Two immortals stood beneath an alien sky. One a tyrant queen, the other a golden bird who hid destruction beneath her feathers. Flying up to the upper limits of the atmosphere, the Bird of Apocalypse rained fire onto the stygian horde that dwelt within the city’s.
Reducing the brown rust and blue crystal that had remained of the lost civilization, to red cinder. Finally putting to rest a world of waking death.
Once the minions were dealt with it was time for the one who lead them to fall.
The Tyrant Queen faced an Undead Lord. A twisted entity that had fallen from godhood. White like hoarfrost, crystalline, crooked king of Winter crept down from a mountaintop. Standing atop a mass of ice and snow. This was the same mass that had slowly but assuredly taken over countless worlds. The most recent of its conquests now lying bathed in flame.
The Tyrant Queen’s footsteps crunched softly into the snow that covered the plains land of the desolate world on which she stood. As she shifted from her standard form to her true form,that soft crunch became a heavy groan.
The bones of the world were screaming as she grew in both scale and presence, becoming a being that was large enough to alter gravity for that particular solar system in that particular universe.
She stood with her three heads held high, each of them tusked and horned, her eyes blazing with celestial flame. Six arms whipped about, fast enough and forceful enough to tear through the boundaries of space and time.
The King of Crooked Winter lashed out with tower-sized tendrils of ice. The six armed Tyrant Queen rebuffed his assault with blows that made the world shake. Her three manes of purple, pink flame flowing freely past her shoulder. Growing in length as she intensified the blows she sent flying Crooked King’s way.
Accompanying the attack with her fists with blasts of dragon fire and all consuming nothingness that spat from her three mouths.
Blood and rot rose into the air as poisonous mist. At some point the Crooked King just started taking the blows. His reed thin body shaking like a scarecrow in a hurricane, yet still managing to hold its ground.
The mist grew thicker as the Tyrant Queen continued to rain blow after blow on him. The old monster smiled, the expression looking wretched on his malformed face. His foe was walking towards her unmaking and rather than losing his little life he’d soon be stronger than ever.
The mist grew thicker and thicker and the air grew gloomier and gloomier and eventually the Tyrant Queen aura of celestial light shattered.
In a single instant the poisons mist struck, immediately sinking into her skin. The Tyrant Queen’s golden-green body turned an ugly purple-red. She froze mid-blow as if restrained by chains that moored the stars and other heavenly bodies.
The Crooked king began to laugh as he felt the same chains settling within him, like cords from a power station. He felt a strength he hadn’t had in eons flooding his limbs.
His bony limbs grew robust, his dim eyes grew bright, and a crest of glowing blue locks emerged running from his head down to the small of his back.
“Hmph...three heads? Three too many!”
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Seeing his weakened foe, the new strengthened Crooked King rushed forwards to finish her off. Then just before his spiked pillar of frost could reach her, he felt and heard something that brought fear to his frozen heart.
The seams of his skin split and a deluge of golden-green fire poured out. The whole world shook with the sounds of the Tyrant Queen’s raucous laughter as the Tyrant Queen that stood before the Crooked King began to fade away.
With a resigned and ugly expression on his face, the Crooked King craned his head upwards where he saw three heads, each the size of large moons, looking down at him. The real Tyrant Queen hung suspended in the beige abyss of the cosmic sea. She sat on the back of a great golden feathered swan, a heavenly beast large enough to eat stars like bird seed.
Then with one word, a thousand year long battle was ended..
“Bang.”
******
Elsewhere in that particular universe countless races would look up towards the heavens and see a spectacle of light and color. The majority of those worlds would be swallowed up by the all consuming flames that that birthed the spectacle and be turned into ash.
Not-coincidentally, these were the same worlds that fell under the Crooked King’s influence. A little farther off, would be the civilizations that would look up and see the dancing lights, looking remarkably like a colossal fireworks display.
The two immortals would be the only thing left once the entire galaxy had been burnt out. Then the glowing maw of spatial gate swallowed the two immortals whole and all that was left in the Crooked King’s galaxy were the ashes.
*****
Up in the Heavenly Plane there were quite a number of orders that destroyed mortal worlds at will and were responsible for keeping the cosmic balance. Similarly, there was a quite a number of pantheons. This pattern continued with the infinite number of demonic empires and fae courts.
For most new transcendees it was often a bit overwhelming to find that all the epic myths of their former worlds were just part of the banality of their new one. That heroes, god and monsters of the mortal worlds were reduced to yet another group of people who stood in lines, waited in queue, and bickered over the small and large things of life, when surrounded by an infinite number of their peers.
There were only a few groups and orders that stood out amidst all the normalized exceptionalism. Communicating with the realms and existences that lay beyond the heavens. The House of Antipodes was one such group.
Powerful enough to even dictate terms to the gods, straddling the lines of chaos and order. They were the group that stood above all others. Assuring that the balance for the cosmic sea was kept.
They were the referees, the eyes that watched in the background, the ultimate rule keepers and observers for the more incomprehensible realms of the cosmic sea. And occasionally if any being or any of the other groups stepped out of line they served as gardeners, using the formidable influence to prune the great tree of life. Clipping away entire realities if the occasion demanded it.
*****
Edna and Elena returned to the Heavenly Plane, arriving outside the offices of the House of Gray. One of the three houses that made up the House of Antipodes. Elena almost immediately wandered off in search of their usual tavern for some celebratory drinks, while Edna reported their successful elimination of the Crooked King.
They’d meet up, several hours later, when all the paperwork was done and Elena was already dozen drinks under the table.
Literally under the table, as the case would be.
******
An energetic pop-rock rendition of an old Atlantean sea shanty played in the background. Almost but not quite drowning out the raucous patrons.
“Ell, what the hell are you doing?” said Edna, bending over the table as frowned at the pink haired girl beneath it.
“Shush….Tangent’s it right now and his shadow powers make him like crazy good at hide and seek.”
“Why the hell are you playing hide and….wait, by Tangent do you mean our Tangent?” said Edna.
“Yeppers, he and the Ghosts of Asphodel are in town.” said Elena.
Edna stood and looked around the room till she caught sight of the lanky, point eared man. Watching as he and his normally over-serious wife Cindy ran around the tavern giggling as they tagged the various patrons who’d for whatever reason elected to join in on the game.
She shrugged and shook her head as she watched the obviously inebriated dog-kin girl flick sparks at a troll who’d refused to admit that he’d been fairly spotted.
Then she sat down at the table and took a sip from Elena’s glass. Liking the taste, she decided to order one of whatever it was for herself once the game was over. Patiently waiting for the fun and games to be over, so that the Matthew and the all the rest could fill them in on the information they’d gathered while masquerading as a band.