The Enmity of Scolrys, Part XXXI: Devotees at War and Morale’s Adherent
With Its heart assailed, amidst a gurgle of burning ichor the screeching Fundament shifted into deeper depths of Chaos. Thought, fancy, madness, and dread conspired together, weighing heavily upon mortal psyches as Chaos and Divine essence flooded the Prime. The breach through the heart, through Chaos itself, yawned open – an invitation to the devotees of the Seven at war.
The invitation was swiftly accepted as the faithful entered Chaos, flung to the four corners of the battlefield; scattered, each was forced to rally alongside unlikely allies. Manipulating Chaos’ infinite possibilities to manifest armies in homage to their respective Gods, these faithful steadily warred to the objective at the centre, where the Hegemonist remained locked in titanic combat with the Withered Lord. Four Chaos Lords barred the path to Lahkencai, and one by one they fell to the faithful of the Pantheons.
The first to fall was the Whispering Orb, destroyed by the combined might of Akarn of Abhorash; Legyn and Tina of Chakrasul; Whirran of Bamathis; Sekeres of Haern; and Xavin of Slyphe.
Pietre of Euthymius; Sysaa of Bamathis; Maeve and Gael of Abhorash; Gyrinno of Haern; Benedicto of Slyphe; Esani of Celezor; and Azarae of Chakrasul joined in conflict against the Formless Fear; what they faced was tenacious, but they too felled their foe.
Amidst ephemeral turtles, sirens, and Kelki, Sryaen of Celezor; Meleah of Slyphe; Boube of Euthymius; Minataro of Haern; Amyie of Chakrasul; Elene of Abhorash; and Sheryni of Bamathis joined in successfully melee against the Glimmering Horror.
In tandem with the other forces, Azvameth and Khane of Abhorash; Kiershu of Chakrasul; Tredin of Slyphe; Emhyra of Celezor; and Tzarentesh of Bamathis made brutal work of the Echoing Emptiness.
As the last of his twisted creations fell, Lahkencai’s attention abandoned the God of Tyranny and surveyed the battlefield. With a contemptuous flick of his wrist he pooled together the entirety of the realm’s spilled essence, their whole coalescing upon his palm. It sat there but a moment before the Withered Lord sucked it through his parched lips, countless possibilities and futures ending in a flippant instant. The essence flowed inward and raw willpower surged outward, washing over the realm. Its tidal roar swept over the battlefield, an iron grasp that crushed all present into submission; but a speck of dust in the face of Lahkencai’s manifest might, they were rendered unable to muster even movement away from their shattered psyches.
Lahkencai turned first toward the flickering avatar of his once-mentor’s essence, this private pocket of Chaos bending to the laws of his will. A smile curved his desiccated lips as he cast a thin hand outwards, a net of malicious intent thrown with it, disintegrating all of Abhorash’s chosen into mere essence.
Slowly did the Withered Lord move, the Scion almost lazy in victory. Just as before, the flick of his wrist was contemptuous when it sent the essence of Tyranny’s fallen crashing into the God, casting away His adopted visage, leaving Him desperate with intent upon staving off the annihilation of His chosen. Utmost focus twisted His carved features as Abhorash mustered the full bearing of His blood, His Divinity, and His will. His clawed hand outstretched to reclaim the unspooled beings of His faithful, yet the motion died under the gravity of Lahkencai’s command; the unravelled mortals floated unhindered toward the Withered Lord.
A faint sound drifted down from the heavens, monosyllabic and muted: “Yip!”. More frenzied yipping echoed from on high, each excited utterance filling the realm with the obstreperous Morale of the one Kobold beyond the Prime. The Kobold’s cries built steadily in volume until each “Yip!” was a booming thunderclap that strained across the plane. Wild yapping served as the answer to Boube’s heroic calls. From Top Rock to Siha Dylis and beyond, the howls of a thousand Kobolds arose in answer to a hero, adding to the Apprentice’s inspirational clamour. The noise erupted as blooms of bursting energy – to the firmament and within all present’s hearts. A soldier’s second wind coursed through the combatants, invigorating them with the strength to push through all obstacles and odds. Crackling streamers of gentle light manifested upon the horizon to frame the scene of battle-torn Chaos, celebrating the ascension of Boube to Adherent of Morale. Euthymius flitted away from confrontation with Lanu Du, drawn toward Their yipping Adherent.
Morale’s resilient intervention bathed the Tyrant God’s bindings in mystic fire, freeing the Progenitor’s hand to complete the reclamation of what was His as the Sacred Heart’s Adherent spread Their virtue throughout the war-torn shard. It suffuses Light, Water, Strife, and Life with a faint glimmer of implacable bronze, granting Them the strength to rally and obliterate the forces before Them.
The unspooled Reavers hovered in the Hegemonist’s palm for but a blink before he flung it outward, expelling the burning torrent from Chaos into Prime. Like flaming meteors Tyranny’s chosen cleaved across the sky, ascending beyond the pale of mortal influence. Born upon a veritable nebula of Divine essence unlocked in this new Age, their combined essence shone like stars as they scribed the tale of the Prime’s defiance against Fundamental Chaos in a blazing script; tales of dominion took form in the burgeoning starlight, reliving the last moments of the Chaos Lords conquered by Abhorash’s Chosen. As each conquest illuminated the sky, deliberate order took form amidst the blinding luminescence. Blazing orbs scrawled the outline of a pentagon, its distinguishable shape taking form – save the northern star.
Though each Reaver’s tale found immortality in the heavens’ depths, Elene Arcan’s story burned brightest at the apex of the formation; certainly Tyranny manifest, once-Strategy’s Virtue still served as the fuel of His ascension. The revelation of the God’s gambit set long ago at the beginning of this tale, unfolded amidst dazzling orbs. The emerging constellation regaled the world below with images and narratives: a God and an Aetherial, sequestered deep within Abyssal Chaos, submerged in clandestine plotting; a path mandated, a path swiftly accepted. A withered crone deceived and consigned to an ignoble end; an Aetherial, guiding the Chaos Lord to her doom. A touch, hidden from all others; a conduit opened, unbeknownst to all. A heretical ritual of the High Endorone: a being of Chaos set ablaze, her heart torn from a malformed body. An entity’s essence was consumed, and a contaminant was implanted as a result.
Tyranny’s essence gibbered with insanity as Strategy’s climax was unveiled: Heretical perversion, essence without pact, profane corruption; the seething mixture of Abyssal and Fundamental Chaos, each vying for dominance as starlight’s luminescence bubbled through with unholy veins. Sacrilegious aberration served as the crucible that reformed Tyranny’s Reavers amidst the illumination of their collective legend, its twists and thrills carved into the sky. Elene Arcan faded from the fore, the celestial reverie that shrouded her dimming to naught as Ontesme departed from a profaned vessel. Sudden like a warhammer’s collision, it reignited into thousandfold concussive explosions, a nascent constellation fully birthed amidst raging supernovae.
These celestial anomalies baptised Lahkencai in apocalyptic acrimony as the Withered Lord suffered the full force of Tyranny – a force bolstered alike by Morale’s ascension and Fundamental Chaos’ stolen essence. On and on flares the stellar lance, pulsating waves of genocidal destruction that crash down upon Chaos’ Scion. From the catastrophe’s heart descended the reborn Aetherial of Oidhre, racing the cataclysmic beam back into the depths of Chaos as the Hegemonist’s fold entered the fray once more.
When the last destructive nova flickered out, what remained was the husk of the Chaos Lord. Though the indomitable core of will sustaining the Scion remained unbroken, its lacerated layers sagged and sloughed, shorn nearly to naught. Even as Lanu Du’s essence surged in to revitalise the battered Scion, he rose to his feet; formidable, undefeated, vulnerable. Mirroring the struggle against Fundamental Chaos raging above them, the combined faithful of Abhorash, Bamathis, Celezor, Chakrasul, Euthymius, Haern, and Slyphe cast down Lahkencai’s husk, forcing the Withered Lord to flee back into the depths of Chaos.
Without Lahkencai’s influence and with the Chaos hordes severely thinned, all seven Gods beset upon Lanu Du without distraction.
Haern scattered the last of His prey with an ursine roar, His wargauntlets scattering countless faceless minions to cosmic winds as He took up His place beside Siblings. Brilliant fire and spirit manifested into the towering imposition of Lord Celezor, His greatsword lifted on high to gesture at Faceless Chaos. Dauntless Slyphe rode an arching tidespout towards Her compatriot, her aqueous form splashing into position beside the Accordant Lord.
Brilliant Euthymius bloomed into existence at Haern’s side, Their raw virtue extending to all but one of Their fellows. Consumed still by bloodlust, Bamathis strode forward to gain a step upon His fellows. He tightened His grip upon Caelestis, a wordless snarl ringing out across realms near and far. Abhorash emerged through gouts of celestial blood in a series of graceful steps, His hilunite sword held ready. Cruel Chakrasul set Herself apart from the rest, Her indomitable might rendering Her a jade beacon in no need of Morale’s gift.
As One, the Seven stepped forward.
Wheresoever They walked, Chaos quivered and quailed; It retreated and receded, the maddened flesh and spiralling dissociation of Incarnate Insanity burnt away and beaten back by the unstoppable fury of seven Gods.
Silver and alabaster fire carved a way through the heart of Lanu Du’s remaining forces, Its myriad masks and renegade lords brought to heel by screaming arcs of Dia’ruian lightning. Tidal walls enforced distance and space, creating opportune moments and tactical advantages for Sapience’s embattled pantheon.
Reality soon scabbed over, obscuring the advance of the Deific collective. The celestial vault snapped shut to assert Primal order, breathing all the livelier in celebration of Morale’s Adherent.
Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 12th of Haernos, in the year 4 AC.
