Siegfried looked more impressive upon this meeting than he had upon the first time Telos had met him. A handsome man with the features of someone somewhere between thirty and forty, he had blonde hair and gray-blue eyes with a coldness that Telos appreciated, and he dressed not in armor but in a stylish and distinctive ensemble. The saber at his hip made the choice to forego armor of any form an interesting one, Telos thought. The entire outfit shared the same white with a blush of blue scheme accented by a light blue that matched Siegfried’s eyes.

A wide-brimmed hat adorned with an immaculate feather sat above his long blonde hair, and a dramatic cloak flickered behind Siegfried on an otherwise unfelt breeze. Telos always noticed when others had dramatic posing, and Siegfried’s ranked up there among the most impressive she’d seen so far. I see you, Siegfried, and as a fellow fan of dramatic poses, I salute you.

The old monster that stood before Telos might appear young, but one didn’t reach the seventh tier without it taking multiple lifetimes, or reality shaking hacks like she possessed. She had been unable to pierce the veil of his aura on their first meeting, but now his power and rank were revealed to Void’s Gaze. If she wished, she could take his true measure by looking upon his strands in the Cosmic Song, or by gazing to the future. I’m not some peeping tom, Telos told herself, and she shut down the potential invasion of privacy and self she briefly considered employing on Siegfried.

“Tell me more about Armageddon,” Siegfried practically demanded in an eager tone, the fires of fanaticism burned in his voice, despite the cold, calculating, almost reptilian weight to his gaze.

“The time for gods is over, we go now to remove Oizys from existence. When the Daemon has been dispatched, I intend to assault the seven Heavens of Ialdaboath and depose of the Overgod.” Silence reigned on the deck. Even Siegfried’s men were shocked by the casualness with which Telos laid out her goals.

After a short, terse, silence, Siegfried laughed ruefully.

“You’re going to destroy the power of the gods with a StarMane, the Soul Witch, and you? What has changed since last we met that this is naught but folly?” Siegfried smirked, but Telos saw he already could sense her power for himself. He set the stage for her to inspire his men. Ah, Siegfried, I’m not here to inspire you or them. Your decisions aren’t my problem.

Still, Telos might as well throw him a bone, of sorts. Siegfried’s mistake was in assuming Telos needed their help.

“I am Telos Metanoia, and I walk the path of Ayin-Yesh. If you find the yolk of the gods too heavy, then you may join me in casting them off, and burning them down. I will not promise you survival, but I can promise my victory is inevitable. If you would be part of the twilight of the gods, join my two StarMane companions, Kallos, and I. If you would rather wait it out, in peace, to personally see the coming universe, I don’t blame you.”

Siegfried looked as if Telos had slapped him. He had expected a speech, inspiration, and instead Telos gave a passive-aggressive come if you want to, I don’t care. He stood slightly taller, and somehow became more.

“I will join Telos and her allies. We stand on the brink of a new dawn, a dawn where men and women are no longer shackled by the chains of the divine. No longer will we be less than playthings in the games of the gods. No more will our souls be stripped of progress and be fed into the so-called Great Cycle that nourishes only gods. We have been chosen, and called, not by fate, not even by our enemies the gods, but by our indomitable and unwavering will to be free. This battle is not solely for us, but for every soul that dreams of freedom.”

Siegfried dramatically stepped forward then, flared his white-blue aura into sparkles and lights around him, a tangible manifestation of his resolve. “Our resolve is unbreakable, our cause righteous! Let the gods hear our roar as we come to cast them down and claim our freedom with our own two hands! From Mortal Will, Immortal Change!”

Apparently the latter was a slogan within the Celestial Wardens, for they all responded in unison.

“””Guardians of Balance, Keepers of Freedom! We are the Celestial Wardens!”””

Telos grinned at Siegfried, who gave her an arrogant look in return. Her mind translated his expression into ‘that’s how you do it, newbie’.

“Kallos will be in touch to coordinate our departure, let us know when your ships are ready to go,” Telos instructed before she simply vanished, stepping between the cracks of reality back into her own vessel.

“We’re almost there,” Telos’ said a few hours later. Travel through space lacked the excitement she thought it would have. When you took away the danger, already had an intimate knowledge of its beauty coursing through your mind thanks to Binah, the experience rang hollow. Dissatisfying. Disappointing. She had traversed light years of space, destroyed an eldritch horror, recruited a band of fanatics, and all she felt was a hollowness inside of her. Even the potential satisfaction that ought to be near at hand from driving her boots into Oizys’ ass didn’t perk her mood up at all.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

-It may be time to embrace some of the channels of Ein Sof, darling. Your self-made connection to the divine realms has gotten you this far, but if you don’t open the real conduits then the hollowness you feel will only grow.- Kallos spoke directly into Telos’ mind.

~Which ones? I don’t know what conduits you’re talking about.~

Kallos bit her lower lip, and Telos scowled at the way her lips and eyes had quirked into a you-look-so-cute-when-you’re-being-dumb expression.

-The Gates of Binah. When you unlock each Gate, you can manifest the connection to Ein Sof.-

~All of the gates are already open, sweetie. I don’t know what connection you’re talking about.~ Telos didn’t need to hide her bewilderment, and created a mental image to show Kallos how Binah appeared to her.

-You’ve unlocked all one-hundred-and-fifty gates? But you didn’t form a connection to any of the three realms. Why?-

~Don’t sound so baffled. When I first plumbed the depths of Sefirot with Reverie, the whole of creation tried to, I guess, merge with me? I didn’t want it, and I shunned it. Was that a mistake?~

Laughter, like a silver bell, filled the sole chamber of their craft, and tears trickled at the corners of Kallos’ eyes.

“You’re insane, darling.” Kallos coughed out between fits of laughter.

“Oh, sure, I’m insane, even though the universe tried to cozy up to me like a creep who thinks buying you a movie and dinner entitles him to a night in your bed. I don’t think so, universe!” Telos shook her fist at the imagined universe.

“You can connect to one or two gates at a time,” Kallos said flatly.

“Oh. Oh! How do I do that?” Telos asked with earnest confusion.

“What are they going on about?” Bobbi asked Arkaziel.

“Nothing good. Every time blue has a new revelation, it just means less meals for me.” Arkaziel heaved a great, tired sigh with his complaint.

Telos focused on the first gate of the physical within Binah. Mentally she poked it, prodded it, and nothing happened. When she commanded it to connect, the gate transformed into a luminous structure and tentacles like those of a jellyfish dangled from the limbo of Keter, and latched onto Telos. A pure connection to Binah connected her to the divine flow of light from beyond, and through, Keter, to Binah and to her. With the connections came extraordinary sensations, and quicker access to knowledge that lay in the realm of Binah.

“Okay, I figured it out. I wonder how many I can activate without the Universe exploding. Oh, quit glaring at me Ark. I’m not going to explode the universe! Its just a figure of speech.” Besides, I’m sure destroying a universe is super underwhelming.

Arkaziel and Bobbi stared suspiciously at Telos’ tone, as if they thought she might do it anyway.

“Did it decrease the hollowness?” Kallos inquired, ignoring the banter.

“It did, a little. If I was starving, that felt like I found two strawberries, and now I’m slightly full. How many have you unlocked?” Telos asked with curiosity.

“Some of us had to open the gates ourselves. Luckily being the daughter of an Aeon allowed me to skip some.” Kallos wouldn’t admit the number, and Telos refused to look the information up via Binah. If she was patient, Kallos would simply tell her, or reveal it, and that felt healthier than using Binah.

“What in the fickle abyss is that?!” Bobbi hissed at the view screen of what lay before them.

“We’re there,” Arkaziel answered, then went back to licking the back of his left paw.

“That’s a god? And we’re supposed to eat that? Eww. That’s hideous.” Bobbi cringed.

“A Daemon, if we’re being precise, but yes, that is Oizys. The manifestation of Misery, the bringer of suffering.” Telos wondered, a little, if this was what all the gods looked like, even the Primordials, or if this was a unique appearance to Oizys.

The physical-spiritual hybrid manifestation of Oizys, and thus her Tower, was a planet-sized mass of eyes, flesh, spiritual suffering, and an illusive quality that made it appear to be a mirage.

“What’s with the patchwork azure order?” Arkaziel noticed the small incongruity to the over-all energy pattern before even Telos.

“Archons. There’s at least two greater Archons within the Tower awaiting us, and likely a legion of the lesser,” Kallos answered.

“Good thing we brought cannon fodder!” Arkaziel laughed.

“Let them know that’s our target, if they want to open with their vaunted anti-god weaponry, we’ll follow up with our own attacks. If we can obliterate the Tower from the outside it would send a great message to Ialdaboath and the gods. If we have to engage inside Oizys spiritual plane it’ll take longer.”

“Are you and Kallos late for a tea date?” Bobbi seemed surprised that Telos cared about speed in this regard.

“Always,” Telos grinned.

“Siegfried is deploying their Divinity Nullifier Cannon.” Kallos relayed, then grasped Telos’ hand. Together, they watched one ship transform into the shape of a projectile launcher, and the other Celestial Warden vessels all launched concentrated forms of energy at the cannon ship, where an incredibly large crystal collected the energies. Telos couldn’t help but notice the remnants of stored Void Energy amongst the other energies.

“Have they been trying to steal power from Void creatures and store it? I guess it’s one way to make anti-god weapons. The failure, and fatality, rates must have been catastrophic.” Telos couldn’t imagine being that desperate, but most mortals couldn’t just learn to wield the Void, and certainly not with enough power to overcome most old gods.

A minute later, the crystal pulsed under the load it’d been inundated with. As a Sovereign, or seventh tier, Siegfried alone had contributed a massive amount of energy, and the rest of his people weren’t chopped liver. In the blink of an eye, the crystal discharged its power, and beam of power the size of the ship connected the vessel and the true form of Oizys. The pained cries of a Daemon echoed through minds of those not strong enough to repel Misery’s invasion.

When the beam faded, a gaping hole in the exterior of the spiritual-physical manifestation remained.

“Into the breach!” Telos cried with excitement.

“It’s already healing,” Bobbi pointed out.

A pulse of Telos’ aura blinded everyone momentarily, but when they could see again, ice had formed around the wound, keeping the door open.

“As I was saying, full speed ahead, into the breach!”