Chapter 20

There always is the way [https://i.imgur.com/SO36niM.png]

“Give thanks to the Moon Mothers,

Call on their name,

Make known their deeds among the lesser,

Make them remember that Their name is exalted,

Praise the Moon Mother in song,

For they have done glorious things,

Let this be known throughout the realms.”

Priests chanted their magnificent song to Moon Mothers above them. It was a magnificent night when all Eldritch Priests of the Fallen strata came together to praise all-knowing all-powerful all-merciful protectors of their realm. They sang their songs and feasted on mana falling down from the moons in the abundance.

Moon Mothers were unveiled, and priests chanted songs in ecstasy, overlooking their beautiful forms. Some younger priests, for whom it was their first feeding, even lost their consciousness upon gazing elegance of Moon Mothers for the first time in their lives.

Moon Mothers shined beautifully and the night was bright. A night like this was extraordinarily special. It was the night when the veil of Moon Mothers was fully unveiled, and mana which usually stayed over the fog floated down, where priests could feast on it.

This night was a holly celebration of life and food. It was the biggest celebration of any Fallen Eldritch Priest in this strata.

Besides Moon Mothers there were countless small shining points in the sky. Those points were priests of the past who in their selfless servitude earned their place to stand beside Moon Mothers. They guarded Moon Mothers even in death.

Destiny of such great importance was every Priest’s biggest dream. Every Priest’s main goal in life was to serve Moon Mothers with all their limbs and eyes in servitude so selfless and un so devoted that they would earn rights to continue their servitude even in death. It was their purpose.

One of the oldest Fallen Eldritch Priests overlooked one particular moon with fondness and love.

"My servitude is coming to end. I feel it. Soon I will stand beside you, my love. I hope you will let me guard you all eternity," old Priest spoke to the moon.

After a moment of prayer, the old Priest returned his gaze back to his brethren. He overlooked thousands of his younger brothers with a proud gaze.

There always were some Priests who were so enthralled by the magnificence of Moon Mothers, that they forgot to sing their praises. It was his duty as their senior to remind them what was the proper way to thank their benefactors. A smack between the eyes usually was enough to remind his brothers how to sing songs they learned over long days under the ground.

Old Priest watched his brethren with happiness in his 17 eyes until his gaze fell on something out of place. There were four creatures different from the rest. They didn't belong here.

Four ugly metallic creatures stood close to him as if they all belonged there. They stood there like they were in their own home.

“Audacity!” old Fallen Eldritch Priest screamed in righteous furry.

Fallen Eldritch Priests around him turned towards the disturbance with questioning looks, but upon seeing metallic creatures in their midst furry overtook them and they started screaming themselves.

More and more Eldritch Priests turned towards the humans who dared to step on their land. Priests were like homeowners who opened kitchen doors to find cockroaches running around on their food tables.

Four disgusting-looking abominations stood on their turf like they owned the land. Moon Mothers shined over these disgusting creatures and the fact that the beautiful light of Moon Mothers touched these abominations was blasphemy.

“Ugly visages of those infidels offend the eyes of Moon Mothers!”

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“Cut off their ugly arms!”

“Kill them before Moon Mother sees them!”

“Heathens!”

“Heretics!”

“Smite them down and bury their bones!”

"Eyeballs! Look at those disgusting white eyeballs!"

"Pull them out!"

Fallen Eldritch Priests screamed in fury all around the old Priest. More and more voices joined and now thousands of priests were aware of impostors in their ranks. The swearing of the crowd became louder and louder.

Priests were enraged. Even younger ones who didn’t understand what was happening followed along with their older brothers and screamed in anger. They didn’t know what they were so angry about, but if older brothers were angry, they shall be angry too.

While Priests cursed, creatures were speaking among themselves in their own primitive language. Words were a mystery to the old Priest, but the method of speech wasn’t. Creatures used the air to communicate with one another. They were truly primitive life forms as all higher Eldritch weaved their words using mana.

Old Priest snarled in disgust and decided it was finally time to squash these meager bugs.

The Priest spoke words of power and mana responded to his great call. Every Fallen Eldritch Priest was born with a moon mana core and old Priest was no exception. He pulled the moon mana out of his core and weaved it in a complex spell inherited from one Eldritch Priest to another from times before even Forebear fell off from the higher planes.

‘Moon missile’

He completed the frame of the spell and started filling elements of the spell one after another with confident mental flicks. He filled the mana banks, completed the core structure, and made element connectors so the spell wouldn’t fall apart in the action. The last part of the spell was the guidance weave. For that old Priest needed a visual path to his target.

Old Priest looked at his targets with all his eyes and started crafting guidance weave with the speed of an experienced caster. Ugly abominations didn’t wait for him to finish. All four of them rushed towards him as he stood the closest to them. Stupid creatures probably felt mana fluctuate and tried to save their disgusting lives in a last vain attempt.

Their pathetic attempts didn’t matter. Old Priest didn’t care about their silly attempt to live, because creatures would never be in time to reach him. They were too fat and slow.

In the middle of the weave old Priest looked around at his brothers and what he saw made his eyes almost fall out his eye sockets.

Every single Fallen Eldritch Priest around him was casting exactly the same spell as he did. Thousands of Moon missiles were being cast all around.

Old Priest paled in view of that and canceled his own weave.

“What are you doing morons? I got this! Stop! Stop your magic!” Old Eldritch Priest screamed in terror, but Priests didn’t hear his words.

They were in a state of anger and concentration. Old Priest was well aware of how stupid most of his brothers were so what would happen next made him extremely worried.

Thousands of Moon missiles were conjured all around them. Countless miniature moons hung in the air before shooting after heretics.

Meanwhile, four abominations reached the old Priest.

‘Moon blades’

The priest did a quick cast, and 17 blades were conjured in all of his 17 hands. Old Priest dropped his stance and got ready for the melee.

Most priests didn’t train their close-quarter skills as they preferred to fight from a safe distance and bombard hostile Eldritch invaders with spells, but old Priest was different. You don’t live as long as old Priest if you can’t hold your ground in the melee. Old Priest understood that and spent years honing his swordsmanship. He probably was the best swordsman in all the Fallen strata.

Old Priest readied his blades and took a stance, but the enemies didn’t attack him.

They swirled around him and jumped into the tunnel behind him one after another. It was a tunnel leading to the old Priest's house and he used it to get to the surface in order to participate in the celebration.

Now creatures used the tunnel to his home as an escape path.

Old Priest watched them disappear in a complete state of shock. If he would have a mouth, his mouth would be wide open right now.

“No, they wouldn’t dare,” old Priest couldn’t believe what just happened and watched his home tunnel in a stupor.

That was when all the Moon missiles were released all around him.

Every priest had his own unique version of the spell as no weave was exactly the same, but right now small differences between different casts didn’t matter. Thousands of Moon missiles merged into one big explosion, eviscerating everything in the vicinity.

Old Priest was blown in the pieces as every other Priest in the mile radius from him. A huge magical mushroom exploded in the air.

A huge explosion shook the ground under their feet and killed hundreds of Eldritch Priests.

Hundreds of thousands of other Priests looked at the magical explosion from the distance in confusion and fear. News about their guests didn’t reach that far and for most Priests, the reasons for the deadly spectacle in front of their eyes were a mystery.

After the explosion ended it revealed a shallow pit in the ground. There was not even a piece left from the old Priest or any other priests around him.

A thin layer of earth evaporated and revealed the skin of Fallen Eldritch Forebear under the layer of dirt. His skin was dry and purple full of holes like an enormous sponge. The explosion destroyed everything around in a mile, but it didn’t even scratch the skin of the Forebear.

Fallen Eldritch Forebear didn’t move or even scratch his sore spot. For the great calamity of Fallen strata, this event didn’t even happen. Fallen Eldritch Forebear kept on with his slumber with no care about the small world on his back and all the adventures that happened there.