The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry - Chapter 10-404 – The Reckoning
The Mana all over the whole world flowed away in a great rush.
The Veil slammed shut so absolutely it felt like adamantine crashing against the Manafield, the Aether beyond it drained dry of all magic at the absolute COMMAND in that will and order stripping it all away, a mighty torus of power escorting that Faith to its final destination.
The burning obsidian claws reaching for me froze in place, basically mountain-sized cleavers right in front of my eyes, but now unable to move an extra inch.
There was a Light shining down on me, a column of brilliance extending down from beyond the sky, beyond the Aether, beyond this entire multiverse.
I closed my eyes and knelt there for a long, solid moment, calming my breathing, my heart. Then I looked up and around myself.
I was isolated in a shining pillar of The Light. Right in front of me was the entire Netherworld, and all six Netherlords. Their power was straining to reach me, but not even the blazing sacrificial wreck they had made of their Realms allowed that conjoined claw to move forward a millimeter now.
Behind me was a harsh, regimented, crystalline Realm wrought of crystalline panes of force and light, perfect and symmetrical, filled with countless glittering souls, the abrasion and consumption bordering it in jagged edges that shattered its perfect image.
Four great figures of Light scattered about its surface rose to their feet, looking up in shock and awe, just as the Netherlords were doing.
The Pillar of The Light began to grow.
The Netherlords screamed and fled as it rolled forwards, abandoning their attack on me instantly, and their Realms died. The Light came for them and theirs, and nothing slowed it down in the slightest. High Imperial Shadows, Undead, Fiends and Demons were all Burned and wiped clean away, like passing dreams. The Light expanded, it covered the Aether, the starry heavens, all of existence, and their Realm was but a gnat before it…
Something dark, ancient, and Evil beyond mortal comprehension came out of oblivion and slammed into this place’s surface with a crack like the shattering of souls, and The Light parted around its darkness. Five screaming Realm Lords, smoking and mostly dead, staggered and fell into its shadow as the Lord of Undead, the slowest of them, was washed away by the passing wall of Light, unable to put up even a moment of resistance, its final hollow scream forever unheard.
I had the distinct impression it was a sacrifice, the one most to blame for what had gone on here, allowed to die for appearance’s sake.
I turned my eyes way, way up, and threw my sight the equivalent of millions of miles behind me, just to gain perspective on what the thing was.
A scythe’s blade. How long was it? An AU? Above it, a ghoulish purple-green light awoke in the caverns of an eye that could swallow planets, hinting at an inhuman skull made of the bones of everything sapient that had ever died.
“THEY ARE YOURS?”
I shuddered and almost melted in relief at that Voice wrought of sunbeams and paternal love, underscored by enough wrath to sweep away a star… and certainly end a bunch of puling Realm Lords.
There was no audible response, but so far above, we all could see that shadowed skull lower slightly and the ghoulish fires of its eyes fall upon those cowering in the shelter of its Scythe.
“We swear our souls and eternal loyalty to Master!” The proud and mighty Lord of Demons was the first to fall and promptly capitulate entirely, his entire scorched body shaking with terror, horror, and despair, emotions he no doubt thought he had long grown past, things suitable only for his enemies and thralls.
Ninety percent of their Nether Realms were utterly gone, washed away like dirt off the side of a building. Eons of effort simply gone.
They had thought themselves gods, but the true gods were not even finite. What was a pet demiplane to such beings, who could sentence true planes to oblivion if they were of a mind to?
The attention of the glowing Orb beyond my sight seemed to turn, and so did the attention of the skull, shifting as something new hove into everyone’s view.
He was ancient, He was a child, and every iteration between all at once, the past, present, and future of whatever species looked upon Him, absolute in every instant before and yet to come, unchanging by being all of His own existence at the same moment, cloaked in a Sapphire Aura so absolute it seemed to suck in all other Colors.
“ARE THEY YOURS?” spoke the great glowing Light again, and this time attention settled on the reeling, stumbling Lords of Light, staring agog at this gathering of titans where they were less than mosquitoes, their views of Creation and their place in it shattering before them.
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The eyes of the Lord of All Time turned on the four Axiomatics, and they all fell to their knees and prostrated helplessly before Him.
“THEY ARE ON A FALSE PATH I HAVE NO USE FOR.”
Such was the merciless logic of Law. In the end, there could be only one!
The Light expanded out towards them as they tried to scream, tried to protest, tried to offer themselves, and Aru tore the Light from the Lords of Light with The Light. He reduced them and their bright and shining perfect realm to scattered motes of Essence, to be finally processed through the cycles of Life and Death.
Skulos looked on in silence, and was pleased.
“IS WAR SATISFIED?” My head turned helplessly as another great and brutal force arrived, carrying with it the sounds of every conflict, every scream of battle rage, every crashing of blows and explosion, the smells of blood and sweat and gore from every contest, duel, battle, and war that had ever touched Creation.
There was no sign of agreement, but I think I felt a very satisfied gaze pass over me from that force that was at once every warrior and weapon ever made, and at the same time an eternal changing force that would challenge everything always.
an offering to war…
My skin clutched, my heart stopped beating, and my thoughts revolted at that sepulchral whisper, the darkness that awaits all who live at their end.
A glimmer of a skeletal hand able to crush the sun in its grip swept out, and the torn Nether Realm shattered and rained down upon the world of Earth, blots of darkness sinking into the continents and seas here and there…
Death Zones, and ones that could not be closed…
I fought down my bile, gritting my teeth and saying nothing, staying kneeling and silent, merely a witness to what was going on.
I understood what was being done. If the world was left as it was, with me as its Realm Lord, Good would have an unassailable position, and what would the other Forces care for its continued survival, then?
There would now be Evil, there would be War, and humanity would doubtless bring new Law and discipline to the test of opposing them.
If we wished to survive, we would still have to fight!
But, I knew, we would have a clear enemy to contest against, which would help keep the people centered and focused on what was important, instead of inevitably turning upon one another… which I was certain would happen regardless.
“I have no objections to this,” I whispered under my breath, knowing They all heard me, insignificant as I was, because I was Bound to that tiny world.
I saw golden hooves next to me, and looked over at the Lord of Beasts, the mighty Ki-rin’s head also bowed low.
His Fate had been tied to ours.
“THE SOULS OF THE BEASTS WILL JOIN THE CYCLE, AND THEY MUST CHOOSE THEIR FATE,” the great Light in the Heavens stated, and the Ki-rin’s horn bobbed once in acknowledgment.
The Emperors of the Beast Realm would soon be leaving for Higher Places, to battles and destinies beyond the one Realm they were Bound to now.
Heads turned, and Greater Gods vanished into nothingness, while the pillar of The Light about me dimmed.
“Spread knowledge of all the gods, and let them know they have Free Will upon them,” whispered the Sun of Suns, the King of Heaven United, the Overdeity named Aru. “Well done.”
And it was over.
Except, it wasn’t.
Hissing vapors swirled around me and poured into my Stars, the residue and remains of two annihilated Divine Planes. They pressed into my Multiverse and the Stars therein, and condensed.
Tier-Nine Stars rippled and grew across my inner Multiverse as the finest loot of two Realms flowed into me, raising all my Stars up, past True Realm Sage, to High Realm Sage, and then filling the very last one.
Half-Divine Sage.
Seven tier-ten Heavenly Divine Soul Stars coalesced onto my very first pattern of Seven Stars, and completed it.
A spark rippled across the entire world.
I was now the first Lesser Titanic Divine Sage of this world, a clear step above the demigods the Realm Lords were the Titanic Equivalents of. Still finite, still bound to this world and existence, not a living trope yet.
Or maybe I was. With this much magic and power, it was actually hard to tell.
Well, at least I had someone to talk with it about, and I had so much to tell him, and let him know as he worked his way back through to the rest of us…
Despite crushing fatigue, which came more from the pressure being relieved from me than from it pressing on me, my head whipped around.
There was absolutely no way he could possibly hide his Master Archtheurgy on the planet. The Manafield was still recovering from that spell he’d Cast! Magic would sing around him even more surely than it had around me… although I was definitely having to rein in my presence now, or I’d be accompanied by shining thaumaworks all about me otherwise.
Aelryinth… wasn’t anywhere to be found. There was an echo of his magic around the Altar of Faith, singing out into the Aether and beyond… but no presence of him!
“DAMMIT!” I protested, bouncing to my feet and staring out into Creation. He’d been caught up in the power of the spell he’d had to Cast, and it had taken Him right with it! He was already on His way home!
I hadn’t had a chance to even speak with him!
“Ho there, Fae. In transit to wherever, tumbling free through Creation,” the tired Sending recited into my ear dutifully.
“So glad I could help, sorry to put you through all that. I have your coordinates, and I’ll be able to make a road back now, especially if you finish that Pyramid for a lock.
“Crazy world, but don’t you worry, I will be coming back, and with friends. Stay happy and healthy and busy. You look like you did just fine without me, and I’m so relieved.
“Mithar is such a bastard.”
I burst out laughing at the Sending, found myself leaning against the Beast Lord in total fatigue. For the moment I didn’t know if I was big or he was little, and I really didn’t care.
“Let’s go home, Elder,” I whispered.
“That seems like a very wise idea, Healer Fae,” he agreed solemnly, and side by side, we exited this non-space, letting the last vestiges of it collapse and wipe away the things which had threatened our worlds for so long, reducing them to less than a memory, with all their Dark promises and shining deceptive oaths.
It was going to be a new and still-dangerous world, but they still had someone looking out for them, even if I implicitly couldn’t do all their work for them. I could feel the constraints on my behavior with every step I took.
I was powerful enough that I could break Free Will, and that I was not willing to do. Doing so would be an excuse for other powers to act directly and do the same, and goodbye to the planet I’d worked so hard to save…
I’d have to test my limits, and help guide, but I could not Rule, or some catastrophic things would happen…
