POV – ****

An abyss of pure darkness, an infinite expanse of empty space warped around the last remains of the dead universe. The corpse of a long dead planet, its fractured surface leaking a unnatural light into the inky blackness.

Between the large fragments of the planet’s crust, structures of pure white twisting into bridges, towers, and odd shapes, like an abstract perversion of a spider’s web.

 The warped pale structure running down to the planet’s long dormient core, the dead core of once molten metal now trapped within a structure, the heart of the structure, shaped like a mixture between a cross and a star. A closer white eye in the centre of four pale blades, their white warped stone-like material bleeding crimson light from the deep within their abstract form.

Within this twisted core of the white nest a twisted nightmare of a thing sat. A being, a thing, beyond the comprehension of any mind that wasn’t its own kin, and yet the mere mention of its name brought despair to countless civilisations.  

Yet this force beyond understanding gave itself a form, a body it seated upon a throne seemingly formed by the deformed faces of trillions of creatures craved out of a pale metal. Each was once a cosmic disaster, many having destroyed of universe, some far more, but now all reduced to prizes, simple trophies on a throne.

A throne made for their killer, their slayer, their end.

Seated upon the pale throne, a black humanoid form comprised of twisting, shimmering flames, its body vaguely female in nature with a clearly defined waist and significant chest.

That was all, however, its body was stripped of any other humanoid features, and covered in a surface that severed like a kind of skin, a mass of shifting faces crafted out of black flames, and shimmering, morphing rainbow markings.

One of its, or more accurately, one of her talons tapped rhythmically against the throne’s arm while she stared out, into the vast empty space beyond the structure.

[Boring…]

The concept echoed throughout her quiet mind as she sat, as she waited silently for her usual sources of entertainment and joy to return.

She knew they would return; she knew how easily she could warp time to rid herself of this waiting, but she didn’t.  

She believed that doing so lessened the value of the time she spent with them, a belief near unheard of for anything even close to her range of power, and yet one of her standings did.

The featureless face of black splitting in half to produce two faces, each turning to fondly focus on a smaller silver throne placed on each side of her own.

[I can barely wait for you to get back, my dears…]

A sigh-like expression exited her faces as her mind focused on the silver thrones’ owners, her partners. She could feel their signature glowing brightly in the vast sea universe, fighting, explore, creating, she didn’t mind, she even supported it, but she still missed their presence.

The two faces joining back together as she returned her attention to the dead universe beyond the remains of the planet.

[I can wait… more…]

Her mind started to settle back into its lethargic study of the blackness, a spark lit up in a far-off corner of the universe. Her attention snapped to the blazing spark billions of kilometres from her throne as her mind ramped back to its active state.

[Ironic… such a significant spark can free me from boredom, even if only temporarily]

Rising from her throne, she began walking away from her throne, with black flame-like structure falling off her frame seemingly mimicking a robe. The flames trailed out behind her as she stepped closer to the eye-like window fitted on the opposite side of the room, an open maw to the abyss of space beyond.

As a slight bubble of excitement started to form within her, the space itself seemed to scream in pain. Her steps now sending tremor rumbling across the planet’s surfaces as her legs; concealed by a dress of black flames, pick up pace.

Her movements came to a stop as she reached the window’s edge, its shimmery membrane like barrier of energy opening to the dead space beyond.

Turning back to the throne room, she let the warmth of her memories flow for a moment, a jagged cut splitting open across her featureless face in a nightmarish imitation of a smile, shimmery rainbow light pouring out from behind the ridged blades of black teeth.

**** “I love you dears, see you soon… “

[I wonder who will get back first…]

She flicked her attention away from the now empty throne room, and back to the white spark of hope.

[Let’s see what you have to offer]

The fracture in her faces closing as she turned back to the opening, her form exploding into a torrent of rapidly spiralling black flames.

The blaze rushed through the hole in the barrier, swirling towards the planet’s surface as a roaring pillar of flames. Until it shot past the planet’s dead surface, her ascension only came to a stop upon reaching the upper atmosphere where the engorged inferno of black collapsed into a new form.

A titanic dragon-like creature, its body a crafted cage of pale bone like plates around a condensed body of black flames. The pair of eyeless blades that comprised her jaws turned towards the dull spark of energy as her three tails flicked around behind her.

Her massive bulk heavying into alignment with the signature as her eight gigantic forearms reaching outwards, her talons gripping into the fabric of space time locking her in place.

Then, with a lurch forward and a slight mental flex, the space around her deformed, snapping her across the billions of kilometres instantly and landing her before the shimmering hole in space.

As she encircled the puncture with her massive form, her eyeless face studied its weak signature, its composition, its intent, its destination.

[Seems like a kind of summon gate, surprising, through likely a misfire…]

[Which could be entertaining in its own right…]

 As she released another quick mental flex the flickering gate was warped into a gaping maw in the fabric of space, its weak white energy consumed by a rainbow of twisting colours. The multicoloured energy rapidly reconstructed the gate to handle her existence, wiping away nearly all of the gate’s original purpose, leaving it as nothing but a passage.

[Really, how much did they mess up the gate? It’s meant to hit World Veins, not inter-universe travel]

[Maybe it wasn’t a misfire, but a primitive attempt… unlikely, but something to think about]

Her jaw morphing into as much of a grin as it could, before she plunged, headfirst, into the chasm in space and towards the poor unfortunate world on its other side.   

The moment the last of her trio of tails vanished into the gate, a sign of joy seemed to rumble across the dead universe, that even for a moment it would get a break from the weight of her existence.  

 

POV – Alania Knighting

Spells rocketed over her head as a swirling mass of purple flames exploded on her shimmering barrier, the blast echoing onto the battlefield in a shockwave.

Alania could only release a quiet sigh as she noticed several of the other commanding officers twitch at the sound. When she had first been deployed to the front line she would have sympathised with their anxiety, but after 4 months of near constant bombardments she was getting fed up with their pathetic actions.

‘Why are they even here at this point…’

‘Why am I even here…’

‘I know heroes are meant to be the protectors of humanity and what not, but this is just pointless deaths… I should have stayed out of this war.’

Turning away from her cowering fellow officers, she surveyed the battlefield that lay on the other side of her shimmering wall of golden energy. A near 100-meter wasteland of horror, instead of ash and mud like one would expect, it was comprised of festering corpses of humans and demons alike.

On the opposing side of the sea of rotting flesh, a black barrier of rock-like material stood, the wall was formed from the bodies of massive demons who stood protecting the main bulk of the demonic forces and any human ranged spells.

Their bodies fulfilled a similar purpose to Alania’s own barrier, but similar was key, as she knew each one of those demonic behemoths was nothing more than walking disasters able to turn cities to dust with ease.

‘Why do they just stand there, even one of them could push the war in their favour, but they just stand their…’

‘Today they’re not even firing off their normal bombardment shots.’

‘Maybe I’m remember their strength wrong… I really hope so, as otherwise something else is at play.’

Alania once again contemplated the question she’d had upon first arriving at the front, a question that had persisted every day and finally would be answered.

Hours passed by; the two suns creeping towards mid-day as Alania watched both armies’ futile attempts to push across the field of corpses. The screams of humans and demons taking their final breaths a twisted background music to the war, one that she had sadly become used to.

It was only when the pair of suns finally reached their peak in the sky did something change, the battlefield being consumed by an odd silence. Alania shifted her stance as her body tensed, under the anticipation of the unnatural quiet of the war, as the behemoths of the demon wall started to move.

‘It’s changing, this can’t be good.’

“All mages start arming every possible defensive spell, all soldiers enter defensive formations.”

Her amplified voice rolled across the human army, waking many of them up from their stupor at the demon wall shifting. The soldiers quickly rushed into action, rearranging their formations as a myriad of colourful spell structures lit up across her barrier.

With the gears of the military force kicked into action, Alania took a quick glance at her still frozen colleagues before turning back to face the demonic forces with a sigh.

Her eyes focused on the monolithic bodies of the wall demons, as they moved their black carapaces to open a gateway. A pair of humanoid arch-demons stepped out of it, while forming complex spell structures to cover the opening in the wall.

‘A crimson arch-succubus, and a blackened arch-executor…’

‘WHAT IN THE GREAT CALAMITIES IS GOING ON?!?’

Alania started to panic behind her knight-like armour as she watched these two powerhouses of the demonic species step out at act as guards.

‘This… this really can’t be good, even alone. Just one of them might be too much for me…’

Her eyes came to a stop on a third figure walking through the opening, clad in a detailed black and gold robe. Its two toed feet tapping against the ground as it approached the sea of corpses, the many eyes that ran the length of its head studying the battlefield.

‘A Kyrus… a real Kyrus…’

The Kyrus’ four chitinous arms rested in front of its body; its four figured hands locked together, as it came to a stop behind the barrier erected by the arch-demons.

‘It’s body really is like the books said, a mixture between insectoid and kraken…’

‘No Alania focus, Kyrus are said to be great summoners…’

‘Wait…’

Alania “Mages, Activate all available space lock magic, NOW.”

Her orders seemed unheard by her fellow humans, who were transfixed on the Kyrus form, its hands slowly exiting their interlinked state as a complex magical structure formed around its wrists.

‘I HAVE TO DO THIS MYSELF, FI-’

Before Alania’s hands could pull her draconic claymore off her back, the Kyrus hands hit the ground, magic energy spiking as a summoning gate formed.

A titanic three-dimensional magic spell of blazing white energy bursting into life in the middle of the corpse sea. A moment later, the spell’s white magic transformed into an abstract unnatural rainbow energy with the spell’s very composition being reformed into something Alania couldn’t even begin to understand.

Followed by the spell collapsing into itself, leaving a massive, perfectly circular hole in space, an abyss of absolute incomprehensible darkness beyond the rainbow energy that edged the hole.

The entire war front silently watched the unknown gate in mesmerizing terra of what would come from its maw. Several long seconds before the anticipation and quiet were broken, a pillar of pitch-black flames erupted through the gate.  

The black inferno rapidly twisted into a different form as it continued to pour forth from the gate, a gargantuan dragon-like creature. Its eight massive forearms crashed into the ground of rotting flesh, as it pulled the remainder of its nightmarish body through the gate.  

As the creature’s trio of tails exited the gate, the portal snapped close, the obscene energy that had comprised it vanishing completely.

The creature’s massive body cast a shadow over the war front as it rose to its full size, its alien, eyeless face slowly surveying the armies.

‘It’s beautiful…’

‘Why does it feel so… so different to… anything?’

‘It’s like a personification of absolute unending power given form… but also not?’

‘Does that even describe it accurately? More importantly, why do I feel so in awe of it?’

‘I should be terrified, but I’m not…’

‘I just feel, well, inspired would be close…’

‘But it’s more like a need to do, to act, to not deny stagnation… whatever that means.”

Alania could feel a slightly crazed smile of joy spit across her face, a stark contrast to the unanimous fear of every other lifeform on the battlefield.

‘You’re so different, but beyond powerful and I can’t understand any of it, just by existing you prove those stuck-up tower mages wrong,’

‘So much to learn, I can’t wait to see what you can do,’

The creature’s titanic mass shifted on eight of it twelve main limbs as it turned towards the human army, its pricing eyeless vision somehow sweeping through their very souls. Coming a brief stop on Alania, as she felt its impossible vision become softer for a moment before continuing past her.

A bliss of acknowledgement began to bubble in her mind, before her mind was snapped back to reality feeling another massive spike of magic energy.  

Alania’s eyes locked on the trio casting it, which to her surprise, was the Kyrus and the two arch-demons, their magic pouring into the spell as fear rolling off all three hit her with a realisation.

‘They didn’t intend for this… wait…’

‘The rainbow energy…’

Her eyes travelled back to the creature, still surveying its surroundings while ignoring the growing well of magic power.  

‘That was you right… that’s… this is incredible…’

The spell fired off as Alania starred in awe from the realisation, the blazing orb of death magic harmlessly dissipating before it could hit the creature’s body. The creature’s massive head snapping towards the trio, before it realised an abstract sound, the two armies finally breaking out of their stunned states as the war front descended into complete chaos.  

As both armies began to unload all they had at the creature, while Alania could only stare in ruptured wonder at its dragon-like form, her mind churning with realisation.  

Spells rocketed through the sky as bolts, arrows and bullets rained down, the sound of screams and explosions filling the field. The behemoths of the demonic wall pulled themselves into motion, marching towards the creature, Alania’s fellow officers scrambling to evacuate as she continued to stand transfixed on the creature.

‘You’re the dream of every adventure on the planet… your complete new…’

‘I want to see more…’

She watched in fascination as everything thrown at the creature was broken down into an abstract structure before they could even reach its surface.

Once the demonic behemoth had closed in on the dragon like horror, the creature seemed to have finally had enough of the futile attacks. Purple energy crackled around the creature’s mouth as it pointed its head towards the sky, the world turning white for a second as it released a beam of purple energy from its maw.  

Alania’s hands went straight to her head as she groaned in pain, as she felt the raw signature of the energy wash over her. Her breath turned into a rasping gasp as she dropped to her knees, the pain becoming a roaring storm as she barely managed to keep her eyes open.

Her barrier shattered as the recoiling from the breath roiled out from the creature, a wave of high-pressure winds, turning anything in the wake to dust and filling the air with a crimson haze of blood.  

‘Right, this is a war… and that, that creature… it’s not… friendly… probably…’

‘I need to protect people… that’s why I’m here… as a hero…’

Pushing through her mental pain, Alania staggered to her feet, dumping every drop of her magical energy into her fist. Her muscles contracted as she pulled her arm back with the metal armour deforming under the force, her gauntlet glowing brightly with heat as she poured energy into her fist.

Throwing a punch forward with a boom as it broke the sound barrier, Alania’s fist connecting with front of the incoming wave of death.

Bright pain ripped through Alania’s arm as she felt the armour coving being shredded into fragments of metal. Staggering backwards as the mangled remains of her arm flopped lifeless down to her side, exposed muscle stained by crimson and gold blood clinging to white bone.

‘F***!’

Even with the destruction of her arm, her punch still seemed to work as it had managed to counteract some part of the wave. Leaving the command area and whatever army that were close enough safe for the wave’s devastation.

Alania’s eyes flicked to the remains of her arm, watching the gold and red blood drip off, the gleaming golden blood sending a shiver down her spine.

‘That… that was way worse than I expected… how, how am I meant to protect people when just the recoil is this bad?’

Forcing her attention to the aftermath of what she could only call the creature’s waste energy, her vision filled with a scene of pure destruction. The air was painted with an ominous red mist from the many soldiers who were transformed into a red vapour by the shockwave.

The demon forces were not fairing much better, as while their numbers were still far higher than the several thousand humans left, nearly all their behemoths were turned into corpses.

‘Unbelievable… such raw destruction…’

‘Is it… say, another world’s great calamity or something?”

Alania’s attention returned to the creature as it scanned its focus over the remains of the battlefield, its disinterested gaze sending chills down the surviving forces as its eyeless faces passed them over. Its head once more letting its impossible gaze to linger on Alania, her skin crawling as she felt the attention locking onto the golden blood leaking from her remnant of an arm.   

‘Does it know…’

‘Oh… oh calamities, it could very well know more about that then I do…’

Her mind finally was hit with a wave of dread as it grappled with the possibility, the feeling in Alania’s mind reflected on the battlefield and its state of frozen fear and disbelief at the creature.

A quiet that broke after several drawn out moments as the creature’s mouth parted and purple crackles of alien energy started to flicker across its surface. The crackles rapidly increased, growing in number until the creature’s body was crawling with an armour of purple lighting.

The field once again descending into chaos as nearly every human and demon still alive attempted to escape the area.

Chaos that pulled Alania’s attention away from her shivers of fear, back to the reality around her and the towering nightmare of a creature.  

‘This… this is even more… such… so different… so magnificent…’

The feelings of dread that had plagued her mind moments ago were washed away as Alania’s mind was overcome with fascination at the unknown before her.

‘Such a dense point of energy…it’s so… off…’

‘It’s still building more energy, already far past the last attack… but why, the recoil from that decimated the area…’  

‘Could it be giving us a chance to escape? An act of… kindness? Maybe mockery?’

The creature’s surface became encased in a storm of dancing purple lighting as the energy signature eclipsed anything the war front had seen. The creature pushed its body onto its four rear legs, pointing its head towards the ground as the lighting that covered it flooded towards its open maw, condensing into an orb of impossibly dense energy.  

‘Either way, it’s not like anything can come of it…’

‘What do you do against something like this? Only something like a great dragon could conflict with this… creature…”

‘Make it clear just how much of a joke I am, Alania the dragon slayer… there’s no way a failure like me could kill something like that…’

‘Something akin to a god in power… well, I guess that explains why they were depicted like that in records…’

Alania watched the clear orb of white encircled by a ring of rippling black energy, feeling the energy within the sphere continue to increase.

‘I can’t feel any pain… did they burn out? … is that even possible?’

‘Whatever, in the presence of an enraged god, we’re all about to die, hell, maybe even the entire kingdom…’  

She felt a dull warmth begin to fill her head as she watched the singularity of white churn, her crimson eyes beginning to surround with black beneath her helmet. A bliss of acceptance exploded through her mind as her iris morphed from its crimson colour to a flaming gold orb surrounded by black pigment.

A voice calling out to her, echoing through her mental bliss, pulling her out of it thrall and back to reality as a hand grabbed onto her shoulder.

Solider “Commander, we need to leave.”

Alania’s face morphed with confusion as she noticed the young man’s armour, a shining white with gold edges, seemingly stylised to mimic the aesthetic of the mythological angles.

‘I don’t remember any soldier wearing…’

Her current golden eyes locked with the man’s shimmering amber orbs, that grabbed all the attention from what she assumed to be a traditionally handsome face.  

Pulling away from the man’s touch, she felt something trying to invade her mind, its presence only held back by the lingering light of bliss the creature’s power had brought.

‘Mind magic…’  

Alania’s eyes narrowed behind her helmet’s mask as she focused on the faint magic structure in the man’s eyes, her body tensing for combat even in her crippled state. A conflict that even happened as the young man’s face twisted with shock, as she felt the energy behind her spiking even higher.

His figure lunging towards her with shocking speed, his face contorting in desperation, this hand unable to reach Alania before this form collapsed in on itself in the iconic use of teleportation magic.

Alania’s face returned to a calm expression as she felt another warm wave of magical discharge wash over her, its power sending a web of cracks across her armour.

Her body turned away from where the man had stood moments ago, fixing her attention fully on the odd warmth of the energy running rampant across the decimated warfront. As the pulse of energy began to turn the remains of the command centre to dust, she watched the creature fire a thin beam of energy into the ground.

‘Whatever that was, it not my problem…’

‘I get this bliss… a good way to end…’

Her eyes remained fixed on the orbs as euphoria swarmed through her mind. A moment later, the attack was finally realised along the ignition beam. Emitting a wave of pure white to consume everything around it, every object it touched abstracted down into basic shapes and colours before vanishing entirely.  

As it reached Alania, as the all-consuming bliss enclosed around her mind, a final through of sadness wormed its way to her consciousness.

‘I wish I had at least experienced having a girlfriend…’