by Philip Read
I step foward until there is no more space to spin my hammer and my arm is caught in a grip of mythril, arresting the spinning. I knee catches me in the abdomen, spilling everything I have ever eaten onto where my opponent was but a moment ago.
A backhand to the back of the neck leaves me paralysed from the neck down with a snap like twigs. I crumple like a sack of stones, blinking incomprehensibly.
The southerners cheer but are quickly silence by the flare of the warrior’s aura.
“We are leaving.” Is all he says before starting to jog through the battlefield, even Barbarians making way for him. After a moment the rest follow, collecting the wounded still alive and leaving their dead behind.
I watch this all unfold feeling nothing but my face, but already smelling the shit from my loosened sphincter.
* * *
Gaia
The entire world shakes and rumbles at the birth of a new world. A tributary world Gaia has been preparing for the coming of the calamity.
The oceans foam all over the megaworld Gaia, volcanoes that have been asleep for centuries erupt. Glaciers break off and drift away, mountains crumble to the ground while new ones are formed.
The Ancient of Days stops on his journey to acknowledge the birth of a world. A sleeping dragon awakens from its den in the depth of a former molten river, having absorbed all the heat and power of the lava into itself and its eggs, which crack in preparation of the hatching.
The soul of an old warrior of the Hito people fully heals after nearly two thousand years of him bringing something completely new and unheard of into the world. The old warrior laughs in joy as powers burst from him and his soul shines like a star being born as he unsheathes the Universe’s first true Soul-sword, finally completed.
The gates to the mysterious world of the Ascendent open a moment, allowing clouds. Smoke, ether, rain, wind, flowers, pollen and other unseen things into Gaia. A phenomenon that has never before happened and thought to be impossible.
The recent guardians of the Gates unleash their power as they warn any creature that thinks to come through to a world of a lower realm of power, a world ripe for the taking for such powerful creatures.
The ancient self appointed guardian of the mystic Ascension Gate grins, a creature that has been waiting for a worthy fight for 13 thousand years now. Glad he took the offer of the mysterious barefooted human with an old soul.
The Archaeans whisper across the universe. Communicating with their kind on the other side of the gates, asking about the state of things there. They seem unmoved as they stand vigil at the The Heavenly Gate and the Gate of Lost Paths.
Eragon the Sleeping Dragon of The West awakens as something comes through the portal. He watches curiously as a small group step onto Gaia, bow respectfully and fly in different directions. He goes back to sleep as the portal becomes one way again.
No one told him to stop creatures coming from the other side. Besides, he remembers some of those creatures fondly that just returned back to Gaia after their Ascension.
The Ancestral beasts throughout the world unleash their power as they show that Gaia is not without protectors. The portals connecting Gaia to Terra, the wild garden, the second habitable world closes.
Stranding all those who are on this world from Terra here indefinitely. Stranding all those on Terra from here there indefinitely, unless they could travel through different portals and reach Gaia through the only portal to another world still open.
The portal between Gaia and Aqueous, the water world of the mer. The mer people, the most prolific human killers in all the known worlds. Rulers of not just the oceans on their world but most of the oceans on all worlds. But many of them die on Gaia as their homes are destroyed.
Many creatures die on Gaia as another world is born from her depths. It rises from deep within her largest ocean, taking small islands and landmasses with it. Killing millions in the process.
The insubstantial barrier separating the Underworld from the surface world on Gaia dissolves. Allowing all to travel between the under and the surface world freely without the need for specific safe routes of travel.
Portals form all over Gaia, portals leading to this new world that will become a refuge for all those not strong enough to survive the coming of the Ascended. A world that will be a home to all those who haven’t Awakened, all the creatures that have no magic in their blood, all the people considered ‘mundane’, all the fae considered ‘base born’.
The new world disappears before the wondering eyes of all on Gaia as they understand the purpose of the new world. Knowledge they inherit from Gaia herself as she whispers to those with ears to hear.
‘This new world will be called Earth and it will be a refuge to the down trodden and the weak.’ She seems to say to the masses.
The Earth fully disappears in it’s own time stream. A time stream prepared in advance by the agents of the Universe. A time stream that flows uniquely enough to be almost considered it’s own realm, a new lower realm of worlds being established for the first time.
Even as the Gaia finishes a revolution and day becomes night a thousand years have already passed within the realm of the earth. The world already having changed since its birth only a moment yet a thousand years ago.
In comparison to Gaia the new world is small, practically the size of the continent of Pangaea and Atrium combined if not smaller. But it will do, for Pangaea and Atrium are known to have the capacity to house trillions of different beings comfortably.
And the Earth itself is not meant to be a permanently occupied world. One day, after the coming of the calamity, a path will be opened for those refugees that leave Gaia for earth to return. At least that’s the hope.
More spiritual bodies fall from the skies onto all the seven worlds. What the mortals know as meteorites of celestial ore.
The power of all the spirits in the mortal realm increases slightly before settling into whatever it settles into. There are spirits aplenty on Gaia, but most prefer the seventh world of the mortals. Lucifer, the bright world of the daemons.
Furthest from Rigel, the central sun the seven world’s revolve around. Lucifer is another sapient world, said to be a child of all the seven Lucifer is a power almost comparable to Gaia. Boasts being the home and birth mother of the daemon race, creatures born of flesh and spirit.
Having more in common with celestial spirits than any other mortal creature. And as spiritual bodies fall onto Lucifer, the beautiful world absorbs them. Moulds them and manifests 13 avatars that hold a part of its spirit.
Many other creatures take advantage and think quickly, realizing what must be falling among them. Poseidon and his people quickly secure a deposit in the oceans of Aqueous. The monkey emperor of Vegita secures a deposit on Terra.
The days ends to a silent world, shocked by the revelation of the coming calamity.
Chapter 34
“The ears of the mind.
When you remember or think of a sound so distinctly that you can actually ‘hear’ it in your mind.”
“The eyes of the mind.
When you visualize something so clearly you can actually ‘see’ it within your mind.”
Concepts by: Moses the Madman.
*
Kakaroth
The board is a rectangular square with 16 blocks on one column and 14 rows on the other. The design on each square block such that a triangle within the board funnels the pieces towards the middle with each ksuccessive movie before each player can leave his/her territory.
The design is curved into a strange wooden material that is deceptive to the eye depending from where you look at it from. From the top the board seems flat like any chess board would. Only with a triangle centered at its middle that separates the board into four equal triangles.
From the side the 3 dimensional nature of the board is visible as stairs that the pieces rest on. Getting lower the closer to the middle the pieces get.
Once a piece gets to the middle it
can go in any one of three routes. Two of these routes can be defended by the opponent in his next move at all times if he so chooses. The 12 pieces of each player used to their maximum capacity.
I move the mundane forward to cover for the coming attack, they being the most immediately disposable pieces at this point in the game. I use them to delay my opponents soarers from reaching my territory on the board.
The soarers are the fasted moving pieces on the board and the ones with the most range. My opponent, Bellatrix, moves his ace to counter my counter.
The point of the game is fluid, changing every twenty moves in a clairvoyant sequence designed to for-shadow how actual events would proceed.
From capture your opponents king, to destroy his castles. A way of playing only possible through the use of the spirit summoning circle designed into the board and enchanted to activate as a game begins.
Arthur suddenly appears and moves forward to my left as though out of nowhere to bend and whisper into my ear.
“It is time.” Is all he says and steps back as I open my third eye for the first time in an age.
An actual physical eye on my forehead glows and dims, opening slowly. Bellatrix’s face twitches a few times and he frowns slightly but otherwise stays relaxed before me watching everything unfolding.
Our little sister Orionis clapping and bouncing up and down as though watching a great show. Ori is the only one of my younger half sibling I allow down here. None of my nieces and nephews have ever even met me. Well that’s not technically true but my nephew Taurus only ever visits me in his dreams, or my dreams, whichever.
*
Kakaroth, the primordial son/daughter of the emperor of Celestia. The androgynous child the emperor conceived over 400 years ago with what he thought was a normal woman. A woman who spent two months in his harem warming his bed and the bed of the other women that wanted her within the clutch.
A woman that was a master of dimensional travel and could walk through dimensional space as any other person walks from room to room.
She returned to the Andromeda from such a trip one day carrying a seemingly four year old child in a bundle after having been gone only two days. A child that was clearly the emperors for all Archmages and Imperiums of his power know their spawn when they see it.
It was while gazing at the daughter/son that was passed to him and he used soul detect on, that he began to get an inkling of his sexual partner’s true form. On the child he saw a form he never hopes to see again this side of the grave.
A form infamous for its devastating wonder. A form for which the famous poem was written:
To gaze upon her is to see the stars in their entirety,
To gaze upon her is to know yourself fully,
To gaze upon her is to see The Wild hunt,
To haze upon her beauty is to break your mind.
The words of the poem almost came unbidden to him as he raised his eyes to look at the pleasant visage of his new child’s mother. He knew immediately she is the creature described in the poem and many other legends of a time long gone.
The mother of Echidna, mother of monsters. The mother of the Medusa people of the naga race, the snake humanoids. Said to be older than the planet they are standing on, but already her name was going into myth, and from myths would soon be lost from the memory of the short lived.
Andromeda look back at the child and used all his skills to look closely at his child, his creature. And he saw that this child had seen the passage of eons in the spiritual realm without a physical body. And from the moment it descended into the mortal realm it was clothed in mortal flesh for the first time in its life.
The flesh of a four year old child for some reason. The emperor saw this and knew that his child was much much older than he himself was, or at least his spirit and soul were.
From that moment onwards the child grew like any other child within the menagerie of children of the emperor. He/she was normal, or at least as normal as any mortal child of Emperor Andromeda Draconis Orion ever is.
His/her only strange point being his/her fluid gender. Which was mostly female through the early years of childhood but became male for a few years when he left the empire, and became female for many years after.
Now that child stands slowly as his third eye opens, literary opens in both a physical and spiritual way. As his eye opens so does an inner part of himself he has since being gazed upon by his father kept dormant. Now it awakens, the primordial part of him that has absolutely nothing in common with humanity.
The thing that is known as Arthur that acts as the royal chamberlain is also a primordial being. Primordials, the things before things were born into the universe. But what is now Arthur is mostly harmless.
Like a court jester kept by some of the kings within the empire it cannot be bared from entering any place the king could enter, and it can get away with mocking anyone the king could mock. Even when the king is outwardly stoic, his mood could be gazed at by glancing at the mood of the ever expressive jester.
Arthur, the primordial creature smiles as things start to get exciting.
Chapter 35
Albert of the Circle
“We have achieved half our goals, I think we should quit while we’re ahead.” Diana says to a small group of us gathering some of the ore under the noses of the Sandersonian metallurgists.
“We have just about enough to fashion a small weapon for each of us. But we all know the spirits will want their share, I say we continue.” Adrian says before going deeper into the dark hole.
“I’ll keep watch.” I say quickly and move smoothly out of the tunnel. Sharing a look with Yolanda before heading to the entrance.
The entire area we’ve cordoned off using wards, no one can sense any magic taking place within this area and there are only six of us searching for this particular deposit.
I look around and start drawing sigils on the barks of trees, inviting the creatures of the beyond into this plane. Adrian has no idea how right he is, but they won’t share any of the ore, they want all of it.
I used the six soul stones I’ve been saving up these 12 years to power the spirits into being anchored here. The stones themselves powered by the death of six newborn slaves, the common part of the ingredient.
What makes them rare is that no one knows how they are made, they can only be mined in certain places for now. Places the ever elusive Eskimo people are yet to let slip. But all our spies are sure soul stones are mined not made, and the Eskimo seem inefficient at it because they trade so few each year to the circle.
Just enough for one stone a year for everyone in the inner circle. Yet extorting exorbitant prices for each. If we had time we would have taught them a lesson in respect. But of course that would have brought too much attention to us as we aren’t the only people they trade with.
The spirits are empowered and take on the forms of serpents before flowing into the tunnel. I know Yolanda will do the rest, or at least I hope.
It isn’t long before I feel the ground vibrating slightly, small stones crumbling onto the ground. Lights and some sounds coming out of the tunnel mouth.
That will be Yolanda having surprised attacked Diana, the most troublesome one not being given a chance to escape. Then while the rest are distracted the summons will ambush them, easy.
I start preparing another sigil on the ground, using my mana, the maiden blood of a raped virgin and my very last soul stone to power it. An Avatar of the great spirit Vritra manifests.
“You have done well Albert.” The thing says without preamble as it senses the raw unbound celestial ore within it’s vicinity.
“Thank you great one.” I say with a bow, prostrating myself. I am not a warrior as my bulk will attest, nor really much of a mage.
But none are my equal when it comes to summoning, and all my summoned spirit creatures are two or three times more powerful and substantial than anyone else’s. And that’s before I use the power within soul stones for summoning.
<
br /> The spirit creatures I’ve just summoned are on par with Awakened Magical beasts of the second level. Adrian, Diana, Fistio, Vostok have no chance against six of them in such confined spaces. Not if Yolanda managed to kill Diana on her first attack.
The avatar I’ve just raised is not to be involved in the fight for it still has a contract with Damian, the master of the Circle.
Once the fighting quietens down one of the snake spirits returns, already more than it was when it went in. Having gorged itself on the raw ore they had in their possession. The spirit creature changes form into that of a woman and sighs as the sigil I used to summon it frays and sputters before breaking. Leaving a scorch mark on the tree.
The woman/spirit remains though looking around with a smile as her flesh becomes more substantial by the moment.
“Well #&$$$.” she says to the avatar.
“I leave the rest for you, our agreement is done.” She says before walking away naked as a new born, for she is a new born. She gives me a pat on the head on her way passed.
Yolanda comes stumbling out a moment later. One arm hanging limp and half her face shriveled and blackened.
“You have done well mortal child.” The avatar says waving an arm filling Yolanda with energy. I scowl at her fortune. That energy should have been mine, but no one appreciates the art of summoning as they should. Even the filthy spirits!
I school my face with a smile as Yolanda is restored and the avatar turns to face me. “Leave, I will take care of everything from here.”
“Yes great one.” I say kowtowing again before dragging Yolanda by the arm well outside the wards.
I know the sadistic nature of this particular spirit, and if it doesn’t want us to see what it does to the ore it exhumes that fine by me. I prefer dealing with more malleable spirits anyways. But one must do what one must to survive.
“You fully restored yet?” I ask as we get far enough to slow down.
