05-14-2018, 01:02 PM
The night came and went far too fast for the taste of the weary quartet, but they allowed themselves no lazy morning time. After a quick breakfast they mounted up and departed once more. As with the day before, things remained mostly quiet, with each of them tending to their own thoughts. That is, until they arrived.
They only had briefly seen this area from a corner of their eye, and even now it was, frankly, unimpressing. As they stopped at the edge of the site, they oversaw a huge plateau spanning several kilometers in a roughly square shape, covered in snow. It was mostly flat, with a few animal burrows and tracks along its edges but as far as Amaterasu could tell the center was uninhabited. No surprise: there was nothing to be had, no animals living there and no plants growing. Years of snow and winds had flattened the land to be smooth like a calm lake’s surface and eroded away the earth, leaving only hard rock. It may have been a mountain in the past, with peaks overlooking the lands, but even now. as a plateau, it had a slight advantage in height to the lands around it.
In other words it was the perfect location to build.
“I can see it already”, said Amaterasu. “This plateau will need a lot of work… a water collecting lake will need to be carved into the rock, and of course we will need to clear the snow in order to build… and bring fertile soil in order to build farms to sustain ourselves. But, I can see it out there.” She held her arms out as if wanting to grab this entire landscape and pull it close. “Let’s go. We need to go to the center of this plateau… it is there that I will place the founding stone of Hoshi.”
With a mount as fast as the Nimbus it took them little time to reach the desired location, especially since the plateau was flat and void of obstacles. As they advanced Urist surveyed the area and when they stopped at Amaterasu’s signal he dug up some of the snow and examined it in his hand. He did not say anything, however, as the others dismounted and put their luggage on the ground.
“The snow goes ‘bout ‘alf a meter down”, he then said when Amaterasu began to dig with her hands. “Below tha’, ah presume tha’ the rock begins.”
“It will take time to clear everything out… should we build it underground? Or melt the snow? No… we will need to summon helpers. People to be the first settlers of Hoshi along with us.”
“Even then, tha’ would take days. An’ these people are gonna need somewhere ta stay… ah’ve got an idea, though. Ye can summon somethin’ like a metal box containin’ a house with all the necessities. Give it a wide base so it can’t topple over. It’s gonna sink into the snow an’ melt it with the heating. We’d need somewhere ta lead all that snow though.”
“A moat of some description to drain the water, maybe? Otherwise you’re right, we would end up with a mess. I’ve not thought of that. Very well… let’s begin with something simpler. I need to summon… a lot of stuff. And I can’t risk sinking into the snow while I focus, so let’s begin by clearing out everything in an area so we can make our base camp on the rocks below us.” With that said she sat on the Nimbus, so as not to freeze her butt while summoning, and reached her hands out to mentally grasp at the snow in the spot she wanted cleared. As she worked on pulling its essence, its Omnilium, out, the solid water seemed to liquefy into rainbow-colored light, it condensed into wisps that flew around the rapidly growing hole, then entered Amaterasu’s outstretched hands. It took longer than expected, as the snow was thicker than just a thin surface layer, having been packed together into a dense mass.
“Hey… isn’t Mother Amaterasu glowing?” asked Fiara after a while. Even in the light of the day, it was noticeable. Just as much as the discomfort visible on the kami’s face.
Oki frowned deeply. “This is not normal… Ammy?”
“... Oki? What’s the matter? Am I… oh, I’m done.” She bent her gloved fingers. “My hands are burning… I need to take these gloves off.” She promptly discarded the warming hand protections, and beneath that more glowing skin surfaced. What was worse though, the veins on her hands were bulging, and lines, thin as a thread, were forming on her skin, with the glow coming out of them. It looked like the intricate pattern on a leaf, but much more concerning.
“Amaterasu, something’s wrong with you. This isn’t normal!” exclaimed Oki as he saw her hands. But he needed not say it aloud, for Amaterasu had noticed as well. With wide eyes she looked at the bulging veins and the lines forming. Were her hands swelling and reddening now? No, this had to be the cold air…
“What’s happening to me? Why… I feel like I’m swelling like a balloon”, she said with a fearful tone in her voice. “Am I really sick? No, if… if I really am, I need to help you guys first!” Hastily she climbed down into the hole she had made, at the bottom of which a smooth surface of gray rock was to be seen, under about half a meter of snow. “If I die, I will ensure that you can last! I’ll make this hole bigger, I’ll absorb the extra snow, and you can place your tents here! I’ll come back as soon as I respawn! Quickly now.” Again she closed her eyes and focused her efforts on extracting the Omnilium of the snow around her. But as time passed and she absorbed the Omnilium she felt worse and worse. Midway through the extraction process she discarded her coat, her trousers and her boots, so she was dressed only in the miko dress she wore beneath that. And even then she felt hot and like she was swelling. Like she could explode any moment. This pain spurred her on and she tried to blurt out the voices from outside until Oki stood right before her and shook her by her shoulders to tear her out of it.
“AMATERASU!” he yelled, and this she could not ignore. When she opened her eyes, she noticed how much snow she had removed. Over twenty meters in every direction away from her, forming a huge circle, like a crater. The gray rock, perhaps granite, was all around her, laid bare. Then she looked at herself. She was glowing in all colors of the rainbow, and her skin was covered in rips and tears through which the light was escaping. It looked as if a massive creature of rainbow-colored light was inside her, trying to burst out. She screamed. Then she exploded.
A Prime’s Omnilium could not be stockpiled indefinitely. Though it was immaterial and weightless, it needed to be contained. And like a battery, a Prime could act as the container for the energy that was Omnilium. But every battery had its limits. Limits that could be expanded, of course, limits that could be trained, but Amaterasu had pushed her limits too far. For months, maybe years, she had only spent small amounts of Omnilium here and there, and as the mysterious energy, matter or whatever it was had naturally come to her, it had accumulated. She had absorbed and disassembled objects into Omnilium and used it sparingly wherever she could, never realizing that she was filling a container that would one day reach a point where it could hold no more. And she had reached that point, but then she had kept going, ignored the signs, and taken more and more.
Perhaps it was around the time where she had met Omni that she had come close to her limit. The Smiling God had given her a hefty amount of Omnilium as a reward for meeting him, and that had begun to push her. She had not summoned much since, but she had absorbed much. And accumulated much more. The Omnilium inside her had started to push back at that point, trying to find an outlet, for Omnilium was not there to be hoarded, but to be used. But Amaterasu had not realized that, and so she had not done anything to help the situation. It was like a dam whose maintenance staff ignored the signs of it straining under the pressure and kept the outlet closed so as to fill it more. And like any dam with excess water, it would one day reach and pass the limits of tolerance, then give out and break, and the accumulated flood would tear the dam apart as it escaped. In her case, the amount of snow she had extracted the Omnilium of was the one straw that broke the camel’s back, the one droplet that was too much. Amaterasu realized all that in this moment, and acted.
A split second before her body was torn apart under the unbearable pressure, Amaterasu began to release Omnilium. She opened the floodgates and allowed it to escape not just through her hands and in a controlled fashion, but out of every pore of her body, in a very much uncontrolled manner. Omnilium in quantities that some Primes could only dream of flooded out of her, blasting Oki, Fiara and Urist back and clearing out the snow in a wide area around Amaterasu, all accompagnied by an ear-meltingly loud thunder. Her clothing barely lasted a split second: the storm of what was both energy and matter tore her garments apart, reduced them to dust and converted them into Omnilium that joined the flood that came out of her, spiraling upwards.
That day, the trolls and dwarves, dragons and many other inhabitants of the Frozen Fields observed a strange phenomenon. From Zul’gurand to Dwarfholm, from Fort Amber to the highest peak of the Roof of the World, it could be seen: a strange pillar of rainbow-colored light, shooting into the sky as a massive beam, parting the clouds as it stabbed into them and giving view to the blue sky above. A thunder erupted through the frozen lands, and much like thunder it was a brutal sound that shook those who heard it deep within. Thankfully the thick snow covering the land absorbed most of it so that those who heard it only heard a distant, low rumble.
---
Not all that far away from the origin of the Omnilium Storm Sapphiron, leader of the Blue Dragonflight, raised his head from the resting place atop one of the peaks of the Roof of the World, and the slightest hint of a smile crossed his scale-lined maw. “It looks like the little Prime is awakening… it does not seem like she was torn apart by her power. This promises to be interesting”, he said as he watched the pillar stretching into the sky.
---
At the same time, somewhere in dwarven territory a group of well-armed dwarves were fighting a squad of equally well-armed trolls, a fight of the sort that happened on a weekly basis everywhere across the Frozen Fields. However, both the dwarven and troll squad leaders who had their weapons locked and were testing each other’s strength promptly stopped when the pillar of light brightened the afternoon sky. They briefly glanced at each other then split apart, each hiding behind their respective squad. The precaution, however, seemed unnecessary as the combatants, too, had all but forgotten about the fight to look at the phenomenon. Everyone knew what the light really was: the rainbow sparkle of Omnilium was unmistakable.
The dwarven squadleader was the first to recover from the daze. “Loric!” he shouted. “Give me yer Communicator! We need ta inform King Battlehammer o’ this!”
“Captain Heimskar? Just a… angh, second!” The second-in-command dwarf shoved back the troll he was fighting against and pulled out a smartphone-sized item that he handed over.
The captain hastily punched in a number, then while waiting for the other end to pick up stroked his beard and eyed the pillar. “Bruenor’s beard… ah’ve never seen anythin’ like it. Some sorta raw Omnilium geyser maybe?” he wondered aloud.
“It’d be worth investigatin’ once we’re done with these ‘ere trolls”, Loric remarked. “If it’s a spring o’ Omnilium it might be worth occupyin’, bu’ the trolls are gonna want it too.”
“We’ve got orders, I ain’t gonna disobey ‘em based on wha’ we think King Battlehammer would want. You keep an eye on the trolls while I’m on the call. Keep ‘em at bay at any cost… Advisor Ranmeld? This is Captain Heimskar speaking. There’s a phenomenon taking place outside, I believe that King Battlehammer will be very interested in hearing of it...”
---
On the other side of the battlefield the troll captain caught on too. He was an ogre-like giant twice the size of his subordinates and wearing protective gear patched together from pieces of dwarven armor as both protection and as a fear-inspiring trophy to display how many dwarves he had slain before. “Big boss Zul’Jin want know of big light-tower! Where Grug have speaksie-boxy?!” he yelled out as he began patting himself down. A much smaller troll wearing a bright red-colored hat approached him.
“Boss! You leave Communicator with Mudfoot, so it not get broken under armor!” he said as he produced a scratched-up Communicator and held it out.
Captain Grug took it out of the troll’s hand. “Grug know dat. Mudfoot is a bit stooped for think Grug not know”, he grumbled. Then he brought the speaksie-boxy to his ear. “Grug now talk with big boss. Mudfoot need keep eyes on dwarfsies if dey try to stick trollsies with stabbies. If dwarfsies take out stabbie chuckers den Mudfoot make trollsies run in!”
“If dwarves try shoot us with bows, Mudfoot order attack?”
“Yeah, is what Grug said. Mudfoot have to use earsies!” He cackled before starting to speak into his speaksie-boxy, all the while keeping his eyes on the shining pillar of light. “Dis is Captain Grug, who dis? General Kal’Jin? Grug have big stuffsies to tell! Big boss want to hear dis!”
---
Back at the plateau, Amaterasu knelt at the bottom of the crater of snow, helplessly letting the Omnilium stream out of her so it could rise into the sky. The floodgates were wide open, she could not close them until everything was out.
But that was not enough. Omnilium in its raw form was without purpose, without meaning, and it was not stable enough to exist in the Omniverse in its neither-matter-nor-energy form. It demanded to be used, to be given purpose. But no Prime could have coherently thought of dozens, of hundreds of things to summon into existence, all at the same time, not even a kami. And so the Omnilium grasped what figments of thought crossed her mind. Her dreams and hopes, her wishes and desires, her recent memories, still fresh at the surface of her mind, many things were taken and molded into existence. Not everything lasted however: under the Omnilium Storm the weaker ideas and wishes were quickly reabsorbed before they could truly be embodied into existence. It was a natural selection process that spectacularly displayed the ever-present struggle inside every person’s mind: what do they need and want, and how much do they need or want it? In Amaterasu’s case the strong ideas associated with her greater wishes and recent memories remained: her alliance with Amber and the wish to found a safe haven in the Frozen Fields, her desire for power to defeat evil and protect her friends, and many others. Figments of imagination came into being, and due to the exorbitant amount of Omnilium that needed to be formed the results were astounding. Of course, she would not know that until much later.
Minutes turned to hours and the Omnilium Storm raged on above her, but Amaterasu could feel that it was expending its energy as more of the Omnilium was cast into solid form. Her vision was obscured by blinding light in all colors of the rainbow that burnt even through her closed eyelids, and all she could hear were the sounds of rushing air as it was catapulted up by the rising raw Omnilium and more air flooded in to take the empty space.
Finally the flood had diminished to a trickle that she could contain once again, but as she did so the drain of what she had just done hit her. She collapsed on the floor, exhausted to no end and incapable of grasping clear thoughts for a while.
… the floor?
Sluggishly she felt her energy come back. She felt a breeze, but she did not feel cold. After a bit of focusing she noticed that she was not feeling the air on her skin, but on her fur. An oddly familiar feeling… she tried to stretch her fingers and found that she had none - all there was were paws. Finally she took in a deep breath and her world filled with colors and imagery, painting a picture in her head clearer than any human nose could.
There was no doubt about it: she had turned into a wolf.
As the energy returned to her limbs she opened her eyes to confirm what she had smelled: around her was a room of wood and stone of incredible splendor. She saw a study desk with a shelf full of scrolls and parchments, on an exotic rug. A luxurious bed, ready for its occupant to sleep in. Ornate paintings and nipponese writings on scrolls lined the the walls. All things that she remembered from her old home in Tamagahara, from the palace of the sun that she had inhabited in her days as a kami before descending to the world as a white wolf.
She turned her eyes up and understood where the cold breeze was coming from: the ceiling and the floors above it had a clean circular hole carved out, several meters wide, through which the evening sky could be seen. That was no doubt the result of the Omnilium Storm… even so, an amused smile crossed her maw. She would repair that later, though. Now that she felt the energy return to her limbs, she needed to leave this place and find her friends!
In her current form she found herself unable to open doors, so she crashed through one of the windows, shattering the glass panes in the process and falling several stories before landing on solid ground. Even in her worried state she could not help but to stop a moment and stare: she was standing in a formal nipponese garden in the midst of a square building, that looked better than even the most masterful gardener could accomplish. The building surrounding her was just as impressive: a palace fit for an Emperor. Had she thought all this up? She found a large pair of conveniently open doors and rushed out into the Frozen Fields.
On the plateau a lot of snow remained, even through the Omnilium Storm. There was no sign of the Nimbus, of their luggage and most importantly of their friends. She hadn’t accidentally…? No, she couldn’t have! They had to be alive! Amaterasu breathed in, then raised her head to the sky and let out a loud howl to make herself heard across the plateau. Then when nobody responded she howled once more, and finally a third time.
It was then that her howl got a response… in the form of another howl. She promptly rushed in the direction that it came from and saw the outline of another wolf, this one with brown-grayish fur, paint itself against the snow. It was Oki, and with him he was dragging someone. Amaterasu rushed to meet him as fast as she could.
“Oki! Are you okay?!” she asked with urgence as they came within talking distance. Now she could see that he was carrying Urist the dwarf on his back, and was dragging Fiara along by her coat, using his teeth. There was a trail in the snow where they had come from, at the other end of which she could see a deep hole in the snow. Had the three of them burrowed when the Omnilium Storm had happened?
“Yes”, growled the Oina warrior. “Slightly… hard hearing for a while… thunder sound got me hard. Fiara… too close, clothes got torn up. Had to wrap her… into mine, and turned… to wolf, so I would not… freeze to death. What… happened?”
“Oh, Oki, it’ll take a while to explain, but we have to care for you three first. Come, let’s go inside.” She passed her body under Fiara and lifted her onto her back that way, then stepped to Oki’s side. “What did you guys see?”
“You… exploded into bright light, knocked us all back… into the snow. Then there was… this massive pillar of light, it reached up into the sky. Could be seen far and wide, like a beacon. And slowly all these things… came into existence.” He nodded his head at the palace. “That… being the most notable. It went on for hours… and stopped half an hour ago.”
“I see… for hours, huh. That light must no doubt have been noticed then…” As they reached the doors, Oki returned to his human form and opened them to let Amaterasu in. It took them a little searching but they found a room with beds to lay Fiara and Urist in.
“They’re a bit cooled, but they’ll make it. Urist is tough as nails, and Fiara isn’t made of paper either, but I think a little warm sake could do them good.”
“I’ll summon some. I’ll figure out how to change out of this form later”, said Amaterasu.
“Heh… I can understand you in this form, I suppose that you’re not the same that you were when we first met in Nippon, then!”
“I’m really not. But, while I summon I guess it’s my turn to explain myself?”
“It is. I’m curious to hear what has happened… oh, and before I forget. There is a very different air about you. And that strange glow is gone.”
“Yes, that’ll make sense once I tell my part of the story. You see, I had so much Omnilium hoarded in my body that I suppose I suffered from an overload…”
They only had briefly seen this area from a corner of their eye, and even now it was, frankly, unimpressing. As they stopped at the edge of the site, they oversaw a huge plateau spanning several kilometers in a roughly square shape, covered in snow. It was mostly flat, with a few animal burrows and tracks along its edges but as far as Amaterasu could tell the center was uninhabited. No surprise: there was nothing to be had, no animals living there and no plants growing. Years of snow and winds had flattened the land to be smooth like a calm lake’s surface and eroded away the earth, leaving only hard rock. It may have been a mountain in the past, with peaks overlooking the lands, but even now. as a plateau, it had a slight advantage in height to the lands around it.
In other words it was the perfect location to build.
“I can see it already”, said Amaterasu. “This plateau will need a lot of work… a water collecting lake will need to be carved into the rock, and of course we will need to clear the snow in order to build… and bring fertile soil in order to build farms to sustain ourselves. But, I can see it out there.” She held her arms out as if wanting to grab this entire landscape and pull it close. “Let’s go. We need to go to the center of this plateau… it is there that I will place the founding stone of Hoshi.”
With a mount as fast as the Nimbus it took them little time to reach the desired location, especially since the plateau was flat and void of obstacles. As they advanced Urist surveyed the area and when they stopped at Amaterasu’s signal he dug up some of the snow and examined it in his hand. He did not say anything, however, as the others dismounted and put their luggage on the ground.
“The snow goes ‘bout ‘alf a meter down”, he then said when Amaterasu began to dig with her hands. “Below tha’, ah presume tha’ the rock begins.”
“It will take time to clear everything out… should we build it underground? Or melt the snow? No… we will need to summon helpers. People to be the first settlers of Hoshi along with us.”
“Even then, tha’ would take days. An’ these people are gonna need somewhere ta stay… ah’ve got an idea, though. Ye can summon somethin’ like a metal box containin’ a house with all the necessities. Give it a wide base so it can’t topple over. It’s gonna sink into the snow an’ melt it with the heating. We’d need somewhere ta lead all that snow though.”
“A moat of some description to drain the water, maybe? Otherwise you’re right, we would end up with a mess. I’ve not thought of that. Very well… let’s begin with something simpler. I need to summon… a lot of stuff. And I can’t risk sinking into the snow while I focus, so let’s begin by clearing out everything in an area so we can make our base camp on the rocks below us.” With that said she sat on the Nimbus, so as not to freeze her butt while summoning, and reached her hands out to mentally grasp at the snow in the spot she wanted cleared. As she worked on pulling its essence, its Omnilium, out, the solid water seemed to liquefy into rainbow-colored light, it condensed into wisps that flew around the rapidly growing hole, then entered Amaterasu’s outstretched hands. It took longer than expected, as the snow was thicker than just a thin surface layer, having been packed together into a dense mass.
“Hey… isn’t Mother Amaterasu glowing?” asked Fiara after a while. Even in the light of the day, it was noticeable. Just as much as the discomfort visible on the kami’s face.
Oki frowned deeply. “This is not normal… Ammy?”
“... Oki? What’s the matter? Am I… oh, I’m done.” She bent her gloved fingers. “My hands are burning… I need to take these gloves off.” She promptly discarded the warming hand protections, and beneath that more glowing skin surfaced. What was worse though, the veins on her hands were bulging, and lines, thin as a thread, were forming on her skin, with the glow coming out of them. It looked like the intricate pattern on a leaf, but much more concerning.
“Amaterasu, something’s wrong with you. This isn’t normal!” exclaimed Oki as he saw her hands. But he needed not say it aloud, for Amaterasu had noticed as well. With wide eyes she looked at the bulging veins and the lines forming. Were her hands swelling and reddening now? No, this had to be the cold air…
“What’s happening to me? Why… I feel like I’m swelling like a balloon”, she said with a fearful tone in her voice. “Am I really sick? No, if… if I really am, I need to help you guys first!” Hastily she climbed down into the hole she had made, at the bottom of which a smooth surface of gray rock was to be seen, under about half a meter of snow. “If I die, I will ensure that you can last! I’ll make this hole bigger, I’ll absorb the extra snow, and you can place your tents here! I’ll come back as soon as I respawn! Quickly now.” Again she closed her eyes and focused her efforts on extracting the Omnilium of the snow around her. But as time passed and she absorbed the Omnilium she felt worse and worse. Midway through the extraction process she discarded her coat, her trousers and her boots, so she was dressed only in the miko dress she wore beneath that. And even then she felt hot and like she was swelling. Like she could explode any moment. This pain spurred her on and she tried to blurt out the voices from outside until Oki stood right before her and shook her by her shoulders to tear her out of it.
“AMATERASU!” he yelled, and this she could not ignore. When she opened her eyes, she noticed how much snow she had removed. Over twenty meters in every direction away from her, forming a huge circle, like a crater. The gray rock, perhaps granite, was all around her, laid bare. Then she looked at herself. She was glowing in all colors of the rainbow, and her skin was covered in rips and tears through which the light was escaping. It looked as if a massive creature of rainbow-colored light was inside her, trying to burst out. She screamed. Then she exploded.
A Prime’s Omnilium could not be stockpiled indefinitely. Though it was immaterial and weightless, it needed to be contained. And like a battery, a Prime could act as the container for the energy that was Omnilium. But every battery had its limits. Limits that could be expanded, of course, limits that could be trained, but Amaterasu had pushed her limits too far. For months, maybe years, she had only spent small amounts of Omnilium here and there, and as the mysterious energy, matter or whatever it was had naturally come to her, it had accumulated. She had absorbed and disassembled objects into Omnilium and used it sparingly wherever she could, never realizing that she was filling a container that would one day reach a point where it could hold no more. And she had reached that point, but then she had kept going, ignored the signs, and taken more and more.
Perhaps it was around the time where she had met Omni that she had come close to her limit. The Smiling God had given her a hefty amount of Omnilium as a reward for meeting him, and that had begun to push her. She had not summoned much since, but she had absorbed much. And accumulated much more. The Omnilium inside her had started to push back at that point, trying to find an outlet, for Omnilium was not there to be hoarded, but to be used. But Amaterasu had not realized that, and so she had not done anything to help the situation. It was like a dam whose maintenance staff ignored the signs of it straining under the pressure and kept the outlet closed so as to fill it more. And like any dam with excess water, it would one day reach and pass the limits of tolerance, then give out and break, and the accumulated flood would tear the dam apart as it escaped. In her case, the amount of snow she had extracted the Omnilium of was the one straw that broke the camel’s back, the one droplet that was too much. Amaterasu realized all that in this moment, and acted.
A split second before her body was torn apart under the unbearable pressure, Amaterasu began to release Omnilium. She opened the floodgates and allowed it to escape not just through her hands and in a controlled fashion, but out of every pore of her body, in a very much uncontrolled manner. Omnilium in quantities that some Primes could only dream of flooded out of her, blasting Oki, Fiara and Urist back and clearing out the snow in a wide area around Amaterasu, all accompagnied by an ear-meltingly loud thunder. Her clothing barely lasted a split second: the storm of what was both energy and matter tore her garments apart, reduced them to dust and converted them into Omnilium that joined the flood that came out of her, spiraling upwards.
That day, the trolls and dwarves, dragons and many other inhabitants of the Frozen Fields observed a strange phenomenon. From Zul’gurand to Dwarfholm, from Fort Amber to the highest peak of the Roof of the World, it could be seen: a strange pillar of rainbow-colored light, shooting into the sky as a massive beam, parting the clouds as it stabbed into them and giving view to the blue sky above. A thunder erupted through the frozen lands, and much like thunder it was a brutal sound that shook those who heard it deep within. Thankfully the thick snow covering the land absorbed most of it so that those who heard it only heard a distant, low rumble.
---
Not all that far away from the origin of the Omnilium Storm Sapphiron, leader of the Blue Dragonflight, raised his head from the resting place atop one of the peaks of the Roof of the World, and the slightest hint of a smile crossed his scale-lined maw. “It looks like the little Prime is awakening… it does not seem like she was torn apart by her power. This promises to be interesting”, he said as he watched the pillar stretching into the sky.
---
At the same time, somewhere in dwarven territory a group of well-armed dwarves were fighting a squad of equally well-armed trolls, a fight of the sort that happened on a weekly basis everywhere across the Frozen Fields. However, both the dwarven and troll squad leaders who had their weapons locked and were testing each other’s strength promptly stopped when the pillar of light brightened the afternoon sky. They briefly glanced at each other then split apart, each hiding behind their respective squad. The precaution, however, seemed unnecessary as the combatants, too, had all but forgotten about the fight to look at the phenomenon. Everyone knew what the light really was: the rainbow sparkle of Omnilium was unmistakable.
The dwarven squadleader was the first to recover from the daze. “Loric!” he shouted. “Give me yer Communicator! We need ta inform King Battlehammer o’ this!”
“Captain Heimskar? Just a… angh, second!” The second-in-command dwarf shoved back the troll he was fighting against and pulled out a smartphone-sized item that he handed over.
The captain hastily punched in a number, then while waiting for the other end to pick up stroked his beard and eyed the pillar. “Bruenor’s beard… ah’ve never seen anythin’ like it. Some sorta raw Omnilium geyser maybe?” he wondered aloud.
“It’d be worth investigatin’ once we’re done with these ‘ere trolls”, Loric remarked. “If it’s a spring o’ Omnilium it might be worth occupyin’, bu’ the trolls are gonna want it too.”
“We’ve got orders, I ain’t gonna disobey ‘em based on wha’ we think King Battlehammer would want. You keep an eye on the trolls while I’m on the call. Keep ‘em at bay at any cost… Advisor Ranmeld? This is Captain Heimskar speaking. There’s a phenomenon taking place outside, I believe that King Battlehammer will be very interested in hearing of it...”
---
On the other side of the battlefield the troll captain caught on too. He was an ogre-like giant twice the size of his subordinates and wearing protective gear patched together from pieces of dwarven armor as both protection and as a fear-inspiring trophy to display how many dwarves he had slain before. “Big boss Zul’Jin want know of big light-tower! Where Grug have speaksie-boxy?!” he yelled out as he began patting himself down. A much smaller troll wearing a bright red-colored hat approached him.
“Boss! You leave Communicator with Mudfoot, so it not get broken under armor!” he said as he produced a scratched-up Communicator and held it out.
Captain Grug took it out of the troll’s hand. “Grug know dat. Mudfoot is a bit stooped for think Grug not know”, he grumbled. Then he brought the speaksie-boxy to his ear. “Grug now talk with big boss. Mudfoot need keep eyes on dwarfsies if dey try to stick trollsies with stabbies. If dwarfsies take out stabbie chuckers den Mudfoot make trollsies run in!”
“If dwarves try shoot us with bows, Mudfoot order attack?”
“Yeah, is what Grug said. Mudfoot have to use earsies!” He cackled before starting to speak into his speaksie-boxy, all the while keeping his eyes on the shining pillar of light. “Dis is Captain Grug, who dis? General Kal’Jin? Grug have big stuffsies to tell! Big boss want to hear dis!”
---
Back at the plateau, Amaterasu knelt at the bottom of the crater of snow, helplessly letting the Omnilium stream out of her so it could rise into the sky. The floodgates were wide open, she could not close them until everything was out.
But that was not enough. Omnilium in its raw form was without purpose, without meaning, and it was not stable enough to exist in the Omniverse in its neither-matter-nor-energy form. It demanded to be used, to be given purpose. But no Prime could have coherently thought of dozens, of hundreds of things to summon into existence, all at the same time, not even a kami. And so the Omnilium grasped what figments of thought crossed her mind. Her dreams and hopes, her wishes and desires, her recent memories, still fresh at the surface of her mind, many things were taken and molded into existence. Not everything lasted however: under the Omnilium Storm the weaker ideas and wishes were quickly reabsorbed before they could truly be embodied into existence. It was a natural selection process that spectacularly displayed the ever-present struggle inside every person’s mind: what do they need and want, and how much do they need or want it? In Amaterasu’s case the strong ideas associated with her greater wishes and recent memories remained: her alliance with Amber and the wish to found a safe haven in the Frozen Fields, her desire for power to defeat evil and protect her friends, and many others. Figments of imagination came into being, and due to the exorbitant amount of Omnilium that needed to be formed the results were astounding. Of course, she would not know that until much later.
Minutes turned to hours and the Omnilium Storm raged on above her, but Amaterasu could feel that it was expending its energy as more of the Omnilium was cast into solid form. Her vision was obscured by blinding light in all colors of the rainbow that burnt even through her closed eyelids, and all she could hear were the sounds of rushing air as it was catapulted up by the rising raw Omnilium and more air flooded in to take the empty space.
Finally the flood had diminished to a trickle that she could contain once again, but as she did so the drain of what she had just done hit her. She collapsed on the floor, exhausted to no end and incapable of grasping clear thoughts for a while.
… the floor?
Sluggishly she felt her energy come back. She felt a breeze, but she did not feel cold. After a bit of focusing she noticed that she was not feeling the air on her skin, but on her fur. An oddly familiar feeling… she tried to stretch her fingers and found that she had none - all there was were paws. Finally she took in a deep breath and her world filled with colors and imagery, painting a picture in her head clearer than any human nose could.
There was no doubt about it: she had turned into a wolf.
As the energy returned to her limbs she opened her eyes to confirm what she had smelled: around her was a room of wood and stone of incredible splendor. She saw a study desk with a shelf full of scrolls and parchments, on an exotic rug. A luxurious bed, ready for its occupant to sleep in. Ornate paintings and nipponese writings on scrolls lined the the walls. All things that she remembered from her old home in Tamagahara, from the palace of the sun that she had inhabited in her days as a kami before descending to the world as a white wolf.
She turned her eyes up and understood where the cold breeze was coming from: the ceiling and the floors above it had a clean circular hole carved out, several meters wide, through which the evening sky could be seen. That was no doubt the result of the Omnilium Storm… even so, an amused smile crossed her maw. She would repair that later, though. Now that she felt the energy return to her limbs, she needed to leave this place and find her friends!
In her current form she found herself unable to open doors, so she crashed through one of the windows, shattering the glass panes in the process and falling several stories before landing on solid ground. Even in her worried state she could not help but to stop a moment and stare: she was standing in a formal nipponese garden in the midst of a square building, that looked better than even the most masterful gardener could accomplish. The building surrounding her was just as impressive: a palace fit for an Emperor. Had she thought all this up? She found a large pair of conveniently open doors and rushed out into the Frozen Fields.
On the plateau a lot of snow remained, even through the Omnilium Storm. There was no sign of the Nimbus, of their luggage and most importantly of their friends. She hadn’t accidentally…? No, she couldn’t have! They had to be alive! Amaterasu breathed in, then raised her head to the sky and let out a loud howl to make herself heard across the plateau. Then when nobody responded she howled once more, and finally a third time.
It was then that her howl got a response… in the form of another howl. She promptly rushed in the direction that it came from and saw the outline of another wolf, this one with brown-grayish fur, paint itself against the snow. It was Oki, and with him he was dragging someone. Amaterasu rushed to meet him as fast as she could.
“Oki! Are you okay?!” she asked with urgence as they came within talking distance. Now she could see that he was carrying Urist the dwarf on his back, and was dragging Fiara along by her coat, using his teeth. There was a trail in the snow where they had come from, at the other end of which she could see a deep hole in the snow. Had the three of them burrowed when the Omnilium Storm had happened?
“Yes”, growled the Oina warrior. “Slightly… hard hearing for a while… thunder sound got me hard. Fiara… too close, clothes got torn up. Had to wrap her… into mine, and turned… to wolf, so I would not… freeze to death. What… happened?”
“Oh, Oki, it’ll take a while to explain, but we have to care for you three first. Come, let’s go inside.” She passed her body under Fiara and lifted her onto her back that way, then stepped to Oki’s side. “What did you guys see?”
“You… exploded into bright light, knocked us all back… into the snow. Then there was… this massive pillar of light, it reached up into the sky. Could be seen far and wide, like a beacon. And slowly all these things… came into existence.” He nodded his head at the palace. “That… being the most notable. It went on for hours… and stopped half an hour ago.”
“I see… for hours, huh. That light must no doubt have been noticed then…” As they reached the doors, Oki returned to his human form and opened them to let Amaterasu in. It took them a little searching but they found a room with beds to lay Fiara and Urist in.
“They’re a bit cooled, but they’ll make it. Urist is tough as nails, and Fiara isn’t made of paper either, but I think a little warm sake could do them good.”
“I’ll summon some. I’ll figure out how to change out of this form later”, said Amaterasu.
“Heh… I can understand you in this form, I suppose that you’re not the same that you were when we first met in Nippon, then!”
“I’m really not. But, while I summon I guess it’s my turn to explain myself?”
“It is. I’m curious to hear what has happened… oh, and before I forget. There is a very different air about you. And that strange glow is gone.”
“Yes, that’ll make sense once I tell my part of the story. You see, I had so much Omnilium hoarded in my body that I suppose I suffered from an overload…”
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undoge: Credit & Hugs to Ruby for the sign, and to Guu for the smileys! undoge:Hide your chicken nuggers, hide your heads, the Sundoge is coming and she'll hat everyone!
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