As the Librarian crossed the perimeter of the city, angels began to appear, armed and prepared for battle. As one, they raised their weapons, the very air trembling as their weapons began to glow, prepared to use the might of Light to defend the city. But all that came to a halt by one word of the Librarian, uttering a single phrase of the First Language, the same as the one Darkness used to bring the entire Universe to a halt upon his awakening. Upon uttering this word here, although granted at much less power than when Darkness spoke it, he froze the movements of all within the City of the Gods.
The Librarian then began to analyze each of them at his leisure, being rather blunt and shameless with his examination, not caring at all for the angel or god being the object of his study. He would strip them of their armor/clothing and take careful note of their physical stature and then using his shadow probes to analyze what lay within their bodies. He also took note of their body structure, what made them by taking a sample of their flesh and analyzing their DNA.
Of course, he didn’t do this on his lonesome, he created multiple clones of himself which worked independently on different angels and gods, soon filling up his Library with a multitude of new information. On occasion he would release a few to analyze their fighting patterns, noting their strengths and weaknesses during most of the fight until he would eventually defeat them in the end, forcing them to give him access to their mind. The information within their minds became his and this went from angel to angel, from god to god until none dared to fight against him. That was of no consequence, he would still be able to understand their combat abilities from their memories alone. Quite soon, he had finished analyzing every single one of the angels and gods other than Areus and Iraliel.
As they were the only ones remaining, the Librarian turned to them, first releasing Areus who immediately surrendered. The Librarian shrugged and just asked for access into Areus’s mind which he willingly gave. He turned to Iraliel and she promptly surrendered as well, leaving the Librarian rather satisfied as he had gained more than a few million new books on the inhabitants of this city alone. There were still books to be made about the architecture and the infrastructure of the city, even though the gods lacked much of the insufficiencies that mortals possessed, there was still some need of a sort of infrastructure to support the city.
Having finished his study on the angels and gods, he moved onto the city, spreading all over it with his clones to cover as much ground with great efficiency. He had released all of the angels and gods from the command but even then, they did not dare to fight against the Librarian, especially since there were so many of him. They saw just how overwhelming his strength was, they did not even dare to think just how oppressively powerful he and his other selves would be.
But in the middle of all this, Light herself arrived, her harsh light burning away all of the Librarians except for the original. And even the original was affected, Light’s power burning away his persona as the Librarian, revealing its true identity as the Surveyor. The Surveyor wasn’t all pleased, it had been interrupted in the middle of studying but it did not dare start a fight with Light. As she was a primordial and most concentrated here in her realm, her power far surpassed its. Of course, it would be able to put up a good fight but in the end, it would eventually lose for as Darkness was a counter to Light, so was Light a counter to Darkness.
It was of no consequence to Darkness on account of his sheer size, the amount of his flesh that Light would burn away was inconsequential to the flesh he possessed. But the Surveyor was a different matter, it was an insignificant fragment of Darkness, a fragment that could easily be burned away by Light. It could get away with defeating the gods as even they possessed shadows but Light obviously had no shadow, thus it had no power over her. So in the face of her might, the Surveyor just bowed its head.
“Greetings Light. I suppose I must introduce myself, I am the Surveyor.”
Light stared down at him, her harsh light burning away at his flesh, forcing him to ask, “Could you dim your light? I’m afraid that I am not yet strong enough to stand in your presence unharmed.”
Light didn’t say anything but her light dimmed just enough that the Surveyor no longer burned in her very presence. Bowing its head in thanks, the Surveyor waited for Light to speak, standing still as she circled him.
She finally stopped in front of him, face to face, saying, “You are a fragment of my father, correct?”
The Surveyor nodded and the light radiating off of her intensified.
“Do you think that because Darkness had humiliated me that you can do the same!?”
Standing still despite the fact it was being burned away, the Surveyor said, “I am almost certain that you know that I do not possess the power to do so.”
Light burned even brighter.
“You best watch your tongue.”
The Surveyor cocked its head curiously, “I do not possess a tongue to watch.”
Light, angry, was about to burn was such an intense light when the Surveyor spoke, “I’m afraid your children cannot withstand your true form. Already they begin to burn.”
Light stopped and saw that the Surveyor was right so unwillingly, she controlled herself, the burning light reaching tolerable levels. But it wasn’t over yet, Light summoned a brilliant sword of light and prepared to attack the Surveyor, forcing it to defend itself, summoning a barrier of Absolute Mirror to reflect the attack. It defended itself gracefully and efficiently, using a rectangle no more than thirty square centimeters in area to block the blazing sword of Light.
To the onlookers the sight of their fight could only be described as a dance, Light moving with quick, precise strikes as the Surveyor either gracefully dodged or methodically blocked. In this beautiful yet dangerous dance, the Surveyor was debating whether or not it should retaliate when suddenly, Light stopped. She dispersed the blade of Light she had made and the Surveyor, in turn, returned the Absolute Mirror into dark matter.
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But the fight was not yet over, no, countless spears of light hovered in the sky, awaiting Light’s command. They darted forward at lightspeed but not fast enough to kill the Surveyor who managed to teleport away with its gates.
It stood before Light once more, saying, “I do not believe I have made any actions that warrant such hostility.”
Light stopped and began to glow once more with brightening intensity.
“Unwarranted? When you walk in here uninvited, treat my children in such a humiliating way, dare to insult me, how is it unwarranted!?”
The Surveyor explained while dodging her attacks, “I came to return your angel to you, I’m sure that counts as a reason of sorts for my entry. As for the treatment of your children, it was self-defense, they attacked me so I responded in kind. As for insulting you, I do not recall that unless you have taken offense to my words which were not intended as insult. So far, I am quite innocent.”
With increasing power she lashed out at the Surveyor, shouting, “Self-defense!? Examining my children in such a manner is self-defense!?”
The Surveyor said, “That was not done with humiliation in mind, it was to study them and add their data into my Library. You perceive rudeness where none was intended, I suggest that you do not let your emotions rule you so.”
But that just made Light angrier, once more burning with light of such a great intensity that it threatened to burn everything around her. Once more the Surveyor reminded her of her children and once more, unwillingly, Light stopped. She just focused her burning rays into a literal death stare as she sought to kill the Surveyor who decided that it would not be able to have a civilized conversation with her, not like this. So the Surveyor decided to go on the offensive, bringing darkness for the first time over the City of the Gods.
It sought to isolate Light from the rest of her dimension by creating one of its own for once she was cut off, she would soon run out of energy. But the question remained if the Surveyor possessed enough dark matter to replace what her remaining energy would destroy. Light realized what it was doing and sought to stop it but it was already too late, the Surveyor had managed to complete its own dimension made of its very flesh. But that was only the easy part, now it had to keep Light within itself.
Knowing that her only chance was to break through, Light created a lance of blazing energy and hurled it upwards, chasing after it to supply it with energy. The lance managed to pierce through the darkness, burning it away but at the same time, the darkness was eating the light. It was a battle of attrition now, one that the Surveyor lost. With its dimension broken and much of its dark matter depleted, it could do nothing but retreat and retreat it did, disappearing through a gate. Light did not chase after it, however, she had been weakened in the fight and needed to recover.
—BACK ON AGLEON—
Erwin’s tank burst from the treeline, firing upon the orcish village with its cannon and machine guns, the flamethrower positioned at the tank’s front shooting gouts of flame, the stench of burning gasoline filling the air along with the smell of burnt orc. Soldiers of the Alliance followed behind, the elven archers shooting fleeing orcs while the soldiers finished off orcs who had managed to survive the tank’s attack. The battle, if it could be called that, was soon finished with members of the Alliance freeing the slaves. This was the third orc clan they had conquered, much to the jubilation of the Alliance but not to Erwin. It was far too easy, there weren’t nearly as many orcs as Erwin had thought.
Even if there was a civil war going on, the number of orcs left behind to guard the clan’s territory was far too little. Erwin felt that something was wrong but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. He asked himself where the other orcs had gone and he couldn’t figure it out. Sure there were many targets but which one, was it one of the forts or was it a town by the sea, he just didn’t know. And so far, his elven scouts had reported nothing so he was still at a loss. Just what happened to those orcs?
Erwin didn’t know and that was bothering him, ignorance on the battlefield was asking to be defeated. As he rested on top of his tank, footsteps could be heard and he turned to see an elf rushing over to him with a glowing communication crystal. Erwin hopped off the tank and took the crystal, speaking with the elf on the other side who was hurriedly whispering that there was a large army of orcs marching through the forest as they spoke. Erwin was about to respond when three other elves bearing communication crystals arrived, each saying that there were large orc armies heading towards them.
He cursed, this had all been a trap and he had fallen in so easily, once more these orcs had proven to be far smarter than he had given them credit for, he had no one but himself to blame. Whatever orc commander they were under, he was a cunning one, he didn’t think like orcs, he thought like humans. With dread, Erwin commanded his troops to retreat to a more defensible location, an orcish fortress that they had conquered not long ago.
Hurriedly, the walls were fixed as best they could while elven archers stocked up on arrows, the slaves taken to the center of the fort where a unit of soldiers was sent to protect them. Meanwhile, Erwin positioned his tank outside the walls, he intended to remain mobile and disrupt the enemy as much as he could to ease the burden of the defenders.
As the defenses were being prepared, Erwin kept in contact with his scouts, keeping tabs on the movements of the orc armies, cursing the fact that he had fallen into this trap over and over. As the began to head down towards the horizon from noon, Erwin saw the first of the orc armies arrive, a sea of grey-skinned giants bristling from head to toe in crude armor and weapons.
Without hesitation, Erwin fired upon them, keeping his distance because he didn’t want to stray too far from the fort, lest there was another army just waiting for him to leave. Countless orcs were torn to pieces by his bullets and others were blown to pieces by his cannon but it wasn’t enough, the horde of orcs just kept on coming, seemingly unafraid of the death they would face. Joining Erwin, the elven archers began to fire upon the orcs, killing many and injuring more. Then roars could be heard on the opposite side of the fortress and the alarm was sounded, the other orc army had made its appearance. Erwin revved the engines and raced to the opposite side, opening fire upon the enemy as soon as he had them in his sights.
But they had ample time to close the distance to Erwin was forced to charge right into them, spitting out flames and firing indiscriminately into the enemy. But Erwin couldn’t stay to finish the job, the two remaining orc armies charged out and Erwin was forced to choose to defend a single side. He cursed and hoped that his men would be able to hold out long enough for him to come to their aid, thundering to the side which seemed to have more orcs.
Meanwhile, in the distance, an orcish commander watched the battle from afar, watching particularly the movements of Erwin’s tank. He admired the ferocity of the infamous Metal Beast but knew that it wasn’t enough if the Metal beast wanted to save the Alliance. After all, the Metal Beast was in the end only one beast, it was not many. It was powerful yes but in the face of such numbers, individual power often meant nothing.
However, Alliance was putting up quite a fight, the elves unleashing a rain of never-ending arrows by having alternate groups of archers fire, allowing other groups to reload and fire. Then there was the infantry, using a simple phalanx to hold the breaches in the wall, rows upon rows of soldiers with shields and spears, making a shield wall which managed defend pretty well against charging orcs. But they were still being overwhelmed, the numbers of the orcish armies proving to be too much. The orcish commander sighed, of course he would win, what other outcome did he expect.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar filled the air.
"Come out and fight me like a proper orc!"