After getting back to the Inn after getting Veronica and Falaen out of jail, Jack went to his room deciding to head up to the White Space. He wanted to meet with Everlai to discuss what had happened that day. Laying down, he pulled his soul out of his avatar and moved up to his space. When he entered his ball form he found he was laying in his bed.
Exiting his room, Jack moved out of the cottage to the outside. He noticed that the garden seemed to have grown and a few trees had popped up. Moving down the path to the pond, he found Kara Everlai that was currently meeting with Nyx and Eramis. The three women were sitting at the table that was next to the pond in his space enjoying a small meal.
When Jack came floating up to the table Kara greeted him with a smile "Ah your here Jack. I heard one of your Users nearly got blown up. How is he doing?"
Shaking his ball form Jack said "Yeah, thankfully Telvin was non injured severely in the blast. He seems to be distressed mentally, but I trust that Riley will be able to calm him down. I'm a little more worried about Falaen and Veronica though, I'm unsure how the investigation will turn out. I know they didn't kill that man, but I feel like someone is acting to frame them."
"Perhaps." Nyx nodded. "It is strange the guards just so happen to catch Falaen and Veronica there."
Eramis said "We were just discussing that Albino elf woman that we saw in that temple."
Nyx nodded and said "I made an extensive order to find where that elf teleported too. Unfortunately the explosion at that place distorted all spatial traces so I have been unable to follow her. It does appear that she did teleport away from the city at least."
"Much appreciated for taking a look at Nyx." Jack said. "I don't know what they were up to, but it looks like it's no good."
"While looking for that albino woman, I've found some reports of pure white elves hanging around the area. If they are with this assassin group, they may target Telvin. So you should have him stay in hiding until I can locate where these elves went."
"I will do that." Jack said. Then turning to Eramis, he asked "So do you have any idea who that temple was for?"
"I'm unsure, I've never seen that statue anywhere. Needless to say, I never saw the other sculptures in that place before either. They all seemed to come from a nightmare." Eramis said, shaking her head.
Nyx nodded and replied "I likewise have never seen anything like that, though based on what I have found in the remains of the place I have reason to suspect that the origin of this group lies in the cavern's deep within the world."
"Oh?" Eramis looked surprised and then asked "What makes you think that?"
"When we were meticulously researching Lord Raeta, we found he had come into a massive amount of wealth with which he used to build that strange building. Tracing the money back, we came to the conclusion that he gained it by selling a great deal of ore. This type of Ore is only found in the deepest parts of the mines. As Lord Raeta has no mines in his possession we can only surmise that he gained the ore from his dealings with the creature that lives down there."
"Based on what we saw, it seems reasonable to think that Lord Raeta became a follower of this being during his travels. Then when he came back to the capital, he built that temple to that being." Eramis said.
"My initial assumption would have been for this being to be either a lost god or an Evil God. However, that energy? Psionic? It's not displayed by any god or creature on the surface. There are stories of beasts and things that can read your mind however that live deep in caves and mines." Nyx said.
Taking a moment to digest this piece of news, Jack finally said "Psionic is a tricky one to deal with. It's incredibly subtle." Reaching into his inventory, Jack pulled out the broken orb they had found in Lord Raeta's place. "What can you tell me about this Kara? From carefully examining it, I found it's a Farspeak orb, but not much else besides that."
Handing the Orb over to Kara, he watched as she looked it over. She twisted it and it popped open revealing some broken magic crystals on the inside. "This looks very similar to something my troops used when I went to battle with Sara Everlai. However, this looks to be heavily modified, some of these modifications if I had to guess looks to be something related to boosting the signal."
"That sounds like something you might need to do if you were trying to contact the underground realm. Do you know anything about what's down there Kara?" Jack asked.
"We were aware of it, but back then the seals were a lot stronger so we could not go in. Due to my powers I was able to tell that a great deal of death happened down there and when I was corrupted I looked for ways to bring that death up to the surface but never succeeded."
Eramis broke in and said pensively "Based on those statues we saw in Lord Raeta's place, I don't think it's a very pleasant place. Incidentally Jack what are you going to do with all that Abyssal Poison you collected from that place?"
"I have no desire for it to fall into the wrong hands, so I would like to destroy it, but I'm unsure how to do that." Jack replied.
"I would burn it for you, but I don't think my fire is hot enough to do the job safely. It's quite nasty that poison, when you burn it let out a toxic smoke. A little bit won't be that dangerous as you don't breathe it in. However, with the incredible amount you have it would cause a massive ecological disaster no matter where you burned it on the world. Don't do it here either or this place will be ruined."
"I'll keep that in mind thanks for the warning." Jack said.
Nyx carefully took the pieces of orb from Kara and said "Since we are speculating that Lord Raeta was working with powers from the underground, we can also speculate that the source of that Abyssal Poison likely lies beneath us as well."
"I'm not sure I like the thought they are manufacturing on mass down there. We need to figure out where they are shipping it out from and seal it up so no more reaches the surface. Just one more thing I need to add to my growing list of worries." Eramis said.
Nyx nodded thoughtfully "I will get my girls to start looking for more information. Hopefully we might be able to trace where he was getting the ore, and from there we should be able to locate where he was getting that poison."
"His group of assassin's obviously liked using the poison, but even then there was so much there, I can't see them ever requiring that amount." Eramis said.
"Which is my next point." Nyx said and withdrew a map of the world and placed it on the table. "We need to talk about the Great One's seals."
"What about them?" asked Eramis with a frown on her face.
"Kara mentioned that the seals were a lot stronger in that past. They are getting weaker, and in some parts have started to fail. In fact now since you have arrived, I would say they are deteriorating faster. Thankfully the biggest seals are still holding strong, but it does seem that someone has been at work weakening the seals."
Floating there Jack felt a wave of concern go through him. "You know we spoke a few days ago with Kelsey about someone working to break apart the seals. She was of the opinion that it may be someone working to create a gate to oblivion."
Eramis frowned and said "We have got to stop them from breaking more of these seals. I definitely do not have the power to repair these seals. Do you think you can fix them up Jack?"
With a shake of his floating orb body, Jack said "Not at the moment. I don't have nearly enough power, perhaps if I was able to sign all the gods as Users I might be able to. But our best bet at the moment is to stop them from damaging more of the seals so we can buy ourselves more time."
After that the four of them sat together and began to make plans on what they were going to do. Jack would fall asleep later and see if he couldn't get in contact with Kelsey to see if she had achieved any progress in tracking the Seal breaches. The discussion lasted quite a while, and it was nearing time for Jack to return to his avatar when suddenly the space tore open.
Falling from the now gaping hole was the battered form of Melinoe. Her face was battered, one of her arms looked broken. Before they could move to help her, she looked at Eramis and said "You have got to help me. Alacanar has lost his mind and attacked me."
Startled Eramis stood and went to the injured goddess, "He did this? What the hell is he thinking?"
"Yes" Melinoe was helped up and then continued "Somehow he found out that I am aiming for Invidia's life. He flew into a rage and hit me. I tried calming him down, but he just kept getting more and more angry. The only thing I could think was to come here for help."
"That fucking bastard, I'll fuck him up." Eramis growled and said "Where is he?"
"He's been chasing me; he should be here soon. You have got to calm him down before he makes a mistake!" Melinoe said.
"He's already made a mistake." Eramis said angrily.
Jack said "How did you find this place?"
Melinoe opened her mouth to answer but just then space once again tore open and in came Alacanar with a severely reddened face and several scratches along his body where blood dribbled out. He glanced around crazily and spotted Melinoe and said "There you are bitch!"
Eramis got between him and Melinoe with Kara taking her side as well. "You are not going to touch her again. This is a flagrant breach of the courts etiquette."
Snarling he glared at Eramis then said loudly "So the whore came looking for your protection? Always knew she was a fickle tramp. I didn't realize she was also a dumb cunt. We both know your time is coming to an end, Supreme Goddess." Her title slid out of his mouth like a curse.
"Well microdick for brains, she is smarter than your ass. Last I checked I am still the Supreme Goddess of the court and I find you in violation of several rules of court etiquette. What the fuck do you think you are doing?"
"That fucking bitch was plotting to get rid of my women. But now that your in my fucking way, I have a few fucking words for you too."
"Oh now do you little fucking pissant? Cause I know a place where you can stick your words!" Eramis stood straighter and her aura began to pour out of her.
As Jack was observing them start to get into it, he received a message from Veronica. He glanced at it and saw that they were heading out to confront Duke Adam about a jacket they had found. He was about to respond when Alacanar let out a massive burst of energy.
The mad god said, "Get off your fucking high horse bitch, don't think I didn't notice that you entered into my city. Were you and that whore conspiring to get rid of my girl? Not only that, I think your behind that fucking crater that's now in my city. Once I bring my grievances to the court, they will pull you from your goddamn throne and make me the new supreme god!" Spittle was practically flying from Alacanar mouth as he went into a frenzy.
Eramis retorted "Only fools would dare to put you on the throne you fucking loser."
As the pair of gods continued to trade quips Jack took the time to formulate a response to Veronica when he received a message from Riley. He was about to take a look at it when he felt Alacanar suddenly shift his focus to him. The gods aura put a crushing weight onto Jack, and Alacanar said,"Don't think I didn't see you as well as you fucking blue ball piece of shit. What the fuck were you doing in my city as well? Sucking up to this skank as well?"
Taken back Jack said "What?"
"I also observed your damn followers showing up in my city. Especially that half-elf, from what I have been hearing he has been causing trouble in Keston due to some assassins. Now the city has to clean up Abyssal Toxin! Do you know how fucking toxic that shit is?" Alacanar began advancing towards Jack angrily.
"I will have to criticize you as well Alcanar." Jack said, annoyed. "You seem to know nothing about what's going on in your city or worse you are in on it. Your city is so dangerous, that my Users can't walk down the street without being harassed. What the fuck is up with that?"
Alacanar snarled and said "You insult your superior worm. How dare you!" He moved to strike Jack with a raised hand only to be stopped by Eramis who caught his arm and pushed him back.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing? He is under my protection." Eramis snarled and got into Alacanars face.
Alacanar scowled and pushed Eramis back and said "Well since you're tending to his ass, you better take responsibility for his actions."
Taking a look at Alacanar something seemed wrong with him. Jack had only met him once before and did not talk with him, but the aura he was giving off seemed really different. Melinoe said "What is wrong with you Alacanar? You seem different."
While looking at Alacanar and sensing something was off with the god, Jack received another message, this one from Telvin. Opening it, he saw it was Telvin appealing for help for Riley, but before he could figure out what was going on Alacanar straight up attempted to punch Eramis. She blocked the blows but stumbled back into Jack who changed his attention back to what was going on.
"You just made a mistake!" Eramis roared and sent out a blast of power. Alacanar met her power with his own and they traded blows with each other.
Alacanars eyes looked as if they had gone wild and he began screaming incoherently as he began to unleash his power on the surroundings in an attempt to attack Eramis. He seemed to have lost all reason as he tore through the garden and damaged the cottage. Jack had to nimbly dodge out of the way as several the blasts came close to striking him.
Frustrated Jack was gravely concerned about what was going on with his Users, but he could ill afford to check in on them while Alacanar was wrecking his space. The cottage was seized in half as the mad god let out blasts of golden energy. As he flailed around Nyx appeared right behind him and jumped upon his back, and began to wail on his head.
Alacanar with a roar of rage let out a massive surge of golden power out of his back throwing off Nyx who flipped away. He glared around with spittle flying from his mouth and then charged towards Jack madly. Jack let out a roar himself and charged at Alacanar as well. He slammed his ball form into Alacanar, the clash sent shockwaves through the landscape around him creating a small crater.
Thrown back Jack felt a bit dizzy, and Alacanar stumbled next to where Kara was. She reared back and punched him hard in his face several times before he collapsed to the ground where she gave him a few kicks and she said "Stay down bastard."
With a frown in his heart, Jack took a look around his space at the massive damage that Alacanar had done to the area. Luckily he hadn't damaged the white space. Now that Alacanar was knocked out he had the chance to check in on his Users. When he saw what was going on, he was startled "Oh shit! Invidia is inside the Queen of Keston, and she has Riley imprisoned."
Regaining her breath Eramis stood shocked and said "What? Dammit she was hiding in plain site, we need to get down there and deal with her now!"
"Yeah she is threatening my Users. I need to go down and help them." Jack turned towards Nyx and Kara who were standing over Alacanar "Can you keep watch over Alacanar until we get back?"
Before any of the two goddesses could respond, there came a muffled chuckling from Alacanar's laying body. A gray mist began to leak out of his head as he pushed himself up. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Jack. Despite Lord Raeta's failings, he was my follower. So it annoyed me to have to destroy one of my temples due to your damn followers. So I think it's only fair you lose a few."
Alcanar's body jerked up in a strange motion like it was some sort of puppet on strings. The voice that came out of him was deep and crackly with an edge to it quite unlike Alacanar's usual voice. Sensing that this was no longer Alacanar Jack spoke and asked "Who are you?"
The thing spoke with a dark laugh and said "While I would love to see you beg using my name to save your pitiful users, I will not be granting that privilege to you. Names have far too much power in this world, and to grant it to you would be a height of folly. No, you will just have to be content to call me the Whisperer in the dark as the ones who follow you die."
Eramis raised her hands in a defensive posture and said "How did you take over Alacanar?"
Alacanar's head jerked up twisting his neck in such a way it looked as if his spine would pop out the neck. His face was a mixture of pain and contempt. "This fool fell under Invidia's sway, with him distracted it was a simple matter to slip into the dark recess of his mind. Unfortunately, he had a stronger will than I anticipated, so I had to affect his emotions to get him to loosen up for my control. It also helped when you knocked him out so I could grab a hold right away."
"Why did you take him over? Why are you doing this?" Nyx asked, withdrawing a blade.
"Do I even need to answer that? The world is mine to use as I please, and puppeting a god amuses me. In fact if not for you Users getting in my way I would not have revealed myself. But plans change, and now I will have you entertain me while your users get to fight for their lives. While Invidia by herself is not enough, she's far too weak, I've set in motion another threat that should finish the job. An eye for an eye you might say." The whisperer laughed that awful laugh that grated on Jack's nerves.
Kara growled and said "Not today bitch, Go Jack I can handle this fucker!"
"Yes Jack, why don't you go?" The whisperer twisted Alacanar's face into a nasty grin.
Jack grimaced and said "No, it would leave my body vulnerable to him. Now that I can see it, this whisperer is only just able to be over here because he has latched onto Alacanar. Should I head down, however, he would be free to take over my body while I am in my avatar."
"What a shame, I had hoped you were as stupid as you look like." The whisperer chuckled and then said "Looks like I will just have to settle with watching your followers die."
Kara cracked her knuckles, "Well I'm about to beat the shit out of you, so all you will experience today is pain."
Melinoe grabbed Kara and said "Please don't kill Alacanar. It's not him in control!"
"Don't worry," Eramis said glaring at the Whisperer. "I'm just going to bash his face in."
Jack said "We just need to get Alacanar back in control of his body. Melinoe, can you work on a ritual to do that?"
"Yeah, I'll work on it."
The Whisperer tsked and said "Oh let's see if you can before one of your users dies. Tick tock the clock is going and I'm feeling lucky." He laughed then suddenly lunged forwards towards Melinoe and delivered an upper cut right into the moon goddess stomach launching her across the space with a grunt of pain.
Kara caught off guard by the speed of the Whisperer and responded with a flurry of punches at him. However, he was able to dodge them with incredible ease in his jerking motions. Grabbing Kara's arm he yanked her forward and delivered several nasty blows to her side and Jack could hear a rib crack under the assault.
Growling in pain Kara grabbed onto the Whisperer and threw him aside. Taking a deep breath she reached out with her arm and sent out a blast of necrotic energy into the ground that caused several skeletal limbs to rise out of the ground and attempt to attack Whisperer. One grabbed onto his leg, but he leaped up to the ceiling of the white space where he stood on it. A low rumble sounded out as he launched several spikes of golden energy at them.
Jack rolled through the air dodging the attacks barely but the rest of the cottage was destroyed. Nyx leaped up to the ceiling and proceeded to engage the Whisperer using her dark blades to slice at the mind-controlled god. The Whisperer managed to dodge the strikes as if he knew where the path of the blades before she even attacked him.
Yelling to Nyx and Eramis "Beware I think he has the ability to foresee the future a bit!"
"Let him fucking dodge this!" Eramis yelled and a focused massive beam of sunfire emerged from Eramis hand at the Whisperer who barely managed to dodge the beam. He jumped to the ground only for Eramis to follow him with the beam carving it's way through the surroundings like a hot knife through butter.
The Whisperer suddenly disappeared and then reappeared behind Eramis and grabbed her by her hair and slammed her into the ground face first. There was a sick crunch as Jack heard the sun goddess' nose broke against the hard ground. Stunned Eramis laid there as the Whisperer attempted to stomp her head before she could get up. But he had to leap out of the way as Kara came barreling forth with a massive blade made out of rotting flesh and bones.
While Kara was attacking the Whisperer with a vengeance, Jack quickly went over to Eramis and helped her up. She was dazed but stood up with a string of curses and joined with Kara in attempting to attack the Whisperer who dodged their attacks and landed several blows on the goddesses.
Grayish fog began to leak from Alacanar's body which proceeded to form into strong tentacles that struck at the women and began to push them back. Bolts of psionic energy began launching themselves from the fog and striking at Eramis who barely managed to bring up a sunlight field of energy to block the bolt.
Nyx dodged the bolts and came at Whisperer who blocked the knife swings with the gray fog. She tried outmaneuvering the tentacles but was caught off guard when the Whisperer reached out and grabbed onto Nyx's heads. A psionic pulse went into Nyx and her eyes glazed over in fear and she shrieked in pure terror and fled backwards.
Jack moved to intercept the fleeing goddess only for her to slip under and dive into the remains of the cottage in an apparent effort to hide. Kara summoned several spears of necrotic energy covered bones and launched them at the Whisperer who raised up his hand and they struck some invisible field. Before Kara could summon any more the Whisperer reached out and grabbed Kara afar with his mind and began to toss the goddess around the landscape like a rag doll.
Eramis called forth two blades of fiery energy and proceded to attack the Whisperer making him let go off Kara. Using the gray mist tentacles, he blocked the attacks from Eramis while he turned and grinned at Jack. A massive blast of psionic energy crashed into Jack who groaned under the assault but thanks to the strength of his Soul he was able to shrug off most of the attack.
As Jack recollected himself, he saw Kara crawling out of the crater that was made when she crashed into the ground and launched herself again at the Whisperer who had been charging up for another attack on Jack. He chuckled and waved his hand creating a monstrosity from psionic energy that charged towards Kara waving razor sharp tentacles towards her.
One of the tentacles fighting with Eramis managed to strike her, sending her flying through the air towards Jack. She landed with a bounce on top of him and he held her so she didn't fall. She growled out "We are getting nowhere at this point, and I can't bring my full powers to bear here."
She looked at Jack and said "We don't have time for this. Jack, I will agree to become your User. That should give you enough power over this space to affect the Whisperer."
Seeing no other choice Jack said "Alright" and sent out an invitation for Eramis to become one of his divinity Users. The moment she got it she accepted it. The rush of power flowed through Jack and he found himself breaking through several barriers as his power greatly increased. From deep within his form a dark blue glow emerged and his senses screamed with new sensations as he settled into his new power.
With his new senses he could feel the white space around him with more clarity. It felt like a bubble floating in the space around the world. As Jack focused, he found he could sense the telepathic link between Alacanar and the Whisperer that punctured his space. Assessing it, he found he was not strong enough to sever that connection at the moment, but Jack could strengthen the walls of the space limiting the amount of power that the Whisperer could draw upon.
Focusing hard Jack strengthened the walls of the space, as he did so the massive psionic creature let out a loud roar as it slowly dispersed into a cloud of psionic energy that disappeared. The whisperer wobbled a bit and then grinned, "I see you still have a few tricks up your sleeve Jack. Why don't we play some more?"
"I'm done playing with you." Jack roared and bounced towards the Whisperer and launched several attacks at the weakened mind controlled god. The Jerky motions were far more jerky as the Whisperer had been limited in power. Plus it seemed to hamper his ability to foresee the future as Jack was able to land several blows making him grunt in pain.
Wrapping a blue screen around the Whisperer, Jack hurled him into the ground and punched him several times in the gut making him leak more of that grey mist. The Whisperer formed them into mental spikes and drove them into Jack causing Jack to cry out into pain, but he drove his own power into Alacanar's body weakening the hold that the Whisperer had on the body.
The Whisperer managed to shove Jack away and said "I wonder will you be able to save your poor followers." Then the Whisperer sent out a blast of Psionic Energy that sent Jack Rolling backwards landing next to Melinoe who had crawled over.
She used Jack to help herself up looking exhausted and said "I came up with a ritual to banish the Whisperer out of Alacanar, you need to hold him down while I set it up."
"Got it." Jack then launched himself towards the Whisperer sending out several strings of soul energy and wrapping up the psionic entity in them. Despite the increased weakness, the Whisperer was still insanely strong fighting against Jack threatening to tear off the strings when Eramais came flying in with several punches to the Whisperers face.
The Whisperer fell back where Jack was able to pin him to the ground while Melinoe ran around and began to carve symbols into the ground around the struggling possessed god. Kara came over and helped hold him down. The Whisperer began laughing and said "What a great time you have shown me Jack. I can't wait for when I get to meet you in person."
"Yeah I'm sure it will be a thrill, but get the fuck out of my home." Jack said, pressing down.
Melinoe finished with drawing the symbols and began to chant causing the symbols to begin to glow. Stones in the circle began to float, and the Whisperer said "See you soon Jack!" Then with a massive burst of energy, the Whisperer was torn from Alacanar and shoved out of the White Space.
Before the entity left Jack sent a spear of pure soul energy into it making it howl in pain as it fled back to where it came from. Alacanar laid unresponsive but alive on the ground. Kara said "Go Jack, you need to get down there fast!"
Jack nodded and said "Keep an eye on him!" Then Jack focused on his Avatar and switching control. As he left his body, he could hear Eramis saying she would be down shortly. Fear for his users filled him but a grim determination off set it as he focused on saving his Users.
