S
OoC
I will spend a little more time on Selax versus Zacarutu than the rest because Selax at least is one of my characters, giving me a bit more control. I will also be finishing up my subplot with Selax.
BiC
The chaotic fighting continued all around Pnyx. Medoc battled the daemon, Selax battled Zacarutu, and Moonshadow at last cornered Thern on the upper floor of Pnyx.
Medoc, after a short battle, defeated the daemon and began to search for a way upstairs.
After a bit of a battle, Moonshadow managed to catch Thern with a bolt of magic that hurled him out of one of the nearby windows, presumably causing him to fall to his death.
All around Pnyx, Selax battled Zacarutu. He quickly saw that his opponent was used to catching and killing mages, not melee fighters that were as maneuverable as he or as experienced as Selax. Selax also determined that there was nothing that he could do for Gin other than perhaps to put him out of his misery. Zacarutu was heavily magic resistant and possessed some magic of his own, yet he could not destroy Selax. They met one last time over the Sea near Pnyx, which was now alive with Scylla hoping for food from the battle. At last, Selax got a stroke through Zacarutu's defenses, and it went deep into his chest. Zacarutu fell into the Sea and the Scylla dove on him...
When Thern fell through the window, his army almost instantly lost cohesion. Without unity, they could not stand against the united armies of the citizens and mages and were soon defeated. The outpouring of relief at their victory caused both sides to almost forget their quarrels, and Wizard watched with a smile, knowing that at last the tensions could begin to heal.
In the Void...
Again and again, the two massive avatars smashed at each other, sending out staggering amounts of energy in all directions. Most of the realities around Cythera had already been dead for ages, but most were damaged by the titanic battle (Cythera was protected because of the barrier that Alaric and the elementals were generating). Still, neither could overcome the other, and, at last, both drew back from each other with a snarl, deciding to win this conflict through other means. Each returned to his army and renewed his Eternal War upon the other...
After the battle, Selax headed south and met the other elementals outside Ur-Sylph's prison. They talked about recent events and reminisced for a while about the past. At length, Selax and Ur-Sylph were left alone at the entrance. The others stood a distance off, ready to renew the prison barrier when Ur-Sylph entered. The bargain was that at some future date the elementals would release Ur-Sylph.
"You didn't tell us the whole truth, did you, old one?" Ur-Sylph said. He alone of all the elementals save Alaric and Magpie had sensed another presence besides that of the Death King. Selax had only told them of that the Death King was trying to bring another army into Cythera and must be kept out.
Selax shook his head.
"Of course not. I can't trust any of you further than I can throw you."
"I agree with that. Still, I would be your friend again as in the past."
"Perhaps, some day," he paused for moment but continued, "here take these. You need the practice."
Selax handed to Ur-Sylph the swords of Balthon the elemental. Ur-Sylph nodded and stepped back into his prison. The barrier snapped back into place. Selax and the other elementals left.
On his way back to Pnyx, Selax became aware that voice that had caused his recent visions sought to speak with him again.
"Very well, finish your tale." He said aloud. Again, he fell into another vision...
_Not quite the void this time.
A vast hall of darkness, filled with daemons and all sorts of other vile creatures.
At its end, Malkor stood bound in chains before a huge daemon seated on a throne. Selax knew at once that he looked on a creature of legend—the First Lord of Darkness, almost forgotten by the end of the first age of the void and now remembered only in vague legends. He held in his hands a crystal ball that glowed white, and then Selax knew what was about to happen.
It had been said that although this Lord of Darkness was strong he was only a match for one of the Chimaera and sought to pick them off one at a time. It was further said that they had at last destroyed him with ease. Now, Selax was about to witness the truth.
"An effective prison, don't you think?" the Lord of Darkness said with a laugh, gesturing at the crystal ball that he held, "It'll hold your precious wife until I say otherwise. Now, I ask one more time: will you serve me?
"I...I...I can't..." whispered Malkor at last, shaking whether in rage, grief, or fear Selax couldn't tell.
"A pity. Oh well, now I shall just make sure that your precious Chimaera can never find her...or your remains."
The Lord of Darkness gestured and a portal opened. Selax recognized the kind of portal by the pink glow around it. It was a portal that a random destination—a portal that opened just to somewhere in the void. The Lord of Darkness threw the crystal ball—a prison that held Neina the one being for which Malkor truly cared—into the portal, throwing to a random point in the void.
"NO!" Malkor howled, standing up and pulling at the chains that bound him. At first, the daemons laughed at his efforts; they apparently didn't see what Selax saw—the dark halo that was beginning to surround him, that he was beginning to pull into himself. Then, they did. They did as Malkor's physical form began to warp and distort. His eyes began to redden, his face began to pale, and his armor began to blacken. Yet the change stopped midway, leaving him between this form and his other.
The chain that had bound Malkor broke, flying in many pieces everywhere. He stood up with a roar and the darkness rose about him.
What happened afterward was not pretty. Malkor tore the daemons to shreds, including the Lord of Darkness (whom he pulled apart molecule by molecule).
Then, he left. He disguised the change that had happened to him and returned to his companions—obviously the Chimaera of old. Selax saw their long search for Neina, saw the Chimaera give up long before Malkor, saw Malkor's descent into the dark and the beginnings of his hatred of the Chimaera, and at last saw one of his greatest evils. Malkor went to the Chimaera and told them that he had found a way to merge with/embody Death itself. (This was the process that had begun when he had killed the Lord of Darkness.) The Chimaera aided Malkor in completing the process, and the Death King was born..._
Selax turned away from Pnyx and went up into the mountains. Here, hidden deep in the earth with no outlets that anything smaller than a rabbit could use, Selax hid the oddities that he had collected over the years. He entered his lair and paused before one of the shelves and spoke to object on it.
"Well, I know now. I thank you for taking me into your confidence, but what do you want me to do now?" he asked the crystal ball that pulsated with white.
Meanwhile, at Pnyx, Alaric had arrived and sat in judgement in the Pnyx's main hall. Under his wise guidance and because of his sage decisions, the tensions and the incidents that had occurred at Pnyx would soon be almost forgotten. Almost everyone was pardoned when it was seen how completely Thern had manipulated everyone and also because they were few were not guilty in some way. Both mages and citizens made the appropriate kinds of restitution. Only the citizens and mages who had seriously harmed each other in some way before the day of the Battle were punised. Alaric also healed Lindus, who had been popular with the citizens. All told, Alaric was able to heal most of the damage that Thern had done.
Talryn was put on a kind of a parole. He was released into the custody of Thomas and Etiko and soon left Pnyx. He spoke to no one of the Death King, knowing that general knowledge of such a being might create chaos in Cythera, as Selax also believed. (He and Selax had talked of it before Selax had left Pnyx.)
So ends the Team Story Witch Hunt. I thank everyone who participated, although I think that this TS went on a little long, had somewhat low participation, and didn't completely achieve its goals.
I might polish up or make some more changes to this post later.
I cannot lock or unpin this topic, so I leave that to Avatara.
