06-17-2015, 11:24 AM
Spilling endlessly over the cold rocks were tides of blood. Sanctified life force shed from the one True God. This endless hells cape, whose sky was filled with myriad broken worlds, was all that remained of the division betwixt heaven and hell. The sullied and haggard feathers of a million angel wings littered the landscape, clinging to the corpulent bodies of their demonic opposers. On the horizon, the Morningstar lay shattered, a testament to the gravity of the situation. Great beasts picked their way through the festering offal, siphoning whatever meat they could find into their great, otherworldly gullets. Carrion spirits, taking the shape of immense birds, circled the sky, where a permanently eclipsed sun sat brooding. The moon that obstructed its light was unremarkable, save for the three eyes that bedecked its surface. Two eyes even, one below the right. The mark of Nealaphh.
The god-mind stalked this landscape, pleased with the results of the most recent conquest. The Praetors be damned, nothing stood in the way of Entropy. The ever clashing forces of heaven and hell were more than obsolete in this modern age, dying their own pathetic deaths as one by one, more people closed their minds and hearts away from the insufferable dogma that fueled the eternal conflict. Nealaphh had merely served to put them out of their misery. With him walked Maleficus, The Dragon, a purple humanoid with flowing red hair from the waste up, and nought but wings and carnage below the waste line. The Dragon was pleased.
"Long have I envisioned this day, Nealaphh. You have served me and Pandora admirably in this endeavor." Maleficus said, his mere words setting the ground beneath them on fire. Nealaphh looked across the distant horizon at the broken morning star, which shone down on a giant, hunched figure, blackened in silhouette, but unmistakable all the same. He squinted, staring at the waterfalls of deific blood which leaked endlessly on to the now sullied landscape. In one masterful stroke, Nealaphh's Master and Maleficus had entwined the fabrics of Heaven and Hell, turning both planes into a landscape of glimmering mountains and black ash deserts filled with hellfire. The purest white clouds floated dreamlike overhead, and through them swam giant insectoid vermin, tainted with the touch of Lucifer. What role had Nealaphh played in all of this?
He had killed them.
Every.
Last.
One.
The slain angels and demons littered around their feet had not killed each other, oh no. That war had been fought many times and had never ended. Once Heaven and Hell had been united, the collected servile beings were so stunned that they didn't even have time to think of harming one another. But the culprit behind all of this was clear. It had happened quickly, as Nealaphh had descended from the Marked Moon, clad only in his brown robe and wielding the Enigma Blade, his psychic weapon that would take any form he desired. This day, it was an axe, half again as long as the Enigma himself. The musical voices of heaven and the bestial roars of hell all arrayed against him, Nealaphh waded fearlessly into the midst of these unending hordes.
They set upon him with fury, both righteous and indignant. As Nealaphh cut down all who came at him, there was an odd, tittering laugh in the air, accompanied by the asynchronous piping of dissonant flutes. With great swipes of the oversized axe, Nealaphh fought his way through the endless hordes, leaving a path of divine and profane carnage in his wake. Dust rose and fell, as both on the air and land, the god-mind dispatched the pitiful aberrations of religious faith. But these figments were not his true targets, oh no. No, Nealaphh knew what the real goal here was. He dared the Utmost High to show himself, to do something about this madness that was being wrought. As usual, He remained silent, but the Fallen One...the Fallen One answered.
Killing the Morning Star was trivial really. For all the gravitas given to him, he was still simply a fallen angel, and many, many angels had already fallen this day. The immensity of the dual could not be described in appropriate terms, but once The Serpent's head fell to the dirt, that was when He decided to show his face. The entire plane rumbled, and the stars above aligned themselves into new patterns which heralded His coming. The deity simply appeared, without fanfare, and proceeded the battle with Nealaphh. Obviously, the god-mind was no match for the god, but Nealaphh was mighty enough to give Maleficus enough time to deliver the mortal blow. And what was this mortal blow, one might wonder? What does it take to kill a god?
Obscurity.
While the Utmost High was in combat with Nealaphh, Maleficus procedurally erased his existence within the Zeitgeist. No mortal mind would again conceive of His existence, and this, not the axe blows that were so easily deflected, was what brought Him to His knees. Everyone, all the demons and angels and beasts and noble steeds froze and watched as the Great One sank to the ground. Great wounds opened on His body, and thus, the ocean of blood spilled forth. Now, with nothing to fuel their divine sparks, the angels and demons went limp, dead on the spot, and fell to the now bloodied sands underfoot. All of this, this entire grisly, gruesome scene, happened within the span of fifteen minutes...
Nealaphh looked back and Maleficus, a fake expression of humility held within the gleaming yellow pits he held as eyes.
"Yes...I know." Nealaphh said, slowly coming to a halt. Maleficus looked back at the god-mind in query, a single dark eyebrow raised.
"Something disturbs you, Enigma?" The Dragon asked, folding his four arms over his bare chest. Nealaphh tossed the Enigma Blade to the moistened dirt. As it hit the ground with a thud, Nealaphh turned his back on Maleficus, and slowly began to walk away.
"Return here at once, Enigma!" Maleficus shouted. But Nealaphh did not heed the enraged summons. Something far darker, far more primordial was beckoning him...
...beckoning him home.
"I no longer enthrall myself to you, Dragon." Nealaphh called over his shoulder, "I return now to my rightful Master."
"I AM your rightful master, you lost fool!" Maleficus roared. With speed untold, The Dragon surged forward and gripped Nealaphh by the back of his neck. But Maleficus suddenly realized that all he held was an empty brown robe. The Enigma was nowhere to be seen.
"No, Maleficus. No you are not." Nealaphh said in a droll tone, akin to an impatient parent talking to a child. Maleficus whipped around, trying to see where the Enigma's spirit might be hovering. The Dragon let loose a terrible roar, which resurrected legions of angelic and demonic corpses, for it was so terrible that it woke even the soulless from their death.
"I return to the service of the Crawling Chaos, whom I have always served. One day, you will too." Nealaphh said solemnly, his voice nothing but a chiming upon the wind.
"Laughable. I can crush the Multiverse on a whim, Enigma. Your precious 'Master' included." Maleficus scoffed, rising high into the blended skies. To prove his point, he clapped his hands together, and everything became nothing. The Dragon panted within the Ultimate Void. Nothing was mightier than he, the force of Destruction. Creation persisted because he permitted it. This was truth.
...from his perspective.
Again, Nealaphh's voice came to Maleficus.
"...are you so sure that you remove the Multiverse? Or do you simply remove yourself? That's your folly, Dragon. Godhood is not a measure of power. It is not a measure of omnipotence, omniscience, or omnipresence. Godhood is awareness. And I'm afraid..." Nealaphh said, trailing off. Maleficus tilted his head.
"Afraid of what, figment?" he cried, spreading his arms out. He caught his breath as a long, shimmering blade burst through his chest. Behind him, Nealaphh stood, Enigma Blade in hand, a sorry expression on his face.
"I'm afraid, you're unaware." he said. Maleficus pulled himself free of the psychic weapon and rotated to face Nealaphh, but the Enigma was already gone.
"Sleep, Maleficus. Rest easy in your Void, for your purpose has been fulfilled. The Master will call on you in time." Nealaphh said softly, as if soothing a baby to sleep.
The Dragon raged and belched fire, he thrashed and tried to summon the Multiverse back into existence just so he could crush something. But nothing came, and he drifted deeper into the void...
The god-mind stalked this landscape, pleased with the results of the most recent conquest. The Praetors be damned, nothing stood in the way of Entropy. The ever clashing forces of heaven and hell were more than obsolete in this modern age, dying their own pathetic deaths as one by one, more people closed their minds and hearts away from the insufferable dogma that fueled the eternal conflict. Nealaphh had merely served to put them out of their misery. With him walked Maleficus, The Dragon, a purple humanoid with flowing red hair from the waste up, and nought but wings and carnage below the waste line. The Dragon was pleased.
"Long have I envisioned this day, Nealaphh. You have served me and Pandora admirably in this endeavor." Maleficus said, his mere words setting the ground beneath them on fire. Nealaphh looked across the distant horizon at the broken morning star, which shone down on a giant, hunched figure, blackened in silhouette, but unmistakable all the same. He squinted, staring at the waterfalls of deific blood which leaked endlessly on to the now sullied landscape. In one masterful stroke, Nealaphh's Master and Maleficus had entwined the fabrics of Heaven and Hell, turning both planes into a landscape of glimmering mountains and black ash deserts filled with hellfire. The purest white clouds floated dreamlike overhead, and through them swam giant insectoid vermin, tainted with the touch of Lucifer. What role had Nealaphh played in all of this?
He had killed them.
Every.
Last.
One.
The slain angels and demons littered around their feet had not killed each other, oh no. That war had been fought many times and had never ended. Once Heaven and Hell had been united, the collected servile beings were so stunned that they didn't even have time to think of harming one another. But the culprit behind all of this was clear. It had happened quickly, as Nealaphh had descended from the Marked Moon, clad only in his brown robe and wielding the Enigma Blade, his psychic weapon that would take any form he desired. This day, it was an axe, half again as long as the Enigma himself. The musical voices of heaven and the bestial roars of hell all arrayed against him, Nealaphh waded fearlessly into the midst of these unending hordes.
They set upon him with fury, both righteous and indignant. As Nealaphh cut down all who came at him, there was an odd, tittering laugh in the air, accompanied by the asynchronous piping of dissonant flutes. With great swipes of the oversized axe, Nealaphh fought his way through the endless hordes, leaving a path of divine and profane carnage in his wake. Dust rose and fell, as both on the air and land, the god-mind dispatched the pitiful aberrations of religious faith. But these figments were not his true targets, oh no. No, Nealaphh knew what the real goal here was. He dared the Utmost High to show himself, to do something about this madness that was being wrought. As usual, He remained silent, but the Fallen One...the Fallen One answered.
Killing the Morning Star was trivial really. For all the gravitas given to him, he was still simply a fallen angel, and many, many angels had already fallen this day. The immensity of the dual could not be described in appropriate terms, but once The Serpent's head fell to the dirt, that was when He decided to show his face. The entire plane rumbled, and the stars above aligned themselves into new patterns which heralded His coming. The deity simply appeared, without fanfare, and proceeded the battle with Nealaphh. Obviously, the god-mind was no match for the god, but Nealaphh was mighty enough to give Maleficus enough time to deliver the mortal blow. And what was this mortal blow, one might wonder? What does it take to kill a god?
Obscurity.
While the Utmost High was in combat with Nealaphh, Maleficus procedurally erased his existence within the Zeitgeist. No mortal mind would again conceive of His existence, and this, not the axe blows that were so easily deflected, was what brought Him to His knees. Everyone, all the demons and angels and beasts and noble steeds froze and watched as the Great One sank to the ground. Great wounds opened on His body, and thus, the ocean of blood spilled forth. Now, with nothing to fuel their divine sparks, the angels and demons went limp, dead on the spot, and fell to the now bloodied sands underfoot. All of this, this entire grisly, gruesome scene, happened within the span of fifteen minutes...
Nealaphh looked back and Maleficus, a fake expression of humility held within the gleaming yellow pits he held as eyes.
"Yes...I know." Nealaphh said, slowly coming to a halt. Maleficus looked back at the god-mind in query, a single dark eyebrow raised.
"Something disturbs you, Enigma?" The Dragon asked, folding his four arms over his bare chest. Nealaphh tossed the Enigma Blade to the moistened dirt. As it hit the ground with a thud, Nealaphh turned his back on Maleficus, and slowly began to walk away.
"Return here at once, Enigma!" Maleficus shouted. But Nealaphh did not heed the enraged summons. Something far darker, far more primordial was beckoning him...
...beckoning him home.
"I no longer enthrall myself to you, Dragon." Nealaphh called over his shoulder, "I return now to my rightful Master."
"I AM your rightful master, you lost fool!" Maleficus roared. With speed untold, The Dragon surged forward and gripped Nealaphh by the back of his neck. But Maleficus suddenly realized that all he held was an empty brown robe. The Enigma was nowhere to be seen.
"No, Maleficus. No you are not." Nealaphh said in a droll tone, akin to an impatient parent talking to a child. Maleficus whipped around, trying to see where the Enigma's spirit might be hovering. The Dragon let loose a terrible roar, which resurrected legions of angelic and demonic corpses, for it was so terrible that it woke even the soulless from their death.
"I return to the service of the Crawling Chaos, whom I have always served. One day, you will too." Nealaphh said solemnly, his voice nothing but a chiming upon the wind.
"Laughable. I can crush the Multiverse on a whim, Enigma. Your precious 'Master' included." Maleficus scoffed, rising high into the blended skies. To prove his point, he clapped his hands together, and everything became nothing. The Dragon panted within the Ultimate Void. Nothing was mightier than he, the force of Destruction. Creation persisted because he permitted it. This was truth.
...from his perspective.
Again, Nealaphh's voice came to Maleficus.
"...are you so sure that you remove the Multiverse? Or do you simply remove yourself? That's your folly, Dragon. Godhood is not a measure of power. It is not a measure of omnipotence, omniscience, or omnipresence. Godhood is awareness. And I'm afraid..." Nealaphh said, trailing off. Maleficus tilted his head.
"Afraid of what, figment?" he cried, spreading his arms out. He caught his breath as a long, shimmering blade burst through his chest. Behind him, Nealaphh stood, Enigma Blade in hand, a sorry expression on his face.
"I'm afraid, you're unaware." he said. Maleficus pulled himself free of the psychic weapon and rotated to face Nealaphh, but the Enigma was already gone.
"Sleep, Maleficus. Rest easy in your Void, for your purpose has been fulfilled. The Master will call on you in time." Nealaphh said softly, as if soothing a baby to sleep.
The Dragon raged and belched fire, he thrashed and tried to summon the Multiverse back into existence just so he could crush something. But nothing came, and he drifted deeper into the void...
And, we dream of home I dream of life out of here Their dreams are small My dreams don't know fear I got my heart full of hope I will change everything No matter what I'm told How impossible it seems We did it before And we'll do it again We're indestructible Even when we're tired And we've been here before Just you and I
Don't try to rescue me I don't need to be rescued
Don't try to rescue me I don't need to be rescued