Xiao scrambled through the winding halls of the castle, Yang hot on his heels. “Why?! Can you not get that this isn’t good for you? I’m your friend! We’re a team!”
Yang growled and thrust her halberd forward. The individual segments detached and the blade was launched forward like a spring. Xiao barely avoided getting skewered from thirty paces, and the halberd retracted back to normal length. “Right, right. We’re a team, as long as we do whatever you think is best. I’m not just gonna jump from puppeteer to puppeteer, Xiao! And if you’re gonna try and stop me, we’re just gonna keep going with this.”
Xiao turned a corner and found himself in front of a door guarded by two suits of armor meant for things with way more legs than him. He grabbed one of the suits’ halberds, then pressed himself against the wall of the corner, listening for Yang’s footsteps.
Once he figured she was within reach of his polearm, he turned and pointed the tip forward, only to find Yang well out of range. She had been tapping at the floorboards with the end of her own blade.
The two of them locked weapons. Yang growled. “It’s a simple arrangement, Xiao. Just give me that map and get out of my way, and I might forgive you enough to let you leave.”
Xiao advanced, pushing Yang back ever so slightly. “I don’t care about what happens to me. I’m here to stop you from doing this to yourself, and if one of us needs to die to stop that from happening, I’ll do it.”
“Well, then you make things too easy.” Yang extended her polearm so that it wrapped around Xiao’s, then retracted it.
Xiao had his halberd twisted out of his hands and watched it clatter to the floor. He didn’t take his eyes off of it when he felt the tip of her weapon press into his chest. “...I don’t understand you. This time yesterday, we were fine. We planned all this out, how things would be when we were in charge, and it all went according to plan. But… What happened?”
“What happened is…” Yang slowly began advancing, pushing Xiao backwards down the hall. “...You got cold feet. It’s like you just said, this is everything we ever wanted! But now that you realize that you’ve actually got it, you get too scared to keep going. You can’t keep blaming me for doing what I set out to do when you’re the one who’s chickening out. You think I want to put this thing to your chest? You think this is how I wanted this all to turn out? You’re the one trying to take away everything I’ve worked for because you think you know what’s best for me!”
Xiao tripped and fell over backwards, now looking up at Yang from the ground. “Wh… Are you calling me a bad friend? I’m trying to help you! You’re not yourself, can’t you see that?! I know we’ve been dreaming about all this, but look at what you’re doing to the city! You’re turning into The-”
“Don’t.” Yang held up the tip of her halberd so that it pointed at Xiao’s throat. “I’m doing what I need to do if I want to keep what I’ve got. He went nuts and started turning animals into soldiers. You’re guilting me, Xiao. Trying to pull me away from this. It’ll never work. You’re stuck with hiring people we used to be up against, while I’ve got my own personal lightning slave.”
“Who used to want us dead.”
“Don’t act smart with me.” Yang shifted her grip on her halberd uncomfortably. “If you’re not with me, you’re against me. So stop trying to act so buddy-buddy, this isn’t funny anymore.”
Xiao locked eyes with Yang, who simply narrowed her gaze. He maintained eye contact with her for a moment, then sighed. “Guess there’s no reasoning with crazy.”
He kicked Yang in the stomach and rolled away from her while she reeled from the blow. He picked his halberd back up and swung the blunt end at Yang, which was barely deflected by her own weapon. “Back to plan A,” muttered Xiao. “I don’t know what’s happening to you, but I’m stopping it.”
-
Ligivul landed in front of the gaping entrance to the palatial complex on the creature’s back. She stopped for a moment, simply reeling from the sheer size of everything around her. The Council’s room in the castle was one thing, but this place made her feel like an ant scurrying along the floor.
She decided to continue traveling inward via her flying mount, as moving on foot would probably take several hours. Her impression shifted from that of an ant to that of a fly as she passed through the cavernous hallways. What was even the point of making the place this big?
-
After nearly half an hour of flying around the palace, Ligivul finally found something worth looking for. More specifically, she found the thing worth looking for.
She flew through an open set of double doors into an even more extravagant replica of the Council’s meeting room. The five colossi sat on raised thrones on the other side of a small plateau of a dais, staring down at Ligivul with their variably numerous eyes.
Ligivul landed and dismounted, her legs wobbling from the constant movement of the beast the room was situated on. The Council before her, however, did not seem to notice, and swayed with the room as if they were part of the decor.
The second Leviathan from the left spoke first upon Ligivul’s dismounting, his voice reverberating throughout the room and shaking the Primus to her core. “Ah, Lady Veil. It is good to see that we have finally arrived. This Warbeast is certainly useful for our campaigns, but it is so terribly slow, and the distortions in space were not kind to us. Have you upheld your part of the prophecy? Our forces can leave for Earth immediately.”
The rightmost Leviathan shut the hundreds of eyes all over her body and began to vibrate, emitting a dim rainbow aura. “Apprehension. Nerves. It has not yet attempted any such task, yet knows it could be done in minutes.” She opened her eyes and bored into Ligivul with her gaze. “Your duty was singular. And yet you await us empty-handed?”
The Leviathan next to the eye-covered one got to his feet. “You have had days! We gave you an army to finish the job for certain, led by our most loyal commander! Our presence was meant to be a formality before the invasion, but here you stand, having wasted everything we gave you and making us look like fools!”
The leftmost Leviathan extended a tentacle from his semi-translucent torso and waved the one speaking back into his seat. “Anger at the Lady will not permit our invasion any quicker. It is to be done by her hand, or our victory is not assured. Be mindful of that, brother.”
The third Leviathan sat back down, but kept his disdainful gaze trained on Ligivul. “Tragnil has almost certainly been lost by now. I was rather fond of that one, too. It lasted far longer than usual. If you are too weak to finish those Primoi, and we are forced to start from the beginning once again in this nightmare of a world, I will squash you like the insect you are.”
Ligivul nodded submissively. She was unsure how such a small gesture was even visible to such distant eyes, but their eyes acknowledged the response on their behalf.
The rightmost Leviathan once again performed her glowing act. Ligivul disliked that one the most. She felt like she had to cover up whenever she was being probed.
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“You should only be afraid if you have something to hide.”
Right. Ligivul relaxed her mind.
“...It does not wish to finish its Domain. Curious.”
The Leviathan in the middle, a mummified shell of a beetle that topped the other four as the largest one in the room, rumbled. “Curious?”
The other four immediately went stock-still and looked at the one in the middle with nervous patience.
It continued. “It is nothing of the sort.” The monstrosity peered down at Ligivul, who shrank back into the folds of her veil. “It thinks there is still hope to make things right. It thinks that its Domain can still forgive it, that they can be spared oblivion. It is a perverted sentimentality that stays its blades. I have seen this before many times, lesser beings afraid of permanence. If it will not destroy those Primoi, then we shall.”
The first Leviathan to speak stammered. “But what of the prophecy that its sibling spoke of? We may be interfering with things beyond our power if we stray from what has been laid out in front of us?”
The middle Leviathan made what might have been a chuckle. “The prophecy is little more than an arbitrary set of guidelines, a suggestion, a call to arms. Nothing is set in stone, child. Permanence should not be feared, for it does not exist. Nothing lasts, and all things can be reversed, eventually. It is why I and the many other members of this Council have had to found so many cities for ourselves over the course of these two millennia.” It leaned forward in its seat, its compound eyes staring intently at Ligivul. “You Primoi think you are the eldest, greatest beings in existence. But, as they say, there is always a bigger fish. And in any case, the prophecy said nothing about us not helping.”
No. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. Ligivul needed more time. If she could just figure something out, then all of this could be fixed! She attempted to wave at the rightmost Leviathan, to get her attention and make her speak her thoughts aloud. But before she could get any words in, she heard another set of wings flap into the room.
Tarbella landed next to Ligivul, on the back of a considerably larger winged monster. He stepped forward and knelt in front of the Council. “Mighty Leviathans, I flew here as soon as I could.” He glanced over at Ligivul. “Although, it would seem that I, um, could have left sooner. My Lady.” He gave a quick nod, then turned back to the Council.
The third Leviathan turned his gaze upon Tarbella. “Ah, yes, you. We’re glad you arrived when you did, actually. Gather up your troops and bring them onto the Warbeast. And on your way out, tell the pilots that we gave the order for an airburst on… wherever the Primoi are.” He waved Tarbella away. “That is all.”
Tarbella nodded and stood up. “Yes, mighty Leviathan.” He turned and flew back out.
Once Tarbella had left the room, the third Leviathan looked back down at Ligivul and scowled. “Once we do most of your work for you, you are going to fly down there and finish the job. If you end up too scared or weak to kill one or two surviving Primoi, then I’m sure we can all agree that you will not live to see the next day.”
The other Leviathans nodded in assent.
“Now go do the one thing you are good for, and finish what you started.”
Ligivul mounted her ride and flew out, not giving the Council the satisfaction of acknowledgment. There was nothing more that she could do here.
-
The rhythmic, steadily rising rumblings of the earth was more than enough to put Hurat and Gilnevn on edge, but what really spooked them was the sudden cessation.
Hurat looked around at the walls and ceiling. “That’s, uh… We should probably be worried about that. I was kinda hoping it was just some giant monster going for a stroll.”
Gilnevn nodded. “Count to a hundred, then go outside to see what it is?”
“I like that plan.”
They both counted silently to a hundred. Then they did it again. Finally, Hurat bit the bullet and got up.
He crawled through a partially-collapsed hallway and out into open air, Gilnevn following closely behind. They both immediately started to look around them for any sign of Ligivul or her winged mount. There was no sign of anything to that degree, but Hurat did manage to see something much more concerning.
Off in the distance, the hazy figure of the Warbeast was engulfed in a cloud of yet more rainbow light, the stuff seemingly coalescing around the enormous form as if it were being sucked up like a vacuum. The outlines of hundreds of flying monsters appeared in front of the sight, flying towards it like moths to a flame. Most were carrying large bags of supplies with them, the remains of the vanguard’s camp.
The two Primoi stared at the growing storm of color on the horizon. Eventually, Hurat found the nerve to look away. “Get the others. We need to leave. Right now.”
Gilnevn nodded and turned back to the partially-crushed hallway leading through the pile of rubble to the intact section of the hall, but found the way back blocked. She put her hands up and felt something solid stand in between her and the passage. And when she squinted, she thought she could see a faint sheet of bluish light covering the entrance.
Hurat clearly saw the obstruction as well. “What in the…”
Gilnevn pushed against the barrier, but aside from briefly glowing with a slightly brighter light, it didn’t budge. She took a step away, then glanced at the flashing lights on the horizon, which were beginning to produce a low hum. “Stand back.”
Hurat watched her ball her hands into fists and begin to glow with silver light. “Whoa, I thought you just didn’t have powers or something.”
Gilnevn felt her soul pool into her arms, focusing her power in a single point. “No, I just don’t really like using them. Pretty sure everyone has powers.”
“No, I know a few Primoi who don’t, but, uh…” Hurat took a few steps away, keeping his eyes trained on the rumbling Warbeast. “You do whatever it is you’ve got planned. We need to work fast.”
Once Gilnevn could feel her hands trembling with barely-restrained power, she slammed her fists into the barrier with everything she had. It flared up with a painfully bright blue light and sent out a shockwave that released a cloud of dust into the air in a several dozen foot radius, but remained intact.
Despite having used up all of her concentrated power, Gilnevn continued to desperately wail on the barrier with whatever she had. Still no sign of damage. “Let me through! Just…” She looked back at Hurat. “Help me out here!”
Hurat instead kept his eyes on the Warbeast, which at this point was producing a nearly tooth-rattling roar. “You think you can dig through to them with your punchy powers?”
A few other Norse Primoi had come out to the barrier, placing their hands on the wall and silently crying out to Gilnevn for help. Her assault on the wall of light slowed, then stopped. She looked at Hurat, then stood with him in their view of the flashing, screaming storm of magic.
Right when the sight of the Warbeast’s charging up reached its climax, the two Primoi saw the tiny, distant silhouette of a cloaked figure perched atop a pile of rubble, motionless against the chaotic backdrop behind them. And just barely visible was the outline of a sword on the figure’s back. But before either Primus could say something to the other about what they had seen, the Warbeast fired.
The shockwave alone shoved both Hurat and Gilnevn to the ground. The two were forced to look up at the sky as a biblical plume of magical energy erupted from the Warbeast’s back, drowning the landscape in the light of a dozen suns.
The blast of energy arced through the air like a mortar, descending directly upon the ruins. Both Hurat and Gilnevn looked up in horror at the approaching doom, while the Primoi on the other side of the barrier cowered at the deafening roar of approaching magic.
Feeling the earth shake and hearing the ruins around her quiver to pieces, Gilnevn once again rushed up to the barrier and began slamming against it, then tried to pry away the shattered pieces of wood around it in an attempt to widen the opening. But there was nothing to be done, the impending strike was mere moments away.
But just a few seconds before the cloud of energy made contact with them, the barrier wrapped itself around Gilnevn, then shot forwards at Hurat and enveloped him too. The two Primoi rolled around in a bubble of blue light, away from the now-clear entrance. The Primoi that had been trapped inside could only take a single step before the magical cloud above them exploded into a rain of blindingly colorful fire.
Gilnevn and Hurat, safe inside their bubble, watched everything around them be engulfed in light. Nothing was visible for a few seconds besides the kaleidoscope of color and light, but then the inferno faded and the bubble vanished around them.
Nothing was left. What had once been the sprawling ruins had been reduced to a knee-deep carpet of ash, charcoal and scorched stone. Gilnevn waded through the sight in stunned silence while Hurat sat down in the ash. “...Guess she lost her patience, huh? You see that person in front of the giant rainbow-nuke thing? Was that her? I didn’t… Yeah, you’re not listening. Fair, actually.”
Gilnevn squinted at the horizon. One of the flying monsters was returning to the ruins. And it bore a rider.