The new god collapsed unto the ground, and stared at his bloody pairs of hands.
"What am I?" He knew what he used to be; once he had been Azazel and Go'El. But they were not him.
As he spoke, a putrid liquid leaked through the holes in his lips and cheeks, spilling and then seeping into the cracked stony layers. He felt his essence deep within the rock shake and boil in parallel with his pain. All around the basin, the ground moaned, shook, and then split open. Geseyers of noxious fluids spewed forth, raining the basin with sulfur and fumes.
The sickly god felt his taint spreading, seeping further and further, farther and farther. A panic gripped him. He had no idea who he was, what he was, or what could have over-powered a god. But there were others, of that he was sure. He had heard them, thier cold words and quick footsteps. He felt a pang of hope, fighting its way through the knotted flesh of his body.
Perhaps they could answer his questions. Perhaps they would welcome him. Perhaps they could even heal him.
Or perhaps they had made him this way...
And the pang in his chest suddenly knew the company of hatred, fierce bile-tasting hatred. Either way, he would not let his corruption get out of hand, yet. He dug his hands deep into the earth and pulled at the roots of the stone, cracking and shaking the basin. Piece by piece, the stone sundered and snapped and finally tore away. The colossal earth mote floated upward, away from the rubble that fell from the sides of the pit to fill it with gravel and boulders. Azazel/Go'El poured his power into the earthmote, tying it to him, and vanished with it into the ether.
Create Plane (2 AP): The Godcrater. 5 AP remaining.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
Yes. Agni told Leaf, moments before everything went insane.
Sparing only a moment to direct a withering glare at Leaf,Agni quickly moved next to Zebus, and the smell of burning angel filled the air as the Flamelord lashed out with streams of liquid fire, burning his way through the angel masses.
STOP! he shouted at the Angels, who simply ignored him and continued trying to reach Zebus.
Still fighting as angels scrabbled over his form, trying to reach the God of Death and overwhelm him, Agni reached out to the seed of power given him by Leaf and drew it near, dancing it up and over the sea of bodies until it hovered above Agni himself.
And then Agni willed it to burn.
The seed burst into flame, and the flame spread, fueled now not by the small amount of matter in the seed itself, but by the divine power that Leaf and Agni had both imbued the seed with. It spilled past the physical boundaries of the seed, and grew in-place in the air, larger and larger until a massive bonfire blazed over the heads of the angels and Gods. The fighting slowed as the angels looked upwards, uncertain as to what to make of this new thing above them. And then the flame began to divide itself as beings of flickering fire and light dripped from the bottom of the bonfire like some strange sort of paradoxical rain. In form they were reminiscent of the Angels... no legs to speak of, just a broad base of fire that roared and crackled around a thin upper torso from which long, dextrous arms and hands flickered in and out of existence. The rain of fire continued to fall, and soon a circle of the beings surrounded Agni and Zebus and a small number of Angels. Angi spat magma and those angels died, reappearing next to Leaf along with a pile of other angels who cried out for their God to heal them so they could go and fight once more. One angel, with murderous rage in its eyes, charged towards Agni,but instead burnt up as it crossed the line of fiery beings and appeared next to Leaf once more in excruciating pain. A quiet settled over the impromptu battlefield and Agni glared at Leaf.
We will speak more later, TeaLord. I do not think you know what you have created here. Agni shouted over the flames.
Agni turned to Zebus.
GO. The God commanded, moments before pushing upwards away from the surface and speeding away towards the rising sun. As Zebus also departed, the beings who had protected them seemed to flicker and fade from sight, transforming into tiny sparks that danced away into the sky, but Agni could feel them following him.
3 (2 from Leaf) AP: Populate Agni'Vohda. Fire Elementals who are servants of Agni, but can and do serve others and do have some degree of free will. Not natural warriors, they are, instead, designed to be saboteaurs and assassins, able to vanish into a single spark of fire or transform into a roaring elemental blaze at will.
As Zebus was leaving, the angels came to and rushed him. At first he felt pain, then nothing. He looked down at his blood stained pants. Instead of running, he slashed a few of the closest to him, sending them right back to Leaf. Turning to Leaf he drops his sword.
Do you see what you have done? Can you now see what you have created?
And with that the swarm overtakes Zebus. Stabbing and continueously until Zebus no longer moved, and even then some still stabbed and slashed. His essence long since left his now dead body and gone into the great beyond just like he commanded it to when he made it.
His dead form lays there shredded and torn by Leaf's merciless killers for all to see and witness.
I am both selfish and chaotic. I value self-gratification and control; I want to have things my way, preferably now. At best, I'm entertaining and surprising; at worst, I'm hedonistic and violent.
Onus stands idle, watching the brief battle without moving. Afterall, no one had asked for his assistance, and none seemed to need it. The humor that Leaf spoke of was lost to him, though it was impressive to see the others defending the Death God against so many adversaries. Seeing the movements of the angels, a curious thought occured to Onus. With the tip of one of his massive wings, he begins to draw in the dust while he watches, and a form takes shape, similar to the angels, and to the elementals that Agni forms, but different...
Leaf shrugged and shook his head. "He meddles without permission, mutilates without second thought, causes harm to himself, and blames others. Order protect us from such fools. But, in the end, he got what he wanted: Death ended one life."
He wanted to not waste another moment on Zebus, as every moment spent on him had been a waste, and move on with life. Perhaps a little heartless, but Leaf never claimed he had a heart. However, in memory for the honor he would have given to the fool in life, if he had been allowed, Leaf waved a hand and grey grass appeared over the body, decomposing it, turning it into dirt. Black flowers sprouted. As the angels dispursed, the breeze from their parting causes the flowers to quiver, and they looked a little like a small man in a black robe and a round hat walking through the grass. But in the breeze, they produced a horrible screach, like that of the angels Zebus had mutilated, warning mortals off.
"Now Mighty Onus," the god said, turning away from Zebus's entirely self-inflicted tragedy, "those are interesting things. May I ask what they are?"
1AP Nourish - Leaf creates the twilight garden, the only place in the world where odd flowers in the shape of men grow. They are highly poisonous, and can quickly kill anyone foolish enough to pick them despite their hideous warning screams.
He wanted to watch them first. Watch them in the dark before he asked them.
Azazel/Go'El stood at the base of the crater, and moved his gnarled hands through the miasmic fumes let loose by the many geysers. The thick clouds gathered together and surrounded the god.
"My siblings, where are you? Show yourselves." he whispered. The clouds rolled and stretched out before him. Wisps of smoke took the forms of mountains, and glaciers, and gods that towered over their creation. Echoes of thier words, raspy and distant, were spoken by the wisps. The smoke shifted and danced in copy of the gods' movements and motions. Suddenly a legion of wisps appeared arrayed next to the tiniest puff of smoke. Azazel/Go'El was taken aback. "How many of you are there? How could so many escape my noti..." But there was an essence within them, and it was decidedly different from a few that stood among them. They...were nearly powerless in comparison. "They-they are not gods. Weaker. Smaller. But what else could there be aside from deities? Can such frail things exist?" A multitude of thoughts swam within his mind, but for every thought there were twice as many doubts.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
But it was too late. As Angi sped away, he spared a look backwards, and Zebus had been too slow. The angels, those that remained able to fly, swarmed the God of Death and, fittingly, the God died. A wisp of smoke escaped from Agni's mouth as he contemplated how very strange and bizarre the moments since his genesis had been.
East he flew, towards the rising sun, which glinted off of a large expanse of shallow water, for just as there were no mountains on this world, neither were there trenches in the oceans. Eventually, the God tired and descended towards the surface of the ocean, feeling the spray against him and burst to steam. Agni decided that he did not much like the water, but that it was better than the cold, for the water could at least be hot.
Agni settled just over the spray of the water, staring down into the depths. He thought for a long time, and kept coming back to the same points. Agni felt alone. Zebus was dead, Leaf was a megalomaniac, Onus was an enigma, and Pruinus was, obviously, completely alien. Had there not been a ravenous swarm of Angels now given free will and a poor grasp of their emotions on the loose, Agni would not have cared about his state. As it was... the vision of Zebus being pulled back to earth danced in Angi's memory, looping over and over and over.
I shall create a worthy ally for myself. One who is not an intermediary, but who is my true child. He declared to no one in particular.
Angi sucked in a great breath of air, and blew downwards. The water was pushed outwards by the breath, and soon a flat plane of bedrock, something near ten feet down, was exposed, with a ring of water towering over it on all sides. Agni blew, and the air began to rotate, pushing the water back without his needing to maintain it. Agni then fashioned with magma a hand and then a hammer. Agni dropped both into the middle of the land ringed with water and spoke.
Arise, Son of Agni. You must be strong to survive, my child. You have one hour. Create yourself. If you do, I shall claim you for my own and be your Father. If you do not, I shall let the waters claim you. Your time starts Now.
Agni opened his mouth and let out a thin stream of Magma to provide the hand and hammer with raw materials to work with, and waited.
2 AP: Ascend God: Thereus, God of Magma! (Work fast.)
The countless wisps then swarmed a billow of smoke, dragged it into submission, and the billow disipated into the hazy air. "Is that possible?" he whispered. His bloodshot eyes moved erraticaly from scene to scene. "To kill a god? And how quickly they turn upon each other! They betray each other..."
Caustic bile dripped menacingly from his lips.
"And they betrayed me."
He felt the hatred within him nearly swallow his hope, tearing the muscles and ligaments of his body apart. Azazel/Go'El felt a terrible itch from his sores whixh still splatered and secreted blood. His hands furiously tore his skin apart, bursting cysts like geysers. But his eyes lay fixed upon the smoke.
He continued to watch, transfixed.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
Reality rippled, unseen by the gods nearby, so focused on their conversation. Chaos broke forth as existence twisted and strained. Clouds gathered in the barren sky, a torrent of lightning arcing between them filling the air with a pungent odor. The ground began to shake and jump, groaning as if in agony, loose rocks leaping into the air to shatter into a fine grit swirling along the ground as a sudden wind danced around the assemblage.
The storm intensified, lightning tearing violently across the sky, flashing rapidly in all directions, doubling, forking, over and over until the sky burned and thunder rolled forth in an ominous fury. The earth cracked, tearing itself asunder, leaving loong jagged scars across the bains as the surrounding mountains threatned to crumble under the strain. And then, as abruptly as it all began, it all ceased.
The moment of stillness afterwards seemed all the worse for the cacophony of light and sound that had just abated. Below, the stone rippled like water as a single point began to rise skyward, a figure emerging from the stone until he stood in plain view of those above. He turned his gaze skyward upon the gods who remained. "I have risen, he who shall bring that which is needed. Let it begin now."
A single wave of his hand and the heavens cried and where those first blessed drops fell, grasses and shrubs filled the basin with their vibrant greenery and the mountains wept for the fallen god, filling the great gaps in the earth with water.
1 AP - Command Land - New rivers rush from springs in the mountains, flowing into the cracked earth and forming a deep cold lake at it's center beneath Marcus.
1 AP - Nourish Land - Rain falls within the mountain basin and shrubs and grasses begin to grow. These plants are simply normal wildflowers, shrubs and trees.They life and die naturally as is the natural order..
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Pruinus tried to fight off the angels desperately, hurling spears of ice at them.
But as the angels departed she saw that she could not help.
Wordlessly, she stared the gods broken and torn body for what could have been an eternity. She knew she should not feel sad for his death, yet she could not help feel anguished.
Still silent, not muttering a word to the other gods, she departed them and strode down to her crown of ice she had created. She sat atop the highest mountain for hours, contemplating what she saw.
Had he really died?COULD gods die?
She sat longer still. Finally, she picked herself up and strode down the mountain a little, until she reached a point where the glacier had stabbed through the stone. She softly pressed the plam of her hand against the glacier, and cracks appeared in the ice, forming a door 20 feet high at her command. Upon opening the grand doors, she found a large, spacious hall carved into the glacier. As she had wished, dotted around the room where pillars of ice, around five feet high.
She focused for a second, closing her eyes. Upon opening her eyes again. On each of the pillars was a perfect, flawless ice replica of the gods she considered family.
Onus, Leaf, Agni and herself were represented in these ice sculptures, each in a dramatic pose fitting their personality.
She carved each of them a epitome, pointing her finger at the pillar below as the ice screeched.
Onus Onus sculpture depicted the god sitting down, his arms wrapped around his knees as his wings uncurled. Agni - The Flame Lord Choosing to show a more favourable side of Agni, he appeared to be laughing comically as lava dripped from his mouth onto the pillar surface, supporting the rest of the sculpture. Leaf Leaf's pose portrayed him holding his spear with two hands, brandishening it forward as his face contorted, his lips forming the word "Yield" Pruinus - The Cold Mother Pruinus didn't know her to portray herself without appearing too humble and meak, whilst avoiding the opposite extreme of appearing arrogant. As such, she decided on a simple pose showing her mid stride.
Amused slightly, she stood on a pillar next to the scultpure of herself and pulled the same pose. Were anyone to be watching, they would have great difficulty telling the two apart. After all, the others were sculptures of their true forms, this was basically a mirrored version of herself.
Laughing to herself slightly, she became grim and foreboding once again as she stepped to the far end of the hall, pushing open another door that she had commanded to exist. The room in the hall ahead was a lot smaller, and only contained one pillar in its centre. She hoped that is all it would ever need. Shutting her eyes again, she crafted a great sculpture of Zebus, with the epitome below:
Zebus - The Death Lord. His sculpture showed his lighter side, hunched forward slightly sipping from his tea with a grand smile on his face.
As she solemnly left the hall containing Zebus, the doors closed behind her as if pulled by ghosts. She pointed at the doors again, as words engraved themselves on these doors.
Herein are the Lords Of Creation, although perished and defeated, their legacy remains on all things, and they live on in their creations.
Again she walked out of the main hall, the doors creaking shut behind her.
One last time, she engraved words upon the doors with the will of her mind.
The Halls Of Creation These halls house monuments to the Lords Of Creation, the patrons of the universe and of all things.
She knew not why she had created these halls, she had no plans to tell anyone of them. Mainly, she supposed it was a way to pay her respects to Zebus, the fallen god of death. Perhaps one day someone shall discover them, and marvel at the monuments to her allies.
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AP - 1 AP spent command land Pruinus has created the halls of creation, a monument to all the gods of creation, dead and alive. The halls are magically protected and resistant to most damage, although this does have limits.
