Chapter 20-497: Epilogue IX: The City of Brass (1/2)
Shroudbreak +50 years...
Even for the City of Brass, watching a titan who looked like that approach was not something that was seen every day.
One of the greatest metropolises of all the planes, the famous capital city of the Empire of the Efreet sprawled across an area greater than many mortal worlds. It was filled with grandiose architecture that suited the egos of the genies who lived there, areas the size of nations set aside just for visitors, trade, or as nature preserves for the whims of the efreet rulers, and it beat with the heart of elemental fire: ambition, power, and the drive for more of both!
Outsiders were not allowed to fly freely within the city, so the great draconic wings spread wide and the massive figure, the average efreet barely reaching her knees, alighted as lightly as a feather... and nevertheless the area for a great distance around trembled as she did so.
There were many conveyances lined up waiting to pass the great obsidian walls etched with the flaming Runes and tributes to the glory of the efreet. Ready statues even taller than the titan stared down impassively as she strode past the floating vehicles, great beasts of burden, lumbering giants loaded down with goods, rows of hapless slaves of countless species, and other goods and trade materials inbound for the insatiable appetite of the City of Brass.
Nobody dared to call out to her to stop, the world seeming to shake with every step she took, passing by thousand-foot great airships and castle-bearing dinosaurs nearly the size of kaiju with complete disregard for the inhabitants of either.
Eternals, demigods, Jotuns, otherworldly merchant lords, and princes powerful enough to deal with efreeti nobles opened their mouths to call out in irritation, and then the air shuddered with her next step, and they all shut up.
If they had keen eyes, and most of them did, they could see the statues up top wavering with her steps.
The efreet on duty could not help but be impressed by her striding past the queue, something that only avatars of the Divine might do and expect to pass freely. A titan was powerful, yes, but this one bore no marks of a Divine Herald or something similar, it was just she was so, so, so overwhelming...
Everyone gawked up at her face without eyes, only a painted Mask, while six other eyes glowed across her forehead like jewels to supplement the ornate tiara that wound about her horns and frill, blazing with fire and lightning, spotlight and fireworks for her beauty.
The Commander of the Gate of the Smelted, a favored of the Sultan of the Efreet, his position one of great importance in the City of the Efreet, came out to stare at her with everyone else as she approached.
That sort of magnificence and ominous power was something a noble efreet might throw away a lifetime of striving to possess for themselves...
Glossy black skin, silken-white hair like a fine cape, draconic wings gleaming with Celestial Runes, nine stinger-tipped tails moving with eye-catching sensuality, eyes looking in all directions at once, and a figure like that...
The Commander of the Gate swallowed with every other male and female around as she tilted her head and looked down at him and his elite guards staring up at her.
“We come on behalf of The Shrouded Lady.” Many of those listening almost swooned to hear her voice, sensual and powerful and commanding and so many other things, on so many levels. “We have a delivery for the House of Azzar.”
Instantly, the pressure began to build on the Commander, like a mountain was starting to fall in his direction, and he was abruptly and totally sure that whether he granted permission or not, she was going to stride right past him on her duty, and if he tried to stop her, she might just trample the gates down.
He hadn’t heard of her mistress, but Creation was vast. Who knew what power was birthed in some other plane, dimension, or sphere? They were powerful enough to command this titan here, someone powerful enough that the Sultan Himself would covet her!
The Commander stepped aside helplessly. “Of course!” he bowed diplomatically, unable to stop himself from such deference, the titan’s Aura a tower of strength that was making his heart skip to feel it. “If I could but get the lady’s name, and the entry fee...”
She twitched a finger, and an ingot of gold massing half a ton plummeted to the ground out of nowhere, crunching into the stones heavily. “We are Legion, and We know the way.”
The Commander swallowed as she strode past, every step shaking earth and sky, yet all grace and swaying attractiveness that made his burning throat dry with desire as she passed by, and her tails played hypnotically, caressing the back of his burning eyeballs.
Completely ignoring the prohibitions against such things, her massive wings spread wide, and butterfly Runes of stunning beauty lit up with the power of Heaven and the Elements. She took to wing, in the direction of the holdings of the Azzar.
She was not supposed to be able to DO that, and yet she had. The Commander swallowed again, but like the others, did not look away until the smoke and fogs of interplaying residence areas removed her from view, and it felt like a silken grip on his thoughts and mind was slowly released.
He gestured for the gold to be taken away, and several of his soldiers came together to lift the bar of glittering, pure metal, paid so dismissively that it was plain it was nothing to them, yet it represented a fine, fat bribe that would pay for many pleasures on his behalf.
He knew he would be visiting the pleasure palaces and demanding ebon-skinned, white-haired beauties soon, his thoughts dancing with dreams and desires...
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The Azzar were naturally alerted that a most singular titan was coming, but were still astonished at the speed at which she arrived, taking little more than an hour to traverse more than a thousand miles before the ornate saray gates of atargold and eshbronze that bore the burning pentagram crest of the Azzar, one of the many noble families of the efreet.
“We have come to the House of Azzar from The Shrouded Lady, with a delivery for Bey Garar’Azzar!” her Voice boomed out, the air and stones vibrating for miles around with the power of it.