First their coats came off, then their shirts, the work wasn’t necessarily very hazardous but it ‘was’ backbreaking.
Angelo was a fallen Angel, a former Seraph of the sword, yet at the moment, he’d never looked more like a prince that was down on his luck. Reduced to serving as a lumberjack in a haunted forest.
His wavy blue hair, flattened, matted with sweat. His muscles bulging and straining, as he hacked at the thing in front of him.
Eschewing the enchanted axes that others used. Using his own sword...his beloved, like it was a mere cutting tool, because Billy had told him that he’d likely regret it if he didn’t.
Jermaine and Matthew were a little better off, but not by much. Augmenting their use of the world sundering axes they’d been given for the task, with their respective abilities.
Using all the aether that they had at their disposal to try bisect the entity before them. Attacking the task with constructs of shadow and illusion.
Matthew spat blood and was forced to take a knee Jermaine expended energy his already flagging energy reserves to call out to him.
“You okay, man?”
“P-...Peachy. Right as rain, mate.” said Matthew. Still spitting red. His complexion turning a dark purple. Slowly returning to his feet. His face pale, and sickly in complexion.
His limbs shaking slightly as he called more aether from within him, and returned to his task. Painfully lifting the axe like it was heavier than a mountain and swinging it down again. Doing so, over and over.
Worse than the share size of their target was the fact that it stubbornly and perniciously seemed to insist on undoing any work they did. Recovering at a rate, that forced them to work at an unflagging breakneck pace, if they wanted to see any kind of progress at all.
Rather than trying to chop through a single massive tree, it was like trying to chop through an entire forest. An evil wood, that was apathetic to both man and the heavens.
Wildly and violently alive, its tissues growing, occasionally lashing out as if to engulf them within its mass. A thankless task, that was impossible in a way that could make a man’s heart break like glass.
It was hard work, laborious like childbirth, but eventually they did it. Matthew’s blades of shadow, Jermaine’s phantasmal edge, and Angelo’s sword finally met at the center of the creature’s core.
The golden Billy cried out, thrashing, roaring at the heaven as it gave up the ghost, but it didn’t merely die. No. It took the whole world with it. Imploding. Sucking in both the heaven and earth and everything in between and beyond. Drawing it all in with such force, it was almost as if the universe been entirely annihilated. Leaving only the three woodsman and a few of the chanting clones.
As the three men passed out they heard Billy’s voice in their ear. They blinked the blind light out of their eyes as they heard him speak. Feeling the world return to where it belonged, under their feet.
“Nh..Good work guys. Thanks a lot...um...maybe don’t tell Ed and Ell about this...It was kind of risky.”
*****
Elsewhere the destruction of Monde went unnoticed, it was the mere microseconds between a blink. A brief span of nothing so short that you hardly noticed it. What didn’t go unnoticed was the moment that Monde came back.
Roaring into life, more alive than ever. The ley lines that ran beneath its surface surging with a pulsing gray light. The veins of the earth ripped themselves open, exposing the altered aether to the open air.
A brand new planet, but one perfectly identical to the last. Hanging beneath identical stars, with a set of identical moons revolving around it. With only the more distant constellations giving away that something had changed. Hinting that something, several somethings, had been shifted.
The sky was made phantasmagorical, becoming populated by black rainbows, twinkling stars and multicolored clouds. All of Monde was both frightened and enchanted by the change that they felt coming.
Somehow sensing that the world they were in was drastically different than the world from just a few seconds ago. Then just like that it was over and the night returned. With life on Monde resuming its normal routines.
*****
Over in Meallan at the city of Berk. Enzo Maynard sat in an office looking through a balance sheet for certain venture. Double checking the records to avoid being cheated. He looked out his window frowning.
“Now just what do you think that was….” he said. Feeling the tremble violently, beneath his feet. Rattling all the expensive wood and glass furniture.
Darlene looked up, her the corner of her mouth hitching up in a crooked smile.
“I’m afraid I don’t know, dear. But I’d bet all the gold in Meallan that there’s a certain gaggle of precocious boys and girls who do.”
Enzo blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to him that whatever was happening would have something to do with the people of the Bone Tree Company. But now that Darlene had mentioned, they really ‘did’ have a tendency of somehow being involved in the occurrences on the continent.
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“Any chance you can get in touch with that boyfriend of yours and ask him if he knows what’s going on?” asked Enzo.
Darlene shook her head.
“Sorry, sir. I’m afraid, Dear Mister Abbotts is out on business.”
“Are you sure?” said Enzo. Frowning.
“Positive...My phone-construct says he’s out of range.”
Enzo nodded, reluctantly giving up the lead. The phone constructs were handy thing, highly reliable and immune to the dangers that plagued normal telecommunications systems.
Naturally the people of the Maynard Association got them, months before plans to put them on the market even began.
“Kay...I guess I’ll have to call up Miss Maddoc then.” said Enzo.
Darlene rolled her eyes.
“Hmph, Like you weren’t dying for an excuse to do so, anyway.”
*****
The next night in Albus, the great kingdom of the gods, the oracle of every temple and church of the twenty districts, saw the same vision and were sent the same message.
They passed it along to their minders who passed it along to special deacon, an elite agent of the clergy. The Deacons in turn passed it up the ladder till the letters finally fell into the hands of each district's ruling Archbishop.
Who all reacted in the same way, ogling the cards, confused, and unsure, feeling their throat go dry, as the one’s with less faith found themselves suddenly believing again. Given no choice in the matter.
Finally the information made its way to the first district and the palace of the Lord Primus. Primus Alphonse sat overlooking his rose garden. A habit he’d acquired over the years, that saved his sanity and gave him just a few minutes to forget about his vestment and his vows and simply remember that he was just a man. Mortal and frail, and small compared to the immensity of the earth and the sky and the sky beyond the sky.
An attendant came in with a stack of missives. Alphonse briskly read through all of them, then he passed them over to his young protege Ludwik. Having him read them too.
“What?”
“Yes...What.” said the Primus.
Though relatively innocuous coming from the mouth of clueless mortals, there was no epithet more frightening than the word ‘what’ when it came out of the mouth of a god.
If the heavens were to be so puzzled by something, as to ask the mortals what going on, then something truly beyond the pale was either happening, or about to happen. And if the gods didn’t know what to make of it, then what chance would the men who worshiped them have?
And yet there was one shining spot of hope. The missives from the temples of Eanna, Nerieda, and Barabal. As well as seventy or so of the lesser gods of the pantheon.
“..’What’...And... ‘Good Job’.” said the Primus. Staring up at the sky as if try to peer up and see if something else had been written. The other half of these cryptic two and one word messages perhaps. Something to explain what the messages were supposed to mean.
“ Good job?...And this is a message that the gods have sent us?” said Ludwik. His expression a well balanced mixture of stateliness and confusion.
“Yes. This is indeed a message from the gods..” said Alphonse.
“Are they-....Are they commending us on our faith, Lord Primus?”said Ludwik. Unsure what else to say.
“Somehow I doubt that, but it’s a fair guess I suppose.” said Alphonse.
“Then….what’s all this about.” asked Ludwik.
“What indeed…” said Alphonse. Never looking away from his garden. His to tapping the railing that lay in front of his bench on the balcony.
Ludwik looked up at the heavens as well. Remembering last nights startling spectacle. Remembering the lights in the sky and the way it felt like the whole world was about to shake itself to pieces. Since no one died like a typical Mondian, he’d more or less discounted the oddity. But now as one who might one day sit at the head of the church he recognized it was time for some critical thinking.
“Do you think perhaps it’s not meant for us?”
“Well...Considering that the gods generally only look at us, as part of a sum or greater whole, I think we’d know it if we had done anything, to make ourselves stand out enough to make nearly all of them, take notice.”
“Then who is this for?”
“ Well Now. That’s what I aim to find out, my son..” said Alphonse already signalling for an attendant, so he could relay some orders. Beginning with the order to invite his oldest and closest friend, Ophelia, over for a chat.