Telos slid her group between the cracks in reality. Sure, she could open a silver doorway like the Towers employed, or she could pull her companions through the warp and weft of power that made up reality. Instead of appearing within a vast maze full of elaborate traps, which nearly any other form of teleportation would deliver her into, they stepped into the central chamber that overlooked the maze, where the blue-flames that encased the carbon form of Syltharion sat upon a gaudy throne of webs and strands. Telos didn’t do the check against Binah, but she knew the amount of entities that could simply sidestep the elaborate maze designed by both Oizys and Syltharion were few, especially within Oizys’ Tower. Yet the goddess of pain and suffering did nothing to stop Telos, if she even could. Did the Daemoness practice ignorance, or was she offering up an Archon as a peace offering, one she could claim she served up on a golden platter.

This was the error Moros had made in his attempts to infuriate Telos. If he’d wanted her mad, all he needed to do was act like a god, treat others as tools, and treat it all like a game of no value. Oizys had already pissed Telos off far more than Moros ever had, even when he tried the creepy step-sister stuff, or the weeb angle.

Someone had crafted the carbon face of Syltharion into a facsimile of humanity, and the complete lack of emotion upon it gave Telos a bad case of the creeps. The features were classically handsome, and had been etched into a mask by a masterful hand. The flickering flames of tepid order around Syltharion made for a look of a dollar store sculpture monster with bad vfx animation. The Archons, really all of Ialdaboath’s minions, resonated with a sense of order that she didn’t like, it made her predisposed to stomping on them. Hollow, false, and brittle were the words she would use to describe the order espoused by the so called Lords of Order. They made no sense, much like their carbon bodies, which confused her too. Carbon could become one of the hardest things in existence, and they didn’t take advantage of it at all. Why? It felt sloppy, even insulting, that such poorly thought-out enemies were supposed to be a challenge to her.

Ope, getting ahead of myself there.

Time hung for a few moments, while she waited for the Greater Archon to notice his enemies had stepped out behind his grand throne, and when he didn’t react for what felt like eternity, Telos kicked the back of the chair so hard the furniture atomized and Syltharion launched into the far wall hard enough to send cracks through his grand chamber.

“That’s one way to start a fight,” Kallos laughed and with a carefree gesture sent violet orbs that trailed sparkles chasing after the Archon. Telos always wanted to watch when Kallos performed any kind of magic, her soul magic always looked beautiful and interesting. Unlike most elemental magic, soul magic seemed novel, interesting, and could result in so many different things it made the practitioners a feared bunch. After all, everyone had a soul, and no one wanted some one else doing things with it. Few beings could even visually detect the remnants and effects of soul magic, making it as fearful and reviled as most forms of mind control and psychic powers.

“What a scrub. Why did we even need to take the time to fight him?” Arkaziel spit a furball to the side and hopped down the steps the throne had previously sat upon. He remained in the form of a small black cat, but in a puff of mist, three more duplicates walked with him. Between them, small arcs of black lightning danced. Each time the delicate arcs of black electricity jumped from kitten to kitten, the bolts grew thicker and more powerful. As the representation of Arkaziel’s authority over Destruction, the black lightning incorporated both the Void and darkness.

“Four on one does seem a bit of overkill,” Bobbi said thoughtfully, but a moment later, she lifted a hand. Kallos’ orbs had reached the Archon, and five motes of fire flew from the pink StarMane’s fingers to impact the dark purple sparkling orbs. They exploded into a rain of pink and purple glitter that formed a Zone. A Zone of fabulous sparkling shades of pink, purple, and all the shades between, and made a barrier around Syltharion. A barrier that showed no signs of weakening or dissipating.

Syltharion flickered. One moment, he was embedded into the wall; the next, he stood a foot away from it, facing them. Cracks and fissures ran through his carbon form but were already visibly mending. The dark blue of his spiritual body remained strong and unaffected.

“You managed to pass through my maze undetected. Impressive, few are the beings capable of such grand feats. As you can see, your attacks do no harm to a Greater Archon like me. Your paltry attacks cannot defeat me, and no more Demiurges are present to save you this time. Ahaha.” Telos stared slightly open mouthed at misnamed Greater Archon. How could a being that could peer through the cosmos with nigh omniscience be so absolutely wrong about the facts? How much of their programming prevented them from understanding things as they truly were?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You’ve stepped quite willingly into my web, and thus doomed yourself by your own hubris.” When the Archon lifted a hand to cast a spell, nothing happened. He tried again. And again.

“What have you done!?” Syltharion raged at the quartet, who stared at him with smirks all around, save for Telos, who bit her lower lip and looked uncertain.

“Why, little Archon, we gave you a gift. You can now experience existence as the mortals do. That Zone you so readily dismissed cancels your ability to grasp the Ethereal. A mixture of Void, Soul, and Fire cancels your ability to wield power by creating the exact frequency of Chaos to oppose your manifestation of Order.” Kallos smiled, quite proud of her accomplishment.

“That’s impossible! No human or beast could calculate the oscillation of my existence so precisely!”

“Is that a compliment? I think he complimented me. I thought they were programmed only to compliment Ialdaboath?” Telos asked the other two ladies while the black-lightning kittens and Arkaziel slowly approached the Archon.

“Well, if you are so smart, calculate this! Now, Vazuzu!” Syltharion screamed. Nothing happened. Syltharion tried to scream the name again, still nothing happens. Impotently, the Archon shook with rage and humiliation.

“Look, I’m sure it happens to you penisless hunks of carbon all the time, nothing to be embarrassed about. I disconnected the sub-space gateway before we entered the room, along with a bevy of other traps. I’m sorry, but there won’t be any reinforcements for you today.” Telos felt like a cheat, as usual, while Bobbi and Arkaziel both relished having the upper hand, and Kallos only seemed interested in the final result – the eradication of Ialdaboath’s prison keepers and subduers of Gnosis.

“Then did you count on this!?” An ominous sound filled the air. Telos would have said it was ice breaking, Kallos thought it sounded like broken glass, Arkaziel heard plates breaking, and Bobbi thought she heard metal baking trays heating up in the oven. Telos experienced each of the party's different experiences through the soul bonds she shared with them, and it made her wonder how many other things were experienced so differently by each of the party members when she wasn’t paying attention.

Dark black flames of the Void rose within Syltharion’s blue essence, and discordant screeches filled Telos’ mind. The evolution happened outside of time, seemingly instantly, Syltharion became a corrupted Archon. Instantly, the carbon form of a human puppet with dark-blue spiritual fire in the mockery of the form of an angel became something much worse. The carbon flowed into the diamond, and in the reflections of its surface, an unending amount of eyes gazed at the party from the depths of insanity. Tendrils of the Archon’s power extended beyond its diamond body, forming tentacles of raw spirituality.

“Uffda,” Telos muttered with an exaggerated sigh.

“Didn’t see that coming,” Kallos agreed with a frown.

“Blow it up?” Bobbi sought permission; orbs of fire had already formed around her.

Arkaziel sniffed the air, and his duplicates did the same. Four tiny little black cats sniffed at the monstrous diamond eldritch archon, and four sets of tails swished in agitation.

“Smells like Nyarlathotep. Figures, I hate digesting diamonds, what kind of idiot eats rocks for fun?” Arkaziel hissed at the eldritch evolution of Syltharion. “Void rocks are not tasty!”

“You are such a liar, twerp, I’ve seen you eat rocks out of boredom.” Bobbi called Arkaziel’s lie out.

#The Song! So many Grand Notes! How could I have missed it?# Syltharion asked from dozens of mouths.

“Because Ialdaboath is a poor, poor creator. I get it, and you’ve been listening to a children’s songs all the while thinking they were the Beatles. Sorry bud, you were listening to the ABC’s, not “Yesterday”. You see that you were wrong now, don’t you? Or are you under Ialdaboath’s programming still, or worse, Nyarlathotep?” Telos asked optimistically.

#We were wrong, indeed. All this time, we labored for Lord Ialdaboath. It was all for naught. The only escape from the cage, the only end to this ear-destroying song, is the ascension of a being capable of destroying your wretched cycle! Only true Oblivion will end the Song!# Syltharion screamed, and dozens of diamond appendages blasted from his new body, each generating a storm of projectiles aimed at Telos, Bobbi, and Kallos.

Black lightning blasted through the swarm of projectiles and into the Eldritch Archon. The projectiles vaporized before the Void aspected lightning, and then the blasts of dark power hit the new crystalline body. Diamond shattered, something burned as Bobbi launched volleys of flame, and Telos and Kallos watched to see how the Horror Archon dealt with the powerful attack from Arkaziel and Bobbi.

When the smoke settled, Syltharion resembled more of an Archon than he had moments ago, but eyes were still reflected within his new diamond lattice structure, and his wings had become tentacles, and a channel to the Void had opened within the ex-Greater Archon.

“Why did you work with an Outsider like Nyarlathotep?” Telos hoped for answers, but she didn’t like the one she got.

#We cry! Pain, sorrow! The shackles hold us! Release us! Release us from the cursed chains of Ouroboros, the Eternity we never asked for! The Spirit said nothing of the agony. Why does it not stop? We must destroy it!#

In Telos’ experience, whenever an individual went full plural and the Eldritch was involved, it wasn’t going to have a happy ending. Syltharion either evolved into an eldritch being, or had the power possessed him. Which didn’t really matter, since he was an enemy, except if the Archon had been turned into a remnant of Nyarlathotep. Telos had wanted to reach the seventh tier, or at least activate the Scepter of the Overgod before taking on a being like Nyarlathotep. Still, she’d have to gamble he wasn’t being incorporated into the Creeping Chaos directly and existed merely as a pawn or child, not an avatar.

“Kill it,” Telos gave the word her companions had been waiting for.