portal appeared in the great bubble which surrounded the city and the ship flew through hastily, the hole closing as soon as they passed through so no mischievous winged Kinderven could take advantage. Petal saluted the Quadringa flag as the ship descended past the metropolis's highest structure, the Old City monument.


From up high, the ends of the giant protective shield that kept the Kinderven apart from the rest of Coelus could clearly be seen meeting the great wall that surrounded the lower half of the city. Not only was this wall patrolled by Republic guardsmen and women but it also well walked by human tourists, who gaped through binoculars at the chaotic metropolis below before moving on to the other sights of the Grigori planet. Quadringa itself was restricted to those who were specially licensed to be there, mainly traders and missionaries, to preserve the immortal children's lifestyle as they wished.

"This trip is going to be fun," Petal told her pet happily as their ship landed gently in the docking station.

Roe - 30, 2

As Roe stared in awe, around him, a very quick burst of movement began to surround him. Creatures who's form seemed both definite and undefined looked at him with blank expressions. Their bodies were black as the night, and shook with seemingly little reason. One's maw began to open and it let out a blood curdling scream. Soon all of the creatures began to rush at Roe, sharp shadowy teeth extended outwards, hands curved into wicked hooks.

The young god yelped at the sight of the creatures and leapt into the air, hovering above them with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. They gathered beneath him, trying to grasp at his feet and muttering to each other in garbled whispers. Roe reached out and gingerly prodded one with his fingers.

"What are you?" he said aloud to the creatures.

The creatures began trying to eat the boy's fingers. Some tried to cut them off, but it seemed the last thing they intended to do was talk to the god of children.

"Ah!" Roe cried and withdrew his hands quickly as they tried to nibble off the ends of his fingers, "that's mean," he told the creatures crossly and pointed at one angrily, a second later it exploded into a cloud of dark confetti. "Now, tell me who you are!" he asked loudly.

"Evil Child!" The shadows began repeating. They began chanting in a language the young god could not understand, likely it was just babble, the only thing intelligible he could make of the unending whispers was "The Lady". The shadows began to flee in all different directions.

"I'm not evil, you are!" Roe responded sulkily to the fleeing creatures and made a second one explode in spite. He wondered what they were, he had never seen a mortal race so wretched in his universe before.

Roe could feel in the distance an extraordinary power, something felt reminiscent about it. Past that, an even stronger power loomed over, both had something about them that seemed odd. Now alone, he also could feel something strange out in the mountains close by.

Roe glided away from the beach inland, across a shadowy forest towards the reminiscent power. It felt the closer than either the mountains up north or the greater power that loomed on the horizon. As he approached, he could see a brutal act occurring below. Fatter, squishier shadows were being culled up by a group of thinner shadows. They were lined up and tied. Forced to walk in sequence. Whatever they were marching to, Roe didn't know.

The young god shrouded himself with a light mist and then once he was sure of his disguise, followed the marching shadows with curiosity to see where they were heading.

As the shadows moved forward, one silently cut his ropes and tried to run. A large howl could be heard and soon a three headed dog, the size of a skyscraper burst through the trees and gobbled the fatter shadow up. Timidly, the thinner shadows offered the fatter shadows to the beast, who began gorging on them.

Roe gasped silently at the gigantic dog, he could sense a great deal of power coming from the beast. He descended closer in his mist form to get a closer look.

The great three headed beast ended up finishing his food, sniffing the mist it made a large howl. One of the shadows yelped and everyone began scattering again. It seems the creature saw through Roe's disguise.

The white dog growled angrily at Roe's cloud and then suddenly leapt up at the young god, it's three mouths biting as one. Roe condensed his form into back into that of a boy and flipped backwards, drawing out Skye out of it's sheath hurriedly. He ducked under the dog's left head and swiftly cut it's throat with a jab of his short sword. The dog's other heads snarled and turned on the young god but he grasped onto the beast's collar and swung himself onto it's back. It's right head snapped at Roe's heels and he buried his sword deep into it's neck, grinning as the head shuddered and died. The dog took advantage of the boy's momentary loss of concentration and bucked, throwing the child face first into the dirt. Roe scrabbled around on the ground as the beast loomed over him and finding his sword with the tips of his fingers, grabbed hold on the blade and thrust it into the beast's gaping mouth. Blood ran down the hilt and then with a terrible howl the dog collapsed into a heap on the ground, slain. Roe breathed a sigh of relief and with a grunt pulled Skye back out from between the beast's jaws.

"Hey, you killed my dog!"

Roe spun around on hearing a voice behind him and recoiled at the sight of the young girl standing behind the slain beast. Her ebony mess of hair contrasted sharply with the deathly paleness of her skin, one eye glowed a menacing red whilst the other was covered by a mass of scar tissue. A white wedding dress flecked with drops of blood hung off her thin frame and a wide grin was spread across her features.

"Roe!" she squealed happily and bounced up to him, wrapping her arms around the boy tightly, "How are you alive? I thought you were dead!"

"It just... I... Petal?" the young god stammered in confusion, "I came from another world through the portal," he added weakly.

"Don't be silly Roe, there's nothing on the other side of the portal," she laughed, before suddenly switching to a more sombre tone "Why did you kill Woof?"

"That was Woof?!" Roe exclaimed, suddenly the strength of the beast made much more sense.

"He was eating the poor mortals for me," Other Petal replied with an exasperated sigh, "Now how will I save them?"

"Why was he eating them?" the boy asked hesitantly.

"Don't you remember what I told you before you died last time? The Great One helped me see that being alive is the worsest type of hurt there is and I really can't let anyone get hurt Roe, it makes me very sad when people are unhappy," She reached forward to stroke his cheek gently with her bloodstained fingers, "I'd forgotten how lovely you are, I don't know why you're alive again but I can't let you be hurt any more,"

"What?" Roe stepped back and reached for the hilt of his sword, he could already sense what the girl meant, "I don't want to die, I like living more than anything! Well, anything except one thing..."

"You said that last time silly!" Other Petal giggled, "You gave up in the end and let me do it though and I know you were really glad afterwards,"

"You can't be glad of anything if you're dead," Roe pointed out.

"I can't wait until everyone in the universe is dead and then I can die too and we can be together again..." the young girl sighed with a faraway look in her eyes, before suddenly turning her gaze on Roe again. "Do you want to play before I kill you?"

"I said I don't want to die, you idiot!" the child god replied angrily and brought out Skye. "What are you? You're nothing like her!" he yelled.

"I'm your wife, Roe," she replied sweetly with her arms outstretched, "Now hold out your neck..."

"No!" Roe shouted and taking his sword, thrust it forward as hard as he could. The Other Petal gasped and closed her eyes in pain as Skye sunk through her stomach and out of her back. She collapsed silently onto the ground besides Other Woof and lay spread-eagled across the mud, black blood seeping from her wounds.

"I'm sorry," Roe said desperately as he knelt besides her, "I really didn't want to have to do that, but I love being alive so much and the other Petal, the real Petal, I'd do anything to get back to her. I can't die here."

"Oh Roe..." the little girl whispered, "I'm... now... free... no... more.. hurt...". She shuddered and then fell still.

 

Belmarc

New member
Nov 24, 2012
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<spoiler=Aen's Portal Story>
The others had gone before him. It had been a surprise, what had happened to Pentar, and without warning the others were charging in. He took care of what little needed to be done, set his demi-gods to their tasks, and stepped through after his peers, bringing little but his swords, guantlet, and the clothes on his back.

As Aen entered, his demigod felt a highly intrusive force, it was telling him to betray his master, to kill Aen. It felt highly compelling, but through force of will, it barely managed to shake off the attempt. Aen landed in what most would call a death trap. The ground was laden with very sharp spikes and seemed to be what was once the great mountains of Evalon. Now just a series of thin very tall pillars erecting themselves from the ground.

Aen stared, wide eyed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Man... this is not what I was hoping to find. And no one around, either. Looks like it's just you and me for now, Sollus."

'Y-yeah,' it replied weakly, it's usual bright lights dim, even in the dullness of the world around them. 'But, Aen... there's something wrong with this place.' The gauntlet sent the message to him directly, through their shared connection, so Aen would understand the danger. The god's face grew grim, but he forced a smile.

"Heh, we'll be fine. Nothing we can't handle. Now let's try and track Zareth. Excitement tends to follow the poor guy around." Aen broke out into a run, swords drawn and ready, both beings searching the surroundings for signs of life, friendly or otherwise.

In the far west past all the great pillars of stone, Aen could feel a large amount of movement going on. As well as a fight. Something big was happening.

Drawn by the sense of what invigorated him most, Aen pushed on, towards the great commotion. Either he'd find his allies, or he'd find enemies. Either way, it was better than all this boring nothingness.

In the distance, a large group of shadowy figures with what he could only figure had blades for arms, were battling rage addled dragons. The dragons were picking up and dropping the shadows left and right, setting some ablaze and eating others. The shadows were coming in endless packs, Aen watched as one of the dragons was hopped upon by several shadows, their blades digging deep into its neck as the winged beast was brought down to the ground, though kept alive for some reason.

Aen stopped short of the battle. How could he choose between two unknown forces, neither seemingly better than the other. He gripped Judgement in his hand tightly, focusing it's powers upon the two groups, hoping to decide which was innocent and which guilty.

Both sides showed innocent on Judgement.

Gritting his teeth, he reached out with his mind towards a member of both groups, searching for information on why they were fighting.

As Aen looked into the minds of the mortals, he saw nothing but a searing pain in the dragons, and the minds of the shadows were largely blank. The dragon that had been taken down was now being wrapped up in rope which another shadow brought.

As Aen healed the dragons of their pain, one of the dragons telepathically sent a thank you, but as that happened, a small shudder was heard.

Three different demigods all appeared in front of Aen almost instantly, he recognized none of them. Some were brandishing an ax, the other flames and a final one had a magician's robe on. Each seemed powerful in their own ways.

Sending a return thought to the dragons with a kind warmth, he turned to the three figures before him, his swords ready but not aggressively so. Perhaps they could be talked to. "Er... hello there. You wouldn't happen to have a map? Or a sense of morals I could reason with, would you?"

The one in the robe reached for a wand, and immediately shot a blast of magic out at Aen while the fire wielder also sent out his own version of fire magic. All the while, the ax wielder disappeared into the magic, only to reappear next to Aen and made a quick swing at Sollus

"Ah, didn't think so," Aen quipped quickly, barely able to say it as they struck at him. His first thought was defense, the gaunlet's power springing forth to defend Sollus itself, Judgement swinging to deflect the blow. Sollus hardened Aen's blood, shielding him from the blunt of the force as Aen struck out with his own strength at the axe wielder, being the closest.

Despite the hardening from Sollus, Aen's defenses were broken by the combined might of his two opponents. This caused Aen to hesitate a fraction with his strike on the ax wielding assassin, who brought his weapon hard on Sollus, who was mortally wounded by the blow. Aen then brought Judgement down on his foe, killing the other demigod as well.

From there, the other two demigods continued their focus on Aen, seemingly oblivious to their fallen compatriot.

Aen ran towards the enemy pyromancer, the rage building in his blood as the hardening wore away. Still, he didn't allow himself to succumb to that rage, and defended himself with the gauntlet and Judgement, striking out only with his original sword. He'd see each of these felled by it if it was the last thing he did.

His blade had tasted the blood of both of them, but it was still not enough. They sat their, weakened, vulnerable. All it would take would be one quick slice, and they'd join their axe wielding friend. But... no... no... he needed them alive. He needed to understand what was happening. "Drop your weapons and kick them away if you want to live," he commanded gruffly. Inside, through their shared blood, he could feel Sollus slipping away. Again, he'd lost them. Again, he couldn't protect them. Still, it seemed... almost happy, as it faded away. He caught the spirit that remained gently, the way he'd learned from watching Zareth, and stored it away. This time, he wouldn't bring them back to the realm of the living, but he'd not let it rot in this place.

As the demigods sat and stared, one's eyes grew wide. "Master, no! Please! We tried so hard we-" In a small detonation of blood and guts, both of the demigods in front of Aen died in front of him, now covered in crimson. Any trace of their items also was gone.

Covering his face with his arm to shield himself from the worst of it, Aen stilled found himself drenched and coated. "Figures," he mumbled, not failing to see the twisted irony. Wiping himself off, he studied the... wreckage, as it bested suited it, and returned his attention to the matter he was dealing with before. He'd gone through a lot of trouble to heal those dragons, so perhaps they could offer some kind of explanation.

One of the dragons was perched up far on a peak away from the chaos below. The dragon that had been captured was now being dragged far off. Aen could feel the dragon on the peak calling to him.

Aen rushed over to the dragon calling for his attention, hoping to understand the situation before involving himself further.

"Aen, I recognize you. Have you finally returned to save us? I thought Grix had locked you away forever! This is splendid news, the dragons may finally be able to rise to greatness once more! Please, tell me, how did you escape?"

"Locke-- Grix would never do that! I'm not even sure he could! I didn't escape anything, I've come here from... a portal. Though, if I exist here already as well... perhaps..." Aen trailed off, lost in thought. There were plenty of things that it could be, and he didn't like any of them. "Just... please tell me what is going on."

The dragon seemed confused. "I won't pretend to understand the gods, so I will just comply. You were locked away when Grix betrayed you. The other demigods also betrayed their masters and well...all of my kind were cursed with a violent plague that drove us mad with pain. This was put on top of all of us being cut off from our partners. Those that haven't been infected yet will likely gather now. You have given us a chance, thank you."

"And those... shadow men. What are they and what are they doing with the dragons they take away?"

The dragon sighed a deep long bellow. "I don't even know how to describe it. If you follow, I am sure you will see what they are doing. The shadow men used to be changelings, they follow a dark god now."

Aen rolled his eyes. "Yes... plenty of those. Thank for the information."

As Aen followed the trail, he could feel the fear build up in the captured dragon, now sentient, he was aware of what was about to happen and began struggling again. A large roar broke his struggling however, as a large dark red dragon covered in pulsating ulcers and bony spikes came flying down with several other dragons in the same style, they carried a highly bloated dwarf in their mouthes and dropped it on the dragon, who instantly exploded, releasing several crimson parasites who began burrowing inside the dragon.

Wide-eyed, Aen did not need to see further to understand. He could assume what came next. Was Grix truly he one behind this. If so... what about the others. What had happened to them? And not just his demi-gods. His friends. Even his enemies. All... gone? "Perhaps we should have held hands when we entered. At the very least I would have gotten to see the sour look on some of their faces..." His next course of action decided, he returned to the dragons, prepared to raise an army.

As Aen left, the largest of the crimson dragons stopped and laughed. "Aen, is that you? I recognize you stench, come out now before I have to teleport. I felt your presence earlier, looks like my god's reception team failed."

Sighing, the god turned around. "Ah. Grix. Good to see you, though it could be on better terms. You've really turned this place around, huh? And what's this I hear about you sealing me away?" He glared daggers at the dragon, wishing he could stab him that way. "Care to explain yourself?"

"I do as my god commands me to of course. I spread his influence to the rest of my kind and rule over them as sovereign. How did you escape from your prison? Shame really, this time, I think I will just have to kill you like Petal did to Roe."

"Couldn't even face me in battle the first time, eh? Even the little girl killed her partner. I thought you were a dragon, not a giant chicken!" he called out, his blades drawn. Whoever... whatever, he was fighting, it wasn't Grix. At least, not the one he'd left behind. Steeling himself, he remembered all the things he was fighting for, readied his blades.

Grix flapped his wings and made a dive straight for Aen, his claws at the ready to rip into his former friend once more.

Going on the defensive, he choose to bolster his defenses, striking out with his remaining strength.

As Aen and Grix clashed, neither's defenses gave way. Grix turned around and yelled "I will not let you get in the way of my rule!" and slashed a mighty claw right at Aen's face.

Attempting to roll underneath Grix claw, Aen brought Judgement and his runic sword up from below, striking straight out at Grix's throat.

Grix managed to dodge out of the way, still taking a massive gash in his shoulder. The dragon snarled and began drawing in for a massive breath attack.

Charging straight in, all thoughts of defending himself gone, Aen struck out with all this might, leaping into the air and bring both swords down upon the dragons head, screaming out in a worldless battle cry as he did.

Grix managed to catch himself mid attack and grabbed Aen's swords with his claws, his hands began to bleed as the swords sunk in, but Grix was determined not to lose and continued his assault.

Sliding his blades out of the dragon's grip, cutting them further as he did, Aen ducked under the dragon, and piercing where he knew it would be from countless shared moments, plunged both his swords through whatever was left of the twisted dragon's heart.

As Grix fell into Aen's sword, the other dragons had already left the area by now, scattered and leaderless, though Aen knew not how many of them existed. Now that most interference was gone, Aen could feel a power nearby under the earth, it too felt familiar.

Aen may not have had a connection to the beast he felled, but he could steal feel it's life ebb away. "I am sorry... my brother." He wrenched his weapons out cleanly, wipining away what blood remained. He lingered only a moment at Grix's side before investigating this new presence.

As Aen scanned the presence, it felt increasingly familiar, very personal, but also rather weak.

He groaned. "It's like I said "this couldn't get any worse."

Bracing himself for what horror he might find, he whisked himself away to the essence leaking out from underground.

Around him, Aen saw nothing but blackness and a very large sword in the middle of the ground. Something was inside the sword and was struggling inside it. Upon close inspection, the sword was the same one he was born with. Everything about it was the exact same.

Hesitant, Aen sheathed Judgement, and, holding out his own copy of the sword, reached out a hand to touch the copy.

Instantly, Aen felt himself being pulled directly into the sword, though he felt he could leave at any time if he wished. He was surrounded by mirrors displaying the events going on across his own kind. Each one followed a different dragon or changeling and would have likely told a horrible tale of misery. Next to Aen, was himself.

Aen watched in pained silence as scene upon scene of tragedy played out. All mortals lived through tragedy in some way or another, but as a whole... his people... his entire people... And all the gods, felled and sealed over and over. He felt this, and inside of that the numb ache of the other self that had seen this all happen over and over.

He needed to speak no words. He must have felt it when it happened. His partner lay dead. His expression was bittersweet, sad to see his best friend fall, glad to see him free of the evil that had befallen him. Befallen both of them. Whatever taint had seeped into Grix had infected his partner across the bond, slowed and weakened by the strain caused by the imprisonment, but still there. And the loss, the emptiness where part of his soul had been. There was no pleading, only a determined glare in the eyes of his copy. He signed only one rune, passing it to the younger self. In a moment, he thrust his blade through the alternate Aen's heart, the same way he'd slain Grix.

"May you find freedom in death," he whispered, feeling himself pulling away as the prison collapsed. In his hand remained only the sword, empty of all but an echo.

Wrenching the sword free from where it lay, he fled the underground for the pillars where he had started, and, choosing the tallest one, sat and waited, extending himself to find the others.
 

drmigit2

New member
Dec 25, 2008
1,195
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?Those insufferable human bastards! I swear by Cassiel they will rue the day they dared bring me such a treaty! Bring the Kinderven back to Coelus? Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable!?

?Zabekiel, if you don?t sign this, I will turn you into a choo choo train and ride you into a wall.?

Ezekiel was calmly sitting in the corner of Zabekiel?s office. He had removed his Kinderven fangs in order to hide better and Zabekiel simply told everyone he was working on an experimental cure to the Kinderven virus and had simply adopted Ezekiel. It was a simple arrangement, but in Ezekiel?s eyes, he was the one who had adopted Zabekiel. Without Casssiel to keep a watchful eye, Zabekiel might have actually managed to kill off humanity, but that result wasn?t possible anymore with Ezekiel looming over with his small hands.

Zabekiel looked over to Ezekiel with hate filled eyes and threw his pen at the wall, shattering it into pieces. He sighed and looked down. ?Fine.? He grabbed another pen out of a nearby cup and signed the treaty. Ezekiel teleported to the treaty and said on the intercom ?The treaty is signed. Please come and take it to the president.?

Ezekiel sat down next to Zabekiel, he was happy to tug his brother?s chain a bit, remind of him his failures. ?Want to get some ice cream to celebrate another age of peace??

?No.?

?The Ekiruru situation still isn?t solved, you know.?

?The rebels aren?t a threat to anything.?

?Not true.?

?What??

Ezekiel created a small television and played a series of videos showing several different battles. Three separate cities were on fire and had been utterly destroyed, their inhabitants strung about everywhere. ?Kind of reminds me of someone, you and their leader might want to share some wine.?

?I?m not like him.?

?His kids certainly think you are.?

?Well I?m not.?

?Anyway.? Ezekiel was playfully floating about, seemingly in his own word while he droned his orders. ?You need to solve that. I imagine some god probably pissed them all off which means I can?t very well stop it without using most of my power, and honestly, I can?t risk being powerless without Cassiel being around, so you have to save Eld.?

Zabekiel remembered Eld, he had sent ambassadors out earlier but very little had come of it, some fancy wooden tables and cheap trinkets were hardly what he needed. These rebels however, certainly made this more interesting. Zabekiel got out of his chair. ?I will handle Eld the way I see fit, understand? Keep Coelus safe for me.?

?I am still working on that chain disease case, so I can do that while working with my sources. Play nice with the plant people.?

?Of course. When I give you the signal, teleport me and then a bunch of weapons over, but only send the weapons when I request them, got it??

Ezekiel wasn?t under any impression that his brother intended to play diplomacy here, but frankly, the Ekiruru had been like this before, and letting his brother loose on them to stop these gals from taking over was worth it. As Zabekiel left the room, Ezekiel wondered aloud ?I wonder who did this?Maybe I should pay them a visit.?


Back on Eld, a congregation of the leaders of all the surrounding cities to Alaymia was occurring. Nobody seemed to be taking charge and they all were arguing. ?They killed Eldarwen?s princess! We should take their heads!?

?The rebels are still our sisters, we should try peace.?

?Didn?t you see what happened in Maylin? They will kill everyone they see, these Ekiruru can not be reasoned with!?

One of the older ones sighed. ?Maylin was the second most advanced city on Eld right after Alaymia, which they captured. It fell in less than a day. Let?s be honest, do we really even stand a chance now??

The room was silent, nobody wanted to admit their doom, but the situation was grave now. Suddenly, Zabekiel came bursting through the door, several guards next to him. ?I heard we were having a problem, ladies. A few dirt eating rebels threatening to rip your people into shreds? Maybe if you had bothered to trade a bit we wouldn?t have this discussion. Such a shame really.?

Most of the Ekiruru recognized Zabekiel, half knowing him from his attack on the everchildren and half from his attempt to gain lands on Eld, likely to use them instead of respecting them. ?Come to gloat, Zabekiel? Or have you joined the rebels and came to kill us yourself? Are you so low??

Zabekiel sighed. He hated dealing with lesser beings. ?The Ekiruru on Coelus have such good manners too. I suppose living in the wilds so long has probably lowered your mental capacities, so I will speak slowly. I, have come, to save you from these rebels. I will provide your forces with superior weapons, drive the rebels out, and kill them.?

The older green lady stuck a pointer finger at Zabekiel and said ?But not for free? What kind of deal are we making here??

Zabekiel smiled. ?I?m glad you asked. In return for saving your primative lives, I want sole ownership of every city we reclaim, you can keep your capital under the condition I get to appoint a few advisors to her court.?

A silence fell over the room. The Ekiruru looked gravely at each other. It was true they seemingly stood little chance, but to give up lands to be used. Was this really worth it? One spoke up ?What if we decline??

?Then I let the barbarians burn you.?

?The angels used to be so nice?.?

Zabekiel laughed. ?And we still are, after all, the humans certainly haven?t offered any help, neither have the Deus Filli. Simply accept my terms and your lives are saved.?

?Deal.? One of the younger Ekiruru spoke. ?The city of Yalt offers its acceptance of these terms.? The other Ekiruru seemed alarmed, ?How can you accept this? He will taint the lands with industry and-?

?What other choice do we have? I?m not ready to die. I have an obligation to my people and I am accepting these terms to save them.?

?I accept too.?

Soon most of the room had accepted and the rest were quickly swept up and coerced. Zabekiel smiled and bowed ?You all made the right choice today. I already have the supplies en route. This whole conversation has been recorded, so don?t try to go back on it, nobody will help you if you force me to invade.?

Zabekiel turned to his guards and said ?Tell Ez that we are ready.?

In minutes, Ekiruru began talking about thousands of space whales appearing in the skies and landing near the chamber. One of the Ekiruru asked ?How did you know we would accept in time?? Zabekiel laughed and said ?Desperation is a simple thing, really.?


The march on Maylin occurred a few days later, the Ekiruru were already prepared for war and the weapons were purposely simplified to be easy to use. Zabekiel had several commanders on intercom and was making orders from his base. His base, being in one of the all-famous entertainment bars on Eld, built in honor of Eldarwen and a nice break from the usual. One of the Ekiruru dancers was getting quite close to Zabekiel, who seemed not to mind, though he paid her no attention.

?Right, this is going to be a pretty standard operation, go in, find the rebels, shoot them a lot and take your capital back. I have a few of my own soldiers backing you so this should be easy.?

Zabekiel grabbed an odd colored drink, the locals claimed it to be some odd alcoholic beverage made with various plants and Zabekiel didn?t have time to care about details. He reached for his glass and took a long swig. ?I?ll say, this is a very nice planet, I might have to take it for myself eventually!?

The dancer laughed, thinking he was now actually paying some attention to her. ?SO you?re the big bad lord of the angels? You seem pretty soft to me.? Zabekiel pointed his finger at the girl, he was clearly a bit intoxicated now. ?All it would take is a bit of power and you would be dead now. But don?t worry, I?m in high spirits now! So sure, though I?m pretty sure you?re a bit softer than me. Might want to test that out after the victory party.?

At the city entrance, several Ekiruru generals were making their way to the outer city limits of rebel territory. Bolstered by new confidence, they boldly marched their soldiers right into the city, which was strangely sparce in occupation. ?Think they fled?? Asked one of the soldiers. ?Probably. I would if I knew what I was up against.? Just that moment, a crack was heard and one of the Ekiruru generals fell. Soon several more cracks were heard. Gunshots.

The rebels had surrounded the invading force and were quickly taking them down in number, the leaders had fallen and the Girigori force that had been sent was already flying away trying to get to a higher ground. As the entrance was closed off, the town square was set ablaze, there was no escape. Some of the Ekiruru tried to break down the walls, but they hadn?t brought any siege equipment. Zabekiel would soon hear about the slaughter and was less than thrilled.

?They did what?? He yelled, pushing the dancer off. Zabekiel stood up in fury. ?Those incompetent, moronic, worthless hack excuses for generals! I put everything in their favor and now look at what they?ve done! Now I will have to send in for troops all the way from Coelus!?

Zabekiel reached for his intercom. ?Hey, I need soldiers on Eld now! How many? I don?t fucking know, just send the whole army! Yes you heard me! All of them! I just want these rebels dead! Dead!?

Zabekiel collapsed into his chair and sighed. ?It?s alright, those rebels won?t last much longer anyway. The dancer looked surprised, she kept glancing at the time and seemed scared. ?Oh, and that poison you slipped me, the reason it didn?t work is because I am technically immortal. Sorry.? Zabekiel pointed his finger at the wide eyed Ekiruru and whispered ?Bang.? A lance of magic came shooting out of his finger and pierced her through the eye. The crowd inside the bar started freaking out and ran away. Zabekiel reached for his intercom and said ?Also, tell whoever survives the rebel counter attack that they need better surveillance on their dancers. One of them tried to kill me.?

Zabekiel got up and sighed. He would have to gather his soldiers and probably start a really long invasion now. He couldn?t risk having a hostile planet after the Deus Filli broke communications again. These rebels would have to be dealt with personally now. As Zabekiel exited the bar, he flapped his wings, reaching into his pack and bringing out a nice big starwhale fruit. He was lucky his communicator could still work in space.


A few months later, the vast majority of the Girigori fleet had arrived near the front of the battlefield. Just far enough to dock their whales without being obliterated by artillery fire. In the time it took, all of the cities who had employed Zabekiel had already been destroyed, and now he was simply acting alone. He hadn?t bothered asking the new people under distress if they wanted help. HE didn?t need their pitiful armies. Zabekiel also had a few space whales headed for Alaymia, they would make a very important statement to the rebels as he launched his invasion.

As his forces landed, a platoon of Ekiruru soldiers came to him. They seemed shocked that the Girigori would land without permission. They demanded he left. ?Zabekiel! This was not warranted, you failed earlier, now leave! Let the Ekiruru solve their own problems.?

Zabekiel placed his hand on the warrior?s shoulder. ?My dear, I have simply come to claim what is rightfully mine. See, they have several cities under their occupation which I dearly ever so need. This actually has become a matter of my concern and if it just so happens to aid you, then all the better. Now if you would kindly take your incompetency somewhere else, that would be lovely. In fact, never talk to me again or I will blast you to bits where you stand.?

He patted the woman on the shoulder and made a hand wave. ?Now, shoo shoo, let the adults clean up your race?s messes like always.?

While most of the space whales carried soldiers, a good number of them carried artillery, other weapons and Zabekiel?s greatest secret. A weapon capable of destroying an entire city by itself. He had kept this under raps for a long time, and while some of the Mizzen were talking about a breach in security of intel, anything gained wouldn?t be sufficient to finish his favorite new toy.

That said, Zabekiel wasn?t quite ready to launch his invasion, but taunting the doomed always brought him pleasure. He reached for his communicator while everyone else was preparing and signaled those who had lately claimed to be the new leaders of Eld. Zabekiel coughed a few times before making his announcement. ?If you would pay some attention primatives, Zabekiel is about to show you how to commit an assassination. See, you don?t need dancing girls and pazzaz to kill someone, in fact, all I need are invincible soldiers who can fly.?

Far in the Ekiruru capital, several dozen Type A Vigil infected Girigori crashed through the palace windows, securing the entire building and trapping their government. ?Then, all I had to do was give them some flamethrowers and well, you get the rest. Enjoy the free trip to Evermoor, one way ticket.?

The Girigori inside the palace lit it all ablaze, screams could be heard inside but any attempt to break in was interrupted by more flames coming out of every crevice. After a while, Girigori could be seen flying away unabaided. One of them reached for a communicator and said ?Mission accomplished, you are go.?

Zabekiel laughed. A long and deep laugh, one he hadn?t made in a long time. His soldiers were just about ready to commence the invasion anyway. He reached for his communicator, set it to all channels and yelled ?Kill them all, they have been corrupted and can never be saved! This is merciful if anything!?

The sound of heavy artillery was booming, each shot was like an arrow of light piercing the night and illuminating the ground, leaving nothing remaining but a crater. Unlike most artillery, this was half magic based and capable of very rapid fire and the nearby cities found themselves bombarded endlessly while Girigori from up on high began raining down their own explosive beams. This had occurred from everywhere near the front, a massive push with similar results simultaneously bringing itself forward. For days even, they marched forward, losing almost nobody and leaving nothing alive in their wake.

As Zabekiel?s platoon was approaching the end of its march, a rather large city presented itself to them. News was coming in from all fronts that the war was going to be won handily. The Girigori had already won and the leaderless rebellion was quickly falling in a similar way the cities they had conquered fell. Zabekiel for the first time in a while had a massive grin across his face. He could always take this city by force, but frankly, he wasn?t in the mood to lose any more soldiers. He reached for his communicator one last time.

?Unleash the weapon.?

?Sir??

?You heard me.?

?But-?

?I said to kill them all!?

?Yes, sir.?

In a few hours, a massive arc of light came raining from the sky. It landed perfectly on the city and with a massive detonation, ripped the city apart. The explosion wasn?t the typical ball, but was in a pyramid structure, before rapidly spreading out and disappearing all at once. The city was gone, and as were all of its inhabitants, the earth was scorched and it was like none of them had ever existed. Zabekiel, alone in his command module was laughing and laughing and laughing.



Days later, the war was over. Every last Ekiruru under the rebel insignia was destroyed. Nobody really talked about what they had done. Most simply said it was necessary, that it was the only solution. They believed their emperor because he had been good to them. Girigori casualties could be measured on one?s hand, Ekiruru casualties from the war, were immeasurable.

Many of those who moved to the cities were quite happy. The people typically worked as miners and stripped the land of most resources. The recovery process for Ekiruru however, was longer to say the least. It would take the rest of the age to fully restore Eld to its old greatness, though with all of the Girigori influence spread by the Girigori who stayed behind, Eld would never truly be the same. The age of the city destroyer quickly passed however, as the Mizzen and Girigori research finally rapidly began to culminate into technology reserved only for gods. As Seith predicted so long ago, it could finally begin to be argued that the Girigori no longer needed gods, for they themselves, were capable of similar feats, from planetary creation, to the death of entire races. What exactly the Girigori were capable of in battle, was never known until the beginning of the sixth age, when they would finally be coaxed into battle.

As Cassiel entered the portal, he found himself on a black gem. A massive one, he had seen it before when he scried the portal. This was Coelus. A world that had been fully corrupted and taken over by madness. Cassiel sighed, he knew what to expect. The Girigori weren?t the same either, he couldn?t make out what he had seen back then, but it was clearly not what he was used to. And as he thought of them, a massive flock of feathered winged beasts came flying overhead, led by a particularly large version of the harpy-like Girigori. They clashed with black feathered versions of themselves, ripping and tearing with vicious claw-like ferocity. Tearing and ripping, maiming and killing. The Girigori were destroying each other.

Cassiel?s eyes were wide. He hadn?t expected it to be this bad, but from reading history, he already had a guess as to what was causing this. His sister and himself had to be leading these forces. Difficult to determine which lead which, but the organization of the white winged forces seemed to imply Sephariel was at their head, while Lennonous?s ferocity imbuned the black winged types. Either way, Cassiel could feel two different types of power on either side of himself and decided to head to what he thought would be Sephariel.

Cassiel moved as fast as he could, ignoring droves of winged creatures that turned back and stared for a moment before yelling Lennonous at the top of their lungs. As Cassiel reached a barrier, he found himself blindsided by a very strategic slash, he was barely able to deflect it with his shield and he pulled Stardust out of its sheath. ?Sephariel! Come out!? Another slash came across his shield and Cassiel was barely keeping up. He sighed and began devastating the land around him with fire from Stardust. Sephariel?s body came flying out of the flames and Cassiel intercepted her talons with stardust. Finally face to face with her, he saw the look of his sister for the first time, but clearly corrupted. She had a wild look of hatred on her face. Covered in feathers from head to toe and she yelled at the top of her lungs.

?You are not Lennonous! You are Seith spawn! Worst kind! Die!?

?I guess we?re not having a happy family reunion then.? Cassiel responded as he kicked Sephariel in the gut and brought Stardust down upon her, slicing her clean in half and causing her body to come crashing to the ground. The Girigori around him began to scatter as he put his mythical sword in its sheath. If she was this tough, he shuddered to imagine fighting himself. This would not be an easy fight. Cassiel prepared himself and teleported directly to where he knew Lennonous would be hiding.

A massive crater was at the end of Coelus. The observatory had so long ago crashed into Coelus and been in ruins it seemed. Everything around it radiated the remains of his father?s immeasurable willpower. Cassiel wondered who had caused this, though Sephariel would likely have not been quite so dramatic. Cassiel remembered how he had destroyed his own universe?s observatory. Never once getting to witness its power for himself. This one however, seemed to still be functional. Largely the Observatory was based on magic so even when crashed, Cassiel figured it might still be functional. Going inside, he almost forgot about Lennonous as he walked the hallowed halls of his father. The great lens still at the center. As Cassiel looked into it, he was amazed at his father?s own innovation. He was able to see everything and everyone at once. All of his friends were battling and exploring and while he wanted to help them, teleporting now would be a poor idea. He had another foe nearby.

?Impressive isn?t it? After imprisoning the old fool, I kept this around to use for myself. Everyone suspected it was no longer functional, but they were wrong. I still don?t get the kind of joy he got through just watching, I like getting my hands dirty myself.?

A dark angel in black leather armor was walking towards Cassiel menacingly. He wielded a powerful scepter and smirked. ?You know, you remind me of someone. Who are you?

?They used to call me Lennonous, but my name is Cassiel now.?

?Cute idea, but really, who are you??

?You, but with a key difference.?

Cassiel lunged forward with Stardust and struck Lennonous?s staff. Lennonous turned around and blasted at Cassiel?s shield. Barely holding on, Cassiel lifted his shield and bashed Lennonous back before impaling his mirror on Stardust.

Lennonous coughed. ?Wh-what are you? You hide behind your mask! Show your face coward!?

Cassiel sighed, the battle was over anyway, it didn?t matter now. He used his free hand to remove his helmet, the mask of hope. Showing his true face. ?We both looked into the darkness you call master, Lennonous. But while I face it like the warrior you should have been, you succumbed and destroyed Coelus, your birthright.?

Cassiel could see an unwavering determination in his double?s face. He wasn?t going to let himself live. Cassiel sighed. ?You are going to make me kill you.?

?It?s the only way this can end.?

?I suppose we both knew that.?

Casssiel activated stardust and shot a massive jet of flames from the back of Lennonous, incinerating his double and destroying every essence of his being. Cassiel put his mask back on. His eyes grew wide, then back to normal. ?Seith, you still live then.?

Cassiel turned his attention to the lens again. He hadn?t felt it before, but now he was sure. This was his father. Trapped inside like a dog in a cage, felled by his own children. Cassiel felt an opening inside the lens and pushed himself through it. This was a confrontation he had been looking forward to his whole life.


?Hello, Lennonous, or I suppose you go by Cassiel now, right??

?Father.?

Seith smiled. ?That monster I tried to stop let me see everything in the universe. Made me watch it burn, but now I have watched his universe fall around him. I?m not much for violence, but I think this is appropriate.?

Seith walked towards Cassiel and placed a hand on him, he was glowing green now. ?What happened to the version of me in your universe? I can?t imagine he is doing very well considering you radiate my power. Did Melanthios finally get him??

?It was M?endar, actually.?

?M?endar?? Seith seemed surprised. ?My own brother? What would have caused him to do that??

?You and him always hated each other. Surely this isn?t too surprising that a conflict would arise.?

?Your world certainly is different?? Seith mumbled to himself and stretched out his arms. ?Well, I am stuck here forever. You know that much, but I can certainly watch you destroy that monster from here.?

?How did it come to be? What is it even??

Seith laughed. ?That, is a story for another time. As it stands, I don?t believe it stands much of a chance, you and your friends managed to kill most of its army so far, very little stands in your way now. You certainly have grown well. I think the version of me on your end would be proud.?

Cassiel headed to the exit of the prison and turned around. ?Thanks, for as much as it?s worth. I assume you would like to live here right??

?You should know by now that all I ever wanted to do was watch the universe prosper from my own little room. This will do nicely. I think winter has almost passed on this universe. I can see the spring sun rising.?

?Goodbye, father.?

?Goodbye.?

As Cassiel exited the lens, he felt Aen?s presence on Evalon. It was clear to him that would make a good meeting place, Aen had to have done something rash. ?Figures.? Cassiel teleported himself to Lennonous?s position.
 

Terratina.

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May 24, 2012
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As M'endar exited the portal, it noticed it wasn't on Evalon. In fact, it wasn't on Salustius either. The ground was black, but distinctly diamond. It was alone right now, but could seek something.

The ground was hard underfoot, yet another reason to treat lightly in this place. It had been folly to step into the portal. To step into this land of unknown dangers. Nevertheless, the portal was the first of the follies. The only option now was to press forward. And thus, M'endar began to investigate its surroundings.

As M'endar went forward, it saw a large number of amorphous blobs. They traveled aimlessly and changed their size.

M'endar watched the blobs and their dance. A reflection of the Verr? Friend or foe? Were they even sentient? M'endar continued forward regardless, one step after the other. "Pardons." M'endar muttered as it walked past the blobs, ever forward.

As M'endar approached one blob, it and the others began quivering towards it, getting larger.

Was this aggression? M'endar charged up a ball of chaotic energy - ready to strike if need be - and hissed, "What is this?"

As one finally touched M'endar, a large tentacle came rushing out, it clearly at this point was attempting to consume M'endar as it wrapped around it's body and tried to pull the Deceiver in.

M'endar released the ball of chaotic energy. Was there really nothing but darkness and dark creatures like this in the land beyond the dark portal? If so, this journey was a waste but M'endar would ensure that it would come back. It would not be lost here.

As the ball ripped the blob in half, it began reforming itself and moving away from the Deceiver. However, after unleashing that kind of power, M'endar could feel a familiar power waking up from what appeared to be a rather long slumber. It did not know what exactly the power was coming from.

M'endar called out with a simple thought, "Show youself." For the embodiment of lies and deception, being in the dark like this was not pleasant. Almost ironic, one could say.

A long and sinister laugh echoed throughout M'endar's subconscious. It had no intentions of revealing itself yet, but M'endar could feel a large movement coming from all directions. Difficult to tell where to go if it wanted to challenge its new foe.

This was no time for games. However, a smile appear on the Deceiver's lips. After all, if positions were switched, it would have done the same thing. Rumbling came from all directions and so M'endar created copies of itself that split off in all directions. If the presence wanted a game, M'endar would give it one.

As the clones of M'endar came out, each one then found itself surrounded by energy. The energy was far away, but it was clearly spreading itself out now.

The next course of action was simple. Each clone attacked, blasting away at the energy. Futile perhaps, but this was not simply an offensive move. M'endar waited for the energy - or whatever was behind it - to come out and strike.

All of the attacks sent out by M'endar simply hit nothing. They eventually dissipated before M'endar discovered the true source of the energy, cloaked by the blackness of the ground below it, M'endar could now see the shadows that were surrounding it. They soon rose up and tried to consume M'endar.

The Deceiver smiled again and placed its hands under its cloak. The item it fished out was a stark white that stuck out like a sore thumb in the darkness. Mere spider silk, but inbued with divine power. Without a single pause, M'endar struck out against the shadows and cast its net.

The shadows were no ordinary creature however, and the net barely contained them for a moment as they rushed forth. It was then that M'endar recognized the power, it could only be from one source. Its own demigod of shadows, Zs'Wua. This time, it was serious in attacking M'endar and blasted out with an intense ray of darkness.


M'endar could not help but be amused by this. The Deceiver had expected something like this to happen, it was only expected of a schemer to scheme against their master after all. Treachery and double-crossing were her bread and butter. Naturally, a traitor had to be killed. Streams of thick, black gloop poured from the deity, as it landed on the floor, a hiss could be heard.

As soon as one drop touched the floor, the shadows retreated, knowing that one drop of that corrosive substance could dissolve diamond and potentially, itself.

As the shadows crawled away, the cast net of webs stirred again and formed a wall of lattices. Even more of a hiss could be heard as the gloop spread out, almost chasing the shadows in their retreat. M'endar, from previous experience, made the web-wall appear to be that of the same diamond that made up the dark floor. To the once-entertaining demigod, it would seem like walls of dark diamond were rising up from the ground. In addition to this, a mote was conjured into the world. But not for long. The tiny particle exploded, enveloping the surroundings in chaotic energy.

The shadows shrieked. A mental message of pain rang through M'endar's mind. Pain, and images of another, another thing that lived in this world. In this twisted mirror. The one that held the strings, the one that tore free will from the demigod and in turn tore the sentience from the Verr.

So there was someone behind all this? How interesting. Presumably, whoever that was would not agree to any sort of discussion. M'endar sighed. The brute's approach was always the most boring. It wandered down the hallway.

As it walked, a cacophony of voices could be heard - insults, screams and pleas, though they were distorted. A low hum accompanied them. Energy could be felt here as well that rivalled what the deity had felt before.

Another one? M'endar continued walking towards it.

A slumped robed figure could be seen behind walls of diamond. An unnerving amount of light reflected by each facet. The robe almost seemed empty, with but a bit of black goo leaking out from the openings. Parts of it seemed to trying to bat something away.

M'endar examined the cell until it was content. It decided to break part of a panel using the same method that was used to defeat that world's version of Zs'Wua.

After a little hissing, a hole was created. The robed figure looked upon the robed figure. The voices could be heard clearly, not huffed by the diamond walls like before. They cursed and heckled a god of lies who couldn't even lie. The other M'endar lay limp, apart from a swipe of a tendril as it cursed and heckled back in mumbles.

M'endar looked upon its mirror and sighed, "What have they done to you?"

"Stole... from... me... lies." It rasped, as a tendril attempted to grab at something weakly. "Stole... from... me..."

M'endar was intrigued by this. It asked another question, "Who did this to you?"

"Stole... from... me... lies." It repeated.

M'endar could see how wrecked the other M'endar had become. It sighed again and placed a hand on its mirror's head. It whispered to it mentally of comforting things - the view from Ys, of fogs that obscured and deceptions still sustained. It told the other that while there was no hope for it, that there was hope for the other version; another side, another story, and it would join with it soon. With the final whisper, the final transmission of thoughts, the same acidic black gloop poured from the sleeve into the cell.

It was destroyed completely, but that was not the only event. M'endar was pulled into a deep dive towards an undergrounds place with pillars...
 

JoJo

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Roe and Cassiel

Roe gazed sadly down at the body of the other Petal, in own twisted way she'd been so much like the girl he knew and loved. As her body slowly melted into the ground as void creatures often did, he noticed broken and bent duplicates of the items he carried with him... a cracked crown, a bent whistle, a dulled blade. They too faded as other Petal returned to the earth beneath her. The young god stood up and then felt something tugging at him in the distance, a powerful action by Aen. He wondered if his friend might need help and started to skip in the elder god's direction, each small step taking him hundreds of miles across the surface of Evalon.

As Cassiel raced down towards Evalon, he noticed Roe was gaining speed. Honestly not knowing the exact location of Aen, it was best to start gathering everyone immediately. He rushed up to Roe and yelled. "Roe, good to see you are still doing well. Even I couldn't imagine how terrible this place truly is. Have you been hurt at all?"



"Hey Cassiel," Roe shouted back and slowed down to a halt, leaving great tracks through the earth. "I fought an evil dog and a mad Petal but I'm not hurt at-all... have you met anything mean?"

Cassiel laughed. "Well, an evil version of myself was interesting. Oh and then I met my father so that was fun." Cassiel sighed. "Ready to put an end to this?"

"Yeah, this place is weird," Roe replied with a shudder, "There's something I've got to tell you first though, otherwise I'll keep forgetting. Back in the garden, one of the children called Snow told Petal that the Grigori called Zabekiel did something really bad, that he invited some Kinderven and priests to meet him and then tried to kill them to make it look like they had attacked him instead! I think he did kill most of them, except Snow and his friend..." Roe trailed off awkwardly, wondering if this had been the right time to bring up the issue.


Cassiel looked down and sighed. "I figured he wasn't entirely innocent. I have an agent watching him closely so I doubt he will be able to do that anymore, but I'm not entirely sure what to do about that. Give me some time to think about it. I should be the one to deal with Zabekiel I think. He is my brother after all." Cassiel looked around, nobody else had shown up yet. "What did you learn about the god here?"

"I haven't met any gods here, unless you mean the other Petal..." Roe replied with a confused shrug.

Cassiel shook his head. "No, I mean the one controlling them. The one who did all of this."

Roe searched his memories, "I think Petal mentioned someone called 'the Great One', that's I can remember though," he admitted.

Cassiel shrugged. "Well, maybe the others got more information on it. I don't know very much myself despite talking to it a few times."

"Are you going to meet Aen too?" the young god asked, "I could feel his action all the way from Chama,"



"I am. I think this is where we will finish this."

"Yeah, I hope there's another fight!" Roe enthused and the pair set off towards their fellow god. In less than a minute they came across the great mountainous peaks of the centre of Almia, as ever with the other world though tinged with grey. Roe glanced around and spotted Aen sitting quietly on a pillar. "There he is!" the boy pointed out to Cassiel.

Cassiel smiled and looked out. "Then I guess we should say hello!" Cassiel led him and Roe over to Aen with the intention of gathering the rest of the group.

[hr]

Hardy Sharulk

Hardy strode out of the gym and tossed his bag in the back seat of his hover car, before settling down comfortably besides it. Unfortunately, being immortal didn't prevent him becoming overweight and so the ex-president had a habit of dropping in every Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday too if the wife was in a bad mood. It had been almost five centuries since he had accepted the gift of the Vigil strain and it was a choice he didn't regret, why put your faith in the Lords Roe or Aen as the priests claimed when you could have immortality here, on Evalon, and with barely any strings attached?

"Where do you want to go, sir?" the autochaffeur asked in a smooth, Dracian accent.

buzz

Something rumbled in his pocket. He glanced at his cellphone, one text from his wife.

hey dear, u goin 2 shops lter? can u get more tates? sophia xx
With a sigh he texted an affirmative.

"Looks like I don't get any say in the matter Auto, take me to the Islands hypermarket, the one of the other side of the new forest."

"Certainly, sir," The car slowly levitated itself and then glided silently over the trees. Hardy took a touchpad out of one of the car's many pockets and began flicking idly through the day's news.

"Pfffh, President Ram again," he muttered to himself as he read an article, "that woman is hopeless, if she gets elected for more terms than I did I'll eat my dragonscale hat."

Suddenly the car lurched and spluttered in midair, as if something was caught in the engine. Hardy barely had time to gasp as the vehicle began plummeting towards the trees below, their green branches rushing towards his windscreen. The manufacturers bold advertising claim 'less than a one in a million lifetime chance of a midair hover failure!' was the last thought that ran through his head before the car smashed through the foliage and everything went black.
 

Dogmatic99

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Zareth

It took hours of flying and scanning th horizon to even come close to finding anything. Ironically it was how familiar this world was that made it so difficult to navigate. Just when Zareth thought that he'd found his way or was on a familiar course something new would pop up... or a twisted version of something old.

He may have circled the globe two or three times but eventually the others made themselves known and he was able to hone in on Aen like a beacon. Roe and Cassiel had already arrived it seemed as Zareth swooped down for a landing, taking on his usual humanoid form as he went.

"So this is quite the mess we've gotten ourselves into, isn't it?"

He quipped to the assembly.
 

DarkRawen

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Apr 20, 2010
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Dåre 25, 2

It took a while until he noticed their presences. Other gods, from the other world. His world? More like their world. Neither was his worlds, after all, both were. It was still refreshing to feel someone who was from the world beyond the portal, at least for now, and Dåre had his carpet head for the direction. From what he could tell, it was Roe, and a few other gods he hadn't interacted too much with. He had been wondering if anyone were out there, this answered his question.

His arm felt numb, was it the weight of the glove that made if feel this dull? No matter, he didn't think it would be necessary to check. The glove didn't make him feel much stronger, not at all. And what had happened during the amount of time he had lost memories of?

Dåre jumped of his carpet when he was close enough to the ground, and greeted the others. "Hi," he said. With the glove on his hand, and blood still on his clothes, it was obvious that something had gone down. However, the mad god didn't really think about that, he didn't draw the connection.

"I'm glad I found you. This isn't a very nice place, is it?"
 

Floris2123

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Apr 26, 2011
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Melanthios 28AP, 2MP

It had taken quite a lot of time and flying, but eventually Melanthios spotted something which caught his attention. He saw what seemed to be the gods from his side of the portal and quickly flew over to them as he began counting heads. He soon landed besides them and looked around the group, his shadow form hiding any emotion his face might have shown. Normally he would have spoken a few words in greeting, but he didn't know how people reacted if he didn't. So he simply nodded to all of them as he looked around the group of gods, wondering how they would react and curious to the answer of his question
 

drmigit2

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As Cassiel saw more gods approach, he smirked and said "Good, looks like everyone else felt Aen's action too. So, what have you all learned? If we are going to survive this, we need all the information we can gather."

Melanthios looked at the gods gathered here and couldn't help but be a bit sad that Cassiel had to be the one to speak up. He looked at him and a question formed inside his head, he opened what could be classified as a mouth and asked "Why don't you share what you have learned first? Then I won't share useless information." His voice sounded old and he sounded tired.

Cassiel shrugged. "It seems we are in a parallel universe, where something aside from us managed to imprison mirrors of everyone. It also seems that this happened fairly early as I had a nice chat with my father not too long ago. Aside from that, I fought a few demigods and not much else. Oh, and the mortals got twisted too. Wonderful little vacation home Ailish opened up."

Daare frowned. "It's not a vacation home, it's as much of a world as the one we came from. But I do agree with it's not one of mercy. I---" He went silent. Daare had no desire to share what he had seen and done, partly because he didn't remember most of it. "I don't have anything fun to share," he said, and glanced at the gloved arm again. It was starting to feel heavier.

Roe gave Melanthios a curious glance, his elder brother seemed to be acting odd... more than he usually did. "Everyone here wants to fight, at-least all the things I've met," the young god piped up, "We should stay together so if we get attacked we don't get killed or anything, if this world is even real," he shuddered, "it reminds me of the bad dreams I had after the monsters came through the portal the first time,"

Cassiel sighed. "I suppose I might as well ask this as well. When I scried the portal a while back, something tried to force me out. I couldn't make out what it was saying, but then when I fought Lennonous here I got a nice confirmation of its existence. Anybody learn anything about that thing?"

Melanthios nodded and spoke not wanting to waste anymore words then necessary around Cassiel. "Yes.. This thing had been made in the first age here, during the first volley.. The gods feared it and it hid itself from them, it then made the demigods turn on their former parents... And it waged war on anything on this side of the portal and then corrupted it." He said sounding distant.

Daare sat back on his carpet, and turned it upside down, his head on the level of the rest of the gods. "Corrupted, evil. What do we do with that? Do we do anything? Nothing? Everything? If we are, why are we just standing around now?"

nodded in agreement. "The other Petal said that something she called 'the Great One' made her see that being alive was the worsest type of hurt or whatever, I bet that was it." He turned eagerly to Daare and raised his sword in the air, "We're heroes, our only choice to fight the thing and kill for being so evil! Who's with me?"

Cassiel smiled. "Yeah, I think it's time we finished this. How do you guys suggest we find it?"

Melanthios looked around. "This won't be easy... I have never seen someone able to influece demigods before, especialy not so many at once.. I would suggest finding each and every demigod first and putting them to rest.. If we don't, they will surely rush to his aid and swarm us."

Cassiel nodded. "Funny enough. Seith has been watching this and told me we killed most of the demigods here. They seem to be our demigods, perhaps we should make a count? Or we could simply scry everything in the plane, that could work too."

The demigods? Who had Daare killed? He had killed Ven, and... who else? Who had fallen victim to him, under his ruse? He tried to think about it. Putting the glove on... and darkness. Wait... that wasn't completely true. Not completely darkness. That person had been locked up... it was... someone he knew, yet had never met. The one they called Maskelyne, it was that person he had killed, gruesomly. But why would he? "Is... only the demi-gods evil?" he muttered. Had he killed his father, without the other being evil?

That...was a good question. "As a matter of fact, who else managed to contact the gods here? I think Seith was trustworthy, but I have little proof for it...Melanthios, did you meet your double?"

"I met Melanthios... We shared memories and he decided he would like to live on, even if that meant living behind bars." He simply said, not being surprised that Seith had watched everything from within his cell.

"Did he seem trustworthy? That is the main issue here."

Melanthios glared at Cassiel. "Yes he was. He had been tortured for a long time, but he was still a lot like me.. I dare to bet my life on him being trust worthy."

?Ven killed Nivix, to stea his power." Daare remembered aloud. Three gods so far, that hadn't been evil. "If... Nivix had been alive, he wouldn't be evil, would he?" It was getting more apparant, his memories were returning more and more. "And... Maskelyne didn't... resist. When I... killed him."

After thinking for a while, Cassiel came to a conclusion. "Why not bait them? We do something that the Great One or whatever it is would never allow and force it to attack us. That could at least be worth trying."

"That might work.. And Daare don't worry, if he didn't resist then he probably didn't care anymore.. Torture can break a man, so you set him free and saved him from the pain he must have felt for thousands of years." Melanthios said trying to sound sympathetic.

?Yeah, we should force it to come out and then the cowardly thing will have no choice but to fight us!" Roe said excitedly in reply to Cassiel, "How should we do it? Call it bad names? Sing really loud? Make a joke about it's mama?" he chortled to himself.

Daare apreciated what Melanthios said, and smiled, as the carpet turned the normal way. The uncreative way. Thinking about what they would have to do was more important than who he had killed. Him? Or... something else?

Either way, he had to think of something. Anything. As the idea formed in his mind, he smirked more and more, until he started laughing, madly. It was all so clear! The glove was speaking to him, wasn't it?! Perfect! "I know what to do! We ask this!" He lifted his arm. "The glove! It's evil! It's... evil... very evil... it's under her control!" he looked at them with wild eyes, breathing heavily from all the laughing and yelling.

Cassiel's eyes got wide. "Did you take something from one of the demigods!? You fool! We don't know what they do! What if it..." No, now wasn't the time to panic. "Can it...talk?"

Daare nodded, frantically. "It talks to me all the time! It started when I got over here! It tells me to kill you! And slaughter you! And get rid of you! All for the great one!" He then added. "Not that I would listen to it, I---" his hand went up to his mouth. Obviously, it was the evil one. And it wasn't he who had done it. He pointed at it, jumping up and down on the carpet, trying to tell them to grab it or cut it off.

Melantios looked shocked at this turn of events and quickly grabbed the glove and pulled it off of Daare's arm. He quickly dissolved the piece of his shadows with which he had touched the glove with and it fell on the ground in between the gods. "Daare.. Never again touch an artifact, that we find on this side of the portal.. They are very dangerous." He said looking worried, he then glanced down at the glove. "I am sure you heard all of this.. Dark one. Come out and face us, or we will hunt you down and put you to the sword." He said sounding furious.

Daare could speak, as the arm was out of his face. "It's--- not just the glove... my arm is numb..." He conjured up a dagger. "It's not mine anymore." The mad god stabbed it. "I can't feel that..." He proceeded to hack off his arm, turning away so the others wouldn't have to witness it. He then laughed, turning around his arm was no longer connected. He held it in his other hand. "It's gone... Dark one! You wanted my arm?! Come down here so I can throw it at you!" It was clear he had lost what sanity he had.

This was bad, he was losing Daare. He couldn't afford to lose any more gods like this. Cassiel had to organize them now. "If you don't...I will destroy your plane of existence!" Cassiel didn't think it would let such a thing happen. The creature worked so hard for this plane...it had to work.

Cassiel lifted Stardust in the air and began focusing his energy into it. Flames to wipe out everything the creature had twisted, flames to cleanse the plane and let it start anew. Flames he hoped would be put out by the plane's god. He then turned to everyone else, seemingly asking for help.

"Yeah, come out of hiding evil thing or we'll catch you and chop you into a million billion pieces!" Roe shouted into the distance as loud as he could, before turning to Daare. "Hey, can I have that?" he asked, pointing to the dismembered limb, "It might come in handy," he added with a mischievous grin.

Melanthios looked at Cassiel and sighed. "So impulsive and so young... Still he isn't as bad as Seith." He focused as he stretched out his hand. "You took the children away from my brother... I will take everything away from you!" He shouted loudly as a spell because to focus in his hand, he poured all the magic he had into it and then fused it with Cassiel's sword.

The clouds began to split as a timid voice broke through. It seemed sickly and broken, as if that was the way it had always been. It coughed and gagged as it pleaded "No! Please! So much death today! No more!"

Cassiel smiled, his plan had worked. He brought down Stardust and canceled his apocalyptic action. He had won. "You ask for mercy, yet you have shown none today! Who are you?"

"Why did you stop Cassiel? We have to purify this wretched place and you... You deserve nothing but death or eternal suffering." He said his voice filled with anger and contempt.

Daare chuckled more. "There's no reason to ask who they are. They never answer! Now, get down here right now! Else I won't be nice, not at all." He looked over at Mel. "And if you want to purify, you purify! If you don't, you don't. But I belong here, and if you purify this place, I will be in need of "purifying". But hey, it might be fun!" He wayved around the arm some more.

Cassiel turned to Melanthios and whispered "We don't need to take this out on the mortals here, don't you think they can be saved? It was just a diversion, I never intended to kill anybody." Cassiel turned to it. "I ask again, speak or be destroyed."

The voice coughed again. "Disease! Disease is what you called me. You create then destroy me and my kin! Exile and attempt to kill again! I don't want to die! Just defending myself, just defending. Please!"

"Just defending yourself?" Melanthios burst out in laugher. "What a sickening thing you are, if you just defend yourself then why did you impression the gods and made everyone here suffer.. You will pay for your actions.. And Daare." He said as he turned to him. "He has corrupted a part of your mind... I can still help you restore your old mind.. You always had an unique way of seeing things, a way I could never dream off, a way which intrigued me.. Do not let him take your mind away from you and twist it so that you think like that filthy creature." He said as he looked back up at the sky.

Yeah, he's lying!" Roe exclaimed angrily in agreement with Melanthios, "He's the one that turned all of the other demigods evil, he's just pretending now so we don't kill him. Let's not show him any mercy!"

Daare looked towards Mel. "I'm... corrupted? I'm not! I'm... he is... my uncle. And I want to destroy him. It would be... a mercy, wouldn't it?" He then looked towards the voice. "DON'T YOU WANT TO DIE, UNCLE?!"

Akld'dali, Aweio'Lkkd, Ldaluk'ALukdj'Kjkd, Oiudls'Llu, KLUduci, KLAu...Just like last time." It began chanting and raving to itself. Cassiel thought something was clearly wrong here, but he couldn't just help the creature either. Those names though...

"It's a part of the Seven...the one who escaped death or imprisonment and took Tsuranote...it all makes sense now."

Melanthios turned white in anger and his dark shadows turned into white flames. "DON'T YOU DARE SAY THE NAME AKLADAI, OR ANYTHING CLOSE TO IT! YOU TOOK MY BROTHERS SON AND YOU WILL PAY WITH YOUR LIFE!" He shouted as he began to focus energy into his staff and looking how it reacted. "Show your true face.. You bastard!"

"It has already been done then." The voice seemed calm now, almost resentful. The world around the gods began to transform and undulate. A pestilence was spreading and the entirety of Evalon became consumed in cancerous tumors. The entity was incomprehensible to a mortal, but the gods were able to see its true form, unadulterated pestilence.

"Hey, did you come to play now?" Daare asked, with a childlike innocence, mixed with raw madness. "Do you think you scare us? Or that anything can happen like you want it to?! Hah!" He gathered madness, and threw it towards the creature. A creature, like him. The madness was overwhelming him now, something had happened to disrupt the former balance. But he had more than enough madness.

Cassiel was ready for this. It had to end this way. The creature, even if it hadn't asked for this, even if it wasn't even evil, had to be destroyed. It had just gone too far now. There was no other option. Cassiel raised stardust and put the hopes and dreams of the mortals he had taken free will from into a massive ball of righteousness and flames. Cassiel hurled it at disease, the dark one, his target.
[6/16/13 2:33:22 PM] Floris: Melanthios focused as started the same spell as before, only this time much more focused.. Instead of destroying everything it would only take out one target. "Die creature of shadow!" He said as he pointed his staff at it and a bright beam of gold light flew towards the creature, which exploded into golden flames as soon as it hit it.

"Ah!" Roe cried as the ground under his feet swayed and bucked as if it was living flesh, the influence of the creature was growing. He saw Cassiel's attack and brought out Skye, converting the sword into a pistol in his hands. He brought up the gun and aimed it squarely at the Dark One. "Make my day, thing," he quipped and pulled the trigger.
 

Floris2123

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Melanthios 28AP, 2MP

Melanthios could see that the attacks of the gods worked, the dark one was dead and his golden flames were now burning what was left of him. But he then suddenly he felt the earth shift around him, he instantly knew that he would be the one to pay the price for this victory. Before he could cast a spell, the disease had already taken a hold of his body. His dark form was instantly twisted by millions of boils as his skin, bones and flesh began to melt. He tried desperately to fight it back, but it was useless as he could feel his very core being corrupted. Just before it reached his mind he managed to complete his spell as he fell apart and rematerialized a few meters away from his rotting corpse.

This Dues Filli form suffered the same fate though and he could feel that he couldn't stop it in his severely weakened form. He focused and tried to save his body, but he was forced to once again abandon a now lump of rotting meat. He was now in his liquid form and the black goo began to form a new form. He managed to transform back into his shadow form, this one didn't seem to be poisoned.. Still his power was gone, it was clear that if he had been less then a second later with his spell he would have been gone himself as well. "You all fought well.." His voice barely a whisper now, his mind was less cheerful. "And once again I am the one that pays the price.. Just as when I killed Alish the void beast, I will be the one to bear the scar.. But it was worth it for this victory and I am glad that it was me and not Roe or Daare."
 

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Disease collapsed into a puddle, his body dissolving into the blackened soil. All the gods, from Aen to Zareth and everyone in between, gathered in a circle around their deceased foe.

"It's done," Roe said simply aloud and all nodded in agreement. There was nothing left to do in the strange world of the portal but to find the way out and then perhaps form a pantheon, no-one knew what the future would hold but it seemed that all were weary of fighting after so many years. Roe made his way back across the desolate land of the other Almia and soon found the portal leading back to the Hallowed Court. He stepped through and gasped at what he saw on the other side. Woof lay in a pool of blood in front of him, Akladai slouched nearby in a similarly lifeless pose and pieces of scrap metal that clearly resembled Ven were scattered before him. The grass had been burned to charcoal and he looked at his feet at what seemed to be Pentar's dismembered leg.


"No!" Roe thought and then suddenly he realised something was wrong. He had seen Pentar's flesh completely devoured, and yet here his leg was, right at the young god's feet. "It's a trap!" he exclaimed aloud. He put his hands up and pushed against the illusion surrounding him, the last cruel trick of Disease. The image of desolation surrounding him retreated and was soon replaced by the beauty of the Hallowed Court. His young bride stood before him, a wide smile across her face.

"Roe!" Petal cried out and ran to give the god a hug, "You've been gone years and years, it's been so boring. We should take a long holiday together now. Away from all the mortals and politics, and fighting gods too!"

"We should," Roe replied with a contented smile, "there's just one thing I have to do first though..."

[hr]

The Storyteller

"Now, this is where I come back into the tale," the Storyteller smiled, "It was ten years ago, just at the beginning of the fourth millennium. I had crashed my hover car in a terrible accident that would had left any mortal man broken and maimed. I however had accepted the Vigil strain many centuries ago, and so I instead woke alive and unharmed, though half naked and surrounded by bent and burning wreckage in the middle of Chama's densest forest. I was deeply afraid. Then suddenly he appeared before me, like a burning flame in the dark. His face was young and mischievous, his hair shining gold and he was dressed all in white."

"Who was he?" a small boy asked from the back.

"Haven't you been listening carefully, my boy?" the Storyteller chided gently, "Well, I had the same question in fact,"

"'Who are you?' I cried at the apparition, to which he replied in a booming voice, 'I am your Lord Roe, Hardy Sharulk! I have a great task for you,'"

I was taken aback by this revelation. 'Why me?' I spluttered.

'You are immortal, but unlike the Kinderven you are not a child. Despite your lack of belief in me, you have been loyal to the Rowan and Changeling peoples and respected the other races too. You alone prevented what could have been the bloodiest war in history and tamed Zabekiel. You are the greatest among the peacemakers.'

I was stunned by such praise from the holiest of gods, whose existence just five minutes ago I'd doubted. He then took me by the hand and showed me so many tales, from the very beginning of creation, to wars and races and old gods whose names have almost lost to time by this age. He took me through every story I have told you over these last four days and more, as if I was there watching as they actually happened. Finally after what felt like countless years, we returned to the empty forest in Chama alongside the wreckage of my car.

'Me and Petal shall be absent from this place for a time, your task is travel around Evalon and all the other worlds which honour us and to remind of them of all the gods' tales so they do not forget.' he commanded to me, I could do not more than nod 'First however there is one more story I must show you Hardy Sharulk,'

Again he took me and this time I saw an Evalon where our machines had failed us, a vast desert of ash spread from the mountains of Chama to Eva Lothi. The United Republic had fragmented into many nations, squabbling amongst themselves, the other worlds barely heard from. Poisonous dust surrounded the planet, choking offspring so they were often born terribly malformed and with little hope. Eld was similarly divided and in Quadringa, though more Kinderven lived there than any time before that, they lived under constant fear and few supplies since the cord binding them to Evalon had been cut. The peoples of these worlds were crying out but it seemed no-one was there to answer their prayers.

I then saw a great star flying down from the east over Evalon, descending like a lightning bolt towards Manor. It was the Lord Roe and his Lady Petal, who came down riding upon the loyal Woof brandishing between them the sword of love and the mandate of the bride. As they landed all those who did not have faith in the Lord Roe, whose hearts were filled with malice and selfish desires, whose childhood innocence had been all but extinguished, were blown by an incredible wind off Evalon into space and then burned up by the light of Niv until their body and souls were no more than dust.

I watched then as the planet and it's two moons were lifted upwards together, where they were met by the holy city Quadringa, plucked like a ripened fruit from Coelus. In the city's place a pit of unquenchable fire was left upon the diamond planet, which would burn forever more in memories of the fallen of past ages. Like Quadringa, those of other worlds who were loyal above all to the Lord Roe were also taken in an instant to join their brethren upon Evalon.

Together, the four bodies rose to meet the Garden of the Hallowed Court and from them a new Evalon came to be, for the first Evalon and first Gardens had passed away. There the Lord Roe sat upon a great golden throne alongside Lady Petal and they were crowned King and Queen of New Evalon. Their first degree was that all laws were to be abolished but no suffering was to take place for the divine children's presence forbade the very existence of evil in their realm. Finally, death itself was abolished and after that, there was no way to tell apart Rowan from Changeling, Ekiruru from Kinderven, adult from child. Pure blissful chaos would rule forever more in the garden of our Lord and Lady: Roe and Petal,"

"When is this going to happen?" a wide-eyed young girl asked quietly.

"Soon," Storyteller Hardy replied, "No mortal shall know the day but the Lord Roe promised that I and many who hear this tale today will still be alive to see it's final chapters come to pass. Now children, it's getting quite late and so you best go back to your homes for tonight. Never forget the stories I have told you, for I swear upon every drop of blood in my body that every word I have spoken to you is nothing but the truth. May the great pantheon of not only the Lord Roe but also the Lords Aen, Daare, M'endar, Melanthios, Nivix and Zareth, and the noble demigods and Cassiel, protect you and watch over you, forever and ever. Goodnight and sweet dreams, my children."

[HEADING=1]The End[/HEADING]​