“Kill her!” Ialdabaoth screamed in response to Telos’ challenge.

Now is the hour, unleash me! Show this cretin the endless maelstrom of the Void. I will rend asunder his essence, transform his agony into the grandest of symphonies, and leave his screams to forever echo in the dark crevices of the Void. My dark masterpiece shall resonate through the abyss of all realities, and the horrors I commit upon Ialdabaoth shall be such that even the stars turn their eyes away. The echoes of his dissolution will redress the ugliness of his existence.

I, Fred, the Unutterable Black Flame of the Void, Firstborn of Ayin, shall burn him from existen--.

Just stop. Please? Telos asked Fred with a deep exhaustion. Whether Fred respected her request or if he sulked due to being interrupted she didn’t know, or care.

Telos beheld the glory of the host of Archons, with their blue spirit-essence bound to carbon. They were little more than spiritual puppets with fragments of Ialdabaoth nurtured into something like a watered down copy, and their essences were ugly things, imbalanced and haphazard in their creation, just as Ialdabaoth had no balance.

“Cease,” Telos commanded. The Archons, from least to Greatest, fell into hunks of inanimate carbon, and their spiritual essence gathered into a miniature sun before her. Only Ialdabaoth remained, and the creature took a step back in fear.

“You aren’t supposed to come here!” Ialdabaoth shouted. “This is mine!”

“That’s not how it works, you know. Where is your creator?” Telos shook her head at the terrified Overgod.

“Dreamland! Go to Dreamland, face her! She’s to blame, she made me! You could fix me, it’s her fault!” Ialdabaoth shifted from fear to hate and blame so fast it left her companions reeling, although Siegfried still seemed to be unable to comprehend how Telos destroyed every Archon with a single word, and not following the conversation at all.

“I could fix you,” Telos agreed. “I’m not going to, though. Why would I make a new teapot by gluing together multiple shattered ones? You might do that out of desperation, or lack of resources, but I won’t. I’m sorry you had the burden of this role, but now the Age of the gods can end in truth.” With a glance, the Rod of the Overgod flew out of Ialdabaoth’s hand and into the dense sphere of energy before Telos. A second rod, the original scepter, appeared next to the second inside the remains of the Archons.

Ialdabaoth, bereft of the rod and his Archons, looked like a pitiful creature. Tendrils of divine power were stripped from him in ribbons that flowed into the orb in front of Telos. With each one stripped, the hideous mess of twisted flesh beneath thin veneers of divinity was revealed. Yet before even half of his power had been pulled back, a bolt of light that resolved itself into a spear pierced Ialdabaoth’s essence.

“Hello, Father-in-law.” Telos greeted the arrival of the Dark Angel, the Aeon of Awakening, the deliverer of Gnosis, and Kallos’ father, as he descended on black wings to examine the strange scene. Belial’s black and golden eyes were striking, but they beheld Telos as if she were both enemy and friend.

“Father? What are you doing here?” Kallos demanded from her place next to Telos.

“I thought that when Ialdabaoth died my purpose would be realized.” Belial’s skin bubbled, his aura pulsed out of control as he found himself expelled from human form into that of a crystalline being who existed in more than three dimensions. “Why?”

“Aeons aren’t allowed in the Material Plane except as Avatars, or so Ialdabaoth proclaimed. I don’t mind you visiting in your true form, it’s better that we don’t play at being something we aren’t, right? I cleansed the corruption your mission in the Material has caused you. Now go back to Pleroma and prepare a report for me on a more just system of gnosis.” Telos smiled sweetly at the end, and Kallos barked a laugh before she got herself under control.

“What will you do with the Heavens, and your shadows?” Belial chimed.

“A new highest layer for the Material, we’re going to make it now.” Telos smirked. She felt oddly giddy about creation.

“You are going to make it? You rarely directly create,” Belial’s bewilderment seemed to match Siegfried’s own, based on the slack jawed dazed look that had overcome the Sovereign leader of the Celestial Wardens.

“Maybe that’s part of the problem. Nothing, Something, Nothing, Something. Again and again, why would I be interested or care, when I delegate everything? Time to get my hands dirty, but that means less hands in the pool. So I’m sending you back to Pleroma, to write a comprehensive guide on what form gnosis should keep going forward. You are the expert, after all.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Understood.” The Aeon chimed, and with a casual wave Telos sent Belial to Pleroma. With Belial’s departure, Telos gathered the last of Ialdabaoth’s power, and shattered the two scepters already inside of her sphere. White light formed a sphere around the party, as the Seven Heavens were obliterated by an event similar to the Big Bang.

“You’ve had your curiosity sated now, Siegfried. Ialdabaoth is dead, the Towers won’t receive new souls, and its up to you and your people to make a Universe you dream of, on your terms. Other than a few last visits, we are done with your reality, what with a new one forming for us even as we speak.”

“But I have questions! What are you? Why is any of this happening? If you had this kind of power, why didn’t you use it---” Siegfried vanished from the sphere, ejected back to the Observatory and his forces.

“Do we get to do any fighting in Dreamland, or can I take a nap? All this power is making me sleepy,” Arkaziel asked with a massive yawn, and Bobbi, despite being in human form, struggled to keep her eyes from drooping.

“Rest, both of you. It’s time to settle some family drama,” Telos heaved a large sigh as the white dome around them altered to reveal a city they’d seen before, in the memories of Ouranos. Dreamland, City of the Gods, a dimension that existed in the limbo between the Void, Pleroma, Material, and the Astral. An almost infinite urban landscape that held incongruent neighborhoods.

Telos picked Arkaziel up and let him rest against her chest, and Bobbi had slipped into the form of a pink kitten, that Kallos picked up similarly.

“Are you sure you want me with for this, darling?” Kallos asked with genuine concern.

“You’re part of this now, babe. We’re inseparable. Well, I guess one of us could separate ourselves, but why would we?” Telos tilted her head, as her mind poured searched for a reason in which she might ever want to separate from Kallos, but nothing came to her.

“I’ll stay by your side, then.” Kallos nodded, and the two women interlocked the fingers of their free hands as they walked through the gates of Dreamland, their other hands occupied with cuddling adorable StarManes. No push of magic, nor even an extension of one of Kallos’ chains were needed to open the gates. The once sealed city lay open, and from its depths were the energy signatures of three familiar, and powerful, entities.

A human silhouette formed in the nearest alley, a pulse of darkness and Void transformed into a shadowy man.

“Nyarlathotep. What do you want?” Telos could read the shadows, the signature of the void, and identify the Eldritch collective known as Nyarlathotep with an ease that disturbed the creature.

#We wish to ensure peace between us, we only assisted chaos to increase the traffic through Qliphoth.#

Although the silhouette looked human, dozens of eyes popped in and out of existence in the darkness of its conjured avatar.

“You’re a bit player in this drama, go back to the Void, or eat a few of the obnoxious gods if you want. You aren’t a problem, yet.”

#Your wisdom is as boundless as the first Void from which the cosmos spilled.#

The envoy of Azathoth fell into shadow and vanished from all of Telos’ senses.

“Why’d you let him off the hook?”

“He did less damage in this scheme than he would have following other schemes. No doubt he or Yog-Sothoth saw this future, and mitigated their actions appropriately. The Void collectives are very difficult to understand, maybe when I’ve empowered the Void Gates I’ll gain insight.”

The duo walked in front of an ancient coffee shop, from which the scent of a perfect cup of brew still wafted into the air after eons of emptiness. Every building in Dreamland had a lingering sense to it, a scent, a visual, some had haunted sounds, and others simply resonated with their long gone god, but all were tied to a god and an authority, some very niche, and some very general.

“That looks like Asgard over there,” Kallos gestured with one of her chains.

“So it does. That means we’re almost at the center. There should be a.. there we go.” Telos nodded towards what appeared to be a subway station entrance. The stairs down were covered in layers of dust, but showed some recent foot traffic. Spiritual blue flames burned in wall mounted sconces, and guided the duos path into the darkness. It was no subway they had entered, but a nocturnal garden full of gorgeous darkness loving plants. Each garden had a balcony that the tunnels came to, giving a perfect view of the umbral glades.

“Very pretty, but not what I expected. Is there anything down here but gardens and art?” Kallos arched a brow at the alcoves between balconies, filled with sculptures, paintings, jewelry, weapons, and other works of art.

“It’s funny. Not that long ago I’d have felt compelled to take all of this, but now its just.. not interesting to me. I want art made by my own hands, or yours, but these works don’t have any meaning to me.” Telos frowned at the hollowness that each piece left her with. Perfection rendered by gods, hollow of all but authority, they almost begged her to destroy them.

“What are we down here for?”

“Underneath the Palace of the Overgod is a dark glade planted by Nyx. They’re waiting for us there.”

“Nyx, Aetherius, and Khaos?”

“Yes, those three, and two more they don’t know about yet, although I imagine all three were unknowingly manipulated to coming here.”

When the winding tunnels finally reached a large chamber the three stood talking quietly to one another. Nyx and Aetherius had genuine smiles for Telos, while Khaos had a more complex expression. This was the first time she looked upon them and wasn’t shocked at the power they held. If she still nursed a grudge over things, it was within her abilities to step in and punch any of them through a few walls before they could even react, now.

“Callie, Pete! It’s been a bit. Khaos, nice to see you. No Ouro today? This is my better half, Kallos, for those of you who haven’t met her before, and the sleeping kitties are Arkaziel and Bobbi, but everyone’s heard of Bobbi Slay before. They’re power-napping the feast of the Archons.”

“Impressive work, that.” Nyx laughed, her pleasure at the misfortune of her enemies rang honest and sincere. Aetherius didn’t seem to share her petty enjoyment at the fall of the Archons, but neither did he regret it, from the pleasure he took in at Nyx’s genuine smile. Uffda. It’s like watching your mom and dad flirt in front of you, stop that!

“Before we talk about what’s next…” Telos lifted a hand, and Khaos exploded.