Chapter 20-485: Seeing Them Off (1/2)
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Final Chapter of the Actual Story. Epilogues to follow (+13 chapters).
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“Commander, Angelos, Windgraf. It is time to remove your Hats.”
The three otherworldly combatants slowly reached up and removed the magical Hats that had allowed them to grow into something great and proud, cleverly sidestepping the suppressing magic that the Shroud had set upon them. A fisherman’s hat and a baseball hat for the Angels, and a stern dark blue bowler for the genie were held in their hands as the three of them stood there, watching the Heavens-Up Display in the sky like everyone else, and the streams of little red, orange, and yellow X’s that were tapering off from all directions.
The yellows were sighted down and extinguished by the waiting Archers with mechanical precision, never reaching the Walls they might actually pass through successfully, and joined the burning heaps of their predecessors on the field beyond the Walls.
None of the Possessed Machines had made it here, hunted down by the forces outside who had been eradicating the remaining Constructs ferociously for these past hours. Some of them were still visible, fighting in the distance
Fifty thousand undead seemed to pass in no time at all. Thirty. Twenty. Fifteen. Ten thousand, the last desperate dregs of the Shroud barely existing above, the Deadzone completely collapsing as a long, rattling sigh seemed to carry on the wind, and the last groups of undead came streaming in helplessly to their doom.
The Archers up in the air stopped firing as the HUD counted off the last hundred undead, many of them damaged and moving slowly as they labored toward the Walls that would end them forever, and then Feed them to the Land.
I raised my hand, and swirling clouds, all white and shining with color, gathered above in direct defiance of the very last gasp of the Shroud being drawn away. Bells and horns Sang out from a great and lofty distance, and a Light from someplace far, far away, and next door in our hearts, began to build.
There was a burble and a splash as the last damaged skeleton, some variety of weasel-like anthro, marched into a Wall of Holy Waterfire and died, dissolved and reduced to nothingness.
There was no hesitation as I clenched my fist.
Bolts of Radiant Light straight from Heaven powered right down on top of the Shroudlord, and it could only take the hit, not even screaming as its spirit finally faced the end of the unlife it had never wanted.
An ending for a Hero, not a villain.
Light brighter than the atomics going off flooded over everyone, blinding everyone and harming no one despite all that. Holy light speared deep into the hearts and minds of everyone there, and mortal souls shook as they felt an Existence, far too powerful to define, that seemed to fully wake up at that moment and beheld them all at the same time.
It flowed through them, relieving the pain, the mental trauma, the sheer anguish and weight of everything that had been done, and let them know that it was all right, they were understood, and Something very, very far beyond them all knew and appreciated their efforts and sacrifices.
If there was puzzlement over what exactly had gone on, nobody there could actually feel it.
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“Kneel, and Pray.”
Briggs’ Voice reverberated through every Mark, Allegiance, and member of the Alliance. Around the world, mortal men and women sank to one knee, as it was time.
A stream of Light had coursed across the sky, and any lingering darkness was gone. A weight on the soul endured so long nobody had known it was there was gone, and spontaneous tears broke out on a billion eyes.
In the hearts of those who had labored for this moment, Glory rose, and they knew, they KNEW, that the Land and the Gods were watching them at this moment.
“Elder, your Hat,” Helix said with a smile to the mystified Windgraf, who was standing there and looking at the Armor he was garbed in. The big djinni noble looked at the Stormbound with the Bloodline of his own people reverberating in him.
The genie accepted the battered Bowler sized for him, and slowly fit it on, even as Sir Pellier handed the gleaming figure of a great deva a simple mortal Cap at the same time.
The two non-mortals glanced at one another in puzzlement, at the mortals bent down and kneeling to face the east all around, and slowly put their Hats back on.
They blinked once, stiffening as the memories stolen completely from them a moment ago returned, and then, like Sorcerer and Paladin, bent down and knelt to welcome the return of the Sun of Suns, as a Beacon of Light speared for the Heavens from the world's first True Pyramid, and announced that here, here the Divine were present, and They were watching once more...
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The experience wasn’t pleasant, but somehow subtle in its own way. A last burst of magic left behind, wiping away the memory of what had happened from non-mortals, seizing the last chains of hidden Fiends ensconced across the world and waiting for them, and dragging them with it.
At the same time, misdirected by the Souls of the Shroud, those self-same threads of magic grabbed all those with Morituri Pacts and yanked us along together with it.
The level of sub-dimensions we were drawn along indicated some very, very hefty magic, the same effect that allowed the Shroud to remain ‘one’ across multiple realities, much like a Pantheonic Domain, mirroring the effect.
But time didn’t matter so much there, reality warping about as it was, and so in due course, the wailing and protesting souls thick about me, us, we were spit out back into reality... somewhere else.
I blew Wrath and vivus through me, and instantly vomited up a whole lot of stuff I didn’t want inside me from the transit.
Royalty - AMV -「Anime MV」 - YouTube
Around me were hundreds of men and women of multiple species, doing the same thing, including almost all of the Penitent; those who’d chosen to fight, instead of just work and wait. Pacts glowed under their skin, and black shit dribbled out of every part of them and was set on unwhite fire.
As I got up, I was surprised to see the great emerald-skinned, four-winged figure of Commander Haru’Ara straighten up with me as well, his fisherman’s Hat still grasped in his hand.
His pearly eyes glanced at me, and he smiled slightly. “My memories are retained, Lady Traveler.” He placed the very out-of-place Hat upon his shiny, perfect head, and his Aura suddenly deepened with ominous power.
It was Good to have him here. Planetars were fighting types, and he had obviously taken up the death of the Shroud as a Great Holy Cause.
A crackle of threatening power resounded above us, and we both looked up at the hate lightning sizzling in the Shroudcloud above at our presence.
That, and the fully intact Death Gate we were almost standing under.
I hummed, and adjusted the Notes and Tones as the Sublime Chord reached out and tweaked the wilted, listless ley lines around me.
The Rules were different here. As expected, among other things, I wouldn’t be able to harvest ki with spells... but that was fine. I had Perpetual Spell now, and could use that while I recharged by shooting or bashing things, as needed.
Clavus had transformed under the impact of the Light from Heaven and the Shroudlord lighting off, no longer looking quite like a Storm Jotun’s thighbone at all, but a balanced and ready crystalline Battlestaff set to crush skulls with the bright red Dragon’s Pearl burning and popping with fire and electricity atop its seat of noquar.
Warlocks rose to their feet all around me. Firearms were now Autobows, but Swords, Spears, and Axes hadn’t changed at all.
I looked around at the blasted landscape, the putrid soil that was burning with vivus beneath our feet as the Warlocks automatically vented the Wrath of many Pacts into the landscape... and their Shroudpacts burned against it even brighter, instantly blowing out and turning the area beneath us pure white.
Above, the Shroudcloud crackled in more agitation, sensing Anathema.
I gestured, and from my Masspack rose one and twelve glittering diamonds, all of them glowing with a fell light, be it crimson or purple.
“Tats,” I said crisply, my own demon’s wings scribed with Celestial butterfly Runes spreading and lifting me into the air, while my horns manifested, also shimmering with Runework connected to my Diadem of Twinned Brilliance.
The men and women selected ahead of time raised up their shirts, and Binding Seals shimmered on skins dark, pale, and in between.
As the Planetar watched with interest, the diamonds flew out, and shattered against those Seals. Female forms were momentarily visible before they were sucked into the Seals, out of the reach of the Shroud. Binding Magic shimmered, and the eyes of the Warlocks glowed with fires of Hell and the Pits.
“You know what to do.”
Pacts shimmered inside as new energies flowed through the mortal hosts. The ones who’d been chosen were the oldest of the Warlocks, some of them over a hundred years old, Powered and Forsaken alike, and their bodies began to shift and change, clothing adjusting with them as they were transformed.
Commander Haru’Ara arched one eye as suddenly over a hundred erinyes and succubi spread Wings emblazoned with at least two Pacts each, feathers and hide alike burning with them.
“Ah. That was why they were securing all of those,” he murmured thoughtfully, sensing no Evil at work here, incredibly enough.
“And we’ll do the same again,” I assured the planetar, and glanced aside at the genie cage hanging from my hair, as it had for so long.
Bey Garar’Azzar came forth in an eruption of fire and smoke.
“What is going on? Why am I not free of this cursed Shroud?” the efreeti exclaimed in frantic dismay, looking around himself. His succubi lover Ilzna was standing there, too, her hands on his arm, staring up at the Shroud in equal consternation.
He recalled who he was speaking to after meeting my eyes for a cool second, and hurriedly bent one knee to me. “Lady Traveler, why did the Wish not work?” he asked urgently.
“Bey Garar’Azzar, I have a Wish to ask of you,” I answered calmly. He still had one left for the day. “I Wish to have a book listing all the Wishes I have made with the power of Bey Garar’Azzar, in chronological order.”
“Granted!” he said quickly, waving his hand.
The magic swirled, and a weighty tome gathered in my hands, bound in obsidian, with sheets of pounded gold foil. I opened it up to the very first page, and looked at the Wishes written there, three to the page. “Ah.”
His face fell at the word. I turned the book around and showed it to him, his succubus consort dancing up next to him to look as well. “The Shroud has twisted the intent of the Wish. It was meant to work when the Shroud on Terra was broken. Instead, it realigned it to the Shroud everywhere.”
He grimaced with the knowledge that he had been outfoxed entirely, and by a stupid spell at that, on his own granted Wish!
“I can make another Wish for you.” I reached out and touched his forehead. “I have been using my powers to duplicate your ability to grant Wishes for some time now.” He gaped at me in shock, glanced at the planetar in time to see him nod in confirmation, and swallowed. “But, Bey Garaf’Azzar, do you want me to?”
He swallowed as he looked into my eyes from where he was kneeling, feeling, as always, the power radiating off me, a Caster Level that could make the mightiest of genie caliphs bend a knee, let alone him. “What do you mean, Lady Traveler?” he asked softly.
“Have you had enough?” I asked him calmly. “Enough of debauchery, of looking on from the sidelines, as your peers and rivals rise to power, and you do not? Of playing the noble coward, instead of standing forth and doing battle as you should? Of becoming something, instead of just staying another fop of an efreet from the noble house of Azzar?”
He licked his lips nervously, looking around at the ranks of Warlocks, mortal and semi-mortal now, all watching him. All sworn to a Cause that might well take eternity to accomplish. “What, what are you asking of me, Lady Traveler?” he asked nervously.