I felt the pulse of anger and killing intent boiling out of the Underworld, able to clearly sense it through the maze of Conduits that comprised every single Pharaoh’s Palace swaying in the space between worlds.
It was joined less than a minute later by two more Down There, killing intent soaring into the aether and aimed at another place.
Which should trigger the Lords of Light Calling for their own Weapons; the Ankh, Staff, Scimitar, and Spear that were their iconic tools...
Two more flowers of surprise and anger blossomed in Nirvana, but not the rest. More was the pity, warned by their fellows not to touch their Toys.
It didn’t matter all that much, as it meant that Judgement XXIV had gone off on both of them, and they were eating the full force of a Curse powered by Justice, which was basically The Light and Curse Magic in Holy accord.
All of them were getting what they deserved!
Now, it was a matter of watching and waiting, and seeing what they did next.
I considered my personal options, and retired to the Broom Closet. It occurred to me that fortifying its defenses to the next degree would be smart, and I knew just where to get the energy to do that from...
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Days later, in Zuirch, Switzerland...
The riot was going full-bore. Thousands of people, all of them bearing the Light Element, had boiled out of their homes and offices at the same moment, shouting at about how the Light was coming, now was the time, and everyone needed to bow and pledge their souls to the Light.
There were more than a few curses to those exclamations, and then the killing started.
It spread with fantastic speed, every single soul with the Light Element in this city, populated by many people who worked for the World Court and were strong followers of the Church of the Light, rising up together to demand all kneel to the Lords of Light and save their souls... or they would be sent off to the Netherworld, where they could not threaten the pious any longer!
I stepped into the air over the burning city, noting that the City’s Ward was completely compromised by the rebellion of the many of the once-loyal guards of the city, and shook my head, wondering if this was actually going to be a trap. Surely the Synod could use the revolution as an excuse to intervene for their true faithful...
The Note of the Sublime Chord I raised flowed across the city, carrying with it a clear and simple magic taught to every apprentice of Silver Magic.
Protection from Evil. It had several functions, but the most powerful was cutting off mind-control magic of all sorts, Evil or not.
The Rapture effect from the Avatar being beamed right into their Light Element was immediately cut off. They could still feel their agitated Light Element being bombarded by compulsions, but no longer felt the urges and commands being carried with it.
The hanging Note in the air washed over the spell combats and fighting, and everyone turned to look up at me, the fighting stopping with startling speed as everyone recognized the effect and who had to be responsible for it.
Also, the Note of The Light chased away any Light Element Mana in the area for miles around, leaving the formerly-pumped Light-users suddenly surrounded by sucking voids of power, staggering them all immediately and shattering the mindset forced upon them.
There was still a lot of screaming and crying, and tens of thousands of dead people in all directions, often slain by friends, siblings, spouses, parents, or children...
My Voice rang over the entire city gently, but irrefutably.
“This is Healer Fae.
“That was the Evil of the Church of Light, called The Rapture. It seizes upon the Light Element learned in their Tradition and makes of you an unthinking, rabid convert and obedient slave.
“If you have the Light Element, hurry to the center of the city. I will raise an Obelisk to keep the effect from you. Everyone else, I leave the dead, wounded, and the fires to you. As you look upon them, I suggest you think deeply upon who is truly responsible for this.”
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Hundreds of Swiss Light-users, horrified at what they’d done, committed suicide, not bothering to make it to the plaza at the center of the city, adding to the terrible tragedy of their actions.
The plans for Seven-Element Obelisks that could broadcast a massive field that could stave off the Rapture were posted online within minutes, and the downloads started seconds later. They had to be fed with Mana of the seven Prime Elements, but their power was absolute, dependent only upon their size and how much Mana was pumping through them.
It was also noted that the grounds of a Church of Heaven were also impervious to The Rapture’s effects. Desperate Light-users soon crowded the grounds of many a Church, and tent cities or buildings wrought of Earth Magic sprang up around them almost overnight. The services that followed The Rapture were the most well-attended ever, and the calls for Churches to be put up in any community worth the name were not few.
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There were two more Rapture events very quickly, one in Paris and one in Rio de Janeiro. The resultant fanatic upheaval was far more pronounced there, as both of those cities were places that had had to endure massive littoral effects, and there were a LOT of people with the Light Element who had fought in those conflicts. They didn’t get their Obelisks up in time, and as firm traditionalists in the Church of Light, there were no Churches of Heaven in their cities, although the occasional Kabbalist Synagogue provided the few places of sanctuary when The Rapture took the people.
The death toll between the two was over a million people. If the fate of Zurich hadn’t convinced the world, the fates of those two formerly-faithful cities did. Fates, because the cities who believed Coralost and got their Obelisks up rapidly didn’t suffer the same effects. Formerly, because even staunch traditionalists gave up their Faith after watching brother kill sister, husband murder wife, and parents and children slaughter one another.
Italy, however, bowed to The Rapture and awaited it with joy, knowing they were the chosen people. As for those people with Dark Elements, well, they knew what was coming, and they could either die or fight for the Netherworld.
Such was the fate and choice of cities, and although the terror of The Rapture drove more from the Church than ever before, there were others who actively embraced it. The true believers flocked to Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where The Rapture was allowed to take place without intervention or resistance, Church of Light fanatics even actively tearing down the Obelisks desperate people had raised to stop it from happening.
Likewise, non-believers could only flee from those areas, and hope to not be slain as they ran from their homes and former neighbors.
The Rapture worked on anyone with the Light Element and without the Will to resist, generally Mages or those weaker, although those with a Will-related Element might stave it off with some difficulty.
The Church and Synod weren’t even directly responsible for the Rapture, although there were no doubts whatsoever about who to blame it on, empowered by the Lords of Light as it was. The Sages watching Rome had to stay away as The Rapture took almost every city of the country, and those it didn’t take, such as Corsica and Sicily, had to empty out as fast as they could, often chased by Light-wielding fanatics striking them down if they didn’t fight back well enough, leading others of the True Faithful of the Light in punishing and bringing down the heathens and infidels who had only paid lip service to the Church!
The Undead Hunters erected a dozen Obelisks across the major cities of Egypt, the Egyptian army quickly raised many more, and they were staffed and fed Mana at all hours, while the Churches of Light believed to carry the effect were furiously razed to the ground.
It interrupted nothing of what Briggs’ army was doing, and if anything made them even more scornful of the Church’s hypocrisy.
The Pharaohs did try to send a message about allying with them to face the enslavement of the Light together, and their messengers were blown out of the sky, everyone totally aware that an endless army of the undead coming out to fight Rome was in absolutely nobody’s best interest.
The assault on the Pyramids continued, with The Rapture being treated with the scorn that it deserved, even as Human civilization desperately attempted to ward it away.
All those, except the nations of fanatics who had basically just made themselves enemies of the whole world, certain that they were the Chosen and they would inherit the future. Be it fear or faith, they were standing with the Synod, and there was no give in their stance, nor would there be mercy and forgiveness on their part when the time for the Reckoning came!
They were the Chosen, everyone else would die, and they and they alone would inherit the world! The pure murderous hypocrisy of their beliefs didn’t waver them in the slightest.
What the people who joined them didn’t realize was that they had just made themselves enemies to the entire rest of the world, especially the Beasts. The Land Emperors looked at those collections of idiot Human primates, and there was nothing in their eyes but death.
There would be no surprise Beast Tides unleashed inside any of their cities now, nor would any Beast Waves have much success against them. The Italian cities of the Synod had some of the very best defenses and Wards in the human world, courtesy of the patronage of the Church and Magic Association, and could hold out against external attacks more than long enough for The Reckoning to come if they were attacked.
Led by the brainwashed zealots of Light, the people chanted and awaited deliverance and the future with hope, conviction, and maybe not a little desperation.
They had no goddamn clue what they were dealing with, and Old Mountain Emperor certainly wasn’t going to inform them by anything but His actions.
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The first of those areas to feel the discontent of the Land Emperors was Catalonia, in Spain.
Catalonia had long been rebellious against the Spanish Parliament and Royal Family. Barcelona was the wealthiest city in Spain, and the natives had long been dissatisfied with the way their taxes were spread to the poorer parts of Spain, and their Families and the Great Families looked down upon by Madrid, at least in their minds.
Madrid tore itself apart under The Rapture, with agents inside the Royal Family slaughtering many members of the lineage, while Parliament and the bureaucracy erupted into magical duels that destroyed the heart of the capital in its relentless fury.
Taking advantage of the weakness, Catalonia immediately declared independence, embraced The Rapture, and booted out or slew all national loyalists who refused to embrace their new destiny. As half the cities of Spain followed them, there was nothing the Royal Family could do but seethe about how their nation had been betrayed and used, and their personal power and influence shattered after all their support over the centuries.
But there was absolutely no room for independence under The Light, and it was finally starting to sink in to the ancestral Families that this was a power they simply could not negotiate with, one that was beyond their power.
And then the sea ate Barcelona.
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I knew what was happening, but that was not my territory, nor were those people mine to protect. I was there to watch, with the Wills of other Emperors looking on in approval as Old Mountain Emperor took action.
Europe was His territory, and while He could not boot the Synod and its forces from there, nor was He wont to take such action, millions of Humans declaring Allegiance to the force that would destroy Him and all not enslaved to them just, well, pissed Him off big time.
He was probably the foremost master of Earth Magic in the whole world, as Infinite Sands focused more on sand and Earth’s interaction with Fire than pure stone, the bedrock and mantle of the world.
Over the space of a week or so, Old Mountain removed a thousand feet of stone from underneath the entirety of Barcelona, as they defined themselves with the walls of their city. It was smooth and subtle, and He left just enough bracing intact to support the mass of the city above.