Kincaid shook his head, “No, when I was mortal I saw firsthand in Tal Hanon the steps necessary to contain a nano-plague run amuck.” He absentmindedly scratched at the garish scar at his side. “We can provide clues, nudge the leadership of the glacial research station toward discovering the disease.”
Kincaid shrugged, “We use subtlety and then we place our faith in the mortals. I hope they are wise enough to realize what they see and smart enough to counteract it.”
Abel nodded in agreement, "I worry that our actions might prompt the mortals into launching a nuke attack if we panic them too much. But I agree with you Kincaid, we have to place our faith in the mortals.
Len you seem to have knowledge of this Dragon Sickness that is hidden even from the ascended. Please share anything we should know before we move ahead."
Abel was always tempted to simply cure a curse or disease when he saw it in place. But during the Border Wars he had been gravely wounded, and while in a weakened state used his ascended power in a way limited by their treaty.
The Accuser had used the moment to curse Abel’s Avatar form into a troubled sleep, trapping the ascended being in a living prison for far too long. The Accuser then went on to declare war on S’vana, and killed thousands of mortals on both sides.
It was this lesson that caused him to hold his hand from simply curing this alleged Dragon Sickness.
Len adjusted his blue hoodie, and said, "The Dragon Sickness are infectious cells of the End of Worlds upgraded by the nanites from the Dragon of Unity. Once infected a Mortal will begin to incorporate technological material without control of the integration.
Each item they touch and gets incorporated makes them less living and more machine. Once six items have been integrated, they become little more than a techno-ghoul seeking to spread the infection.
If at the moment the fifth technological device is incorporated, a limited cap is installed in the infected, the Dragon Sickness can be shut down. The victim will still have incorporated the first five tech devices, but they won’t ever go techno-ghoul.
However the negative side effects of the Dragon Sickness will persist for life, causing all other tech devices to go haywire on them. Only those first five incorporated devices will function properly."
“That doesn’t sound like a curse,” said Ceroj angrily, “That sounds like some sort of technomantic upgrade a bunch of demonic thrall Unity scientists developed to make living weapons.”
“In a way it is,” said Len, “However just as likely the devices incorporated will be flashlights, tools and other common items. Though a few of these upgraded techno-ghouls will be packing heat. Especially now that one has incorporated a set of EEF power armor, and spread the dragon sickness to its former pilot. But the Dragon Sickness is like any other demonic power, hidden from our sight. So anyone infected with the Dragon Sickness may be beyond our Ascended visions.”
(Week 10+)
Len rejoiced, “The Dragon Sickness is now contained on the Sanctuary Moon. Life as the mortals know it will be unchanged. Refuge will be once again safe.”
“Safe…safe??” asked Ceroj, “The Avatar of Warmonger has assembled an army that will march over the one free continent on Refuge. The technoplague may no longer be a threat, but safe is not a word for what the mortals will experience.”
Berototh the blue said, "My Ascended Allies. Len is right. The threat of the Dragon Sickness is behind us. The demon-nanites are contained and the Dragon of Unity’s final attack has been thwarted.
The four great Ancient Evils are contained within the Armenius Orbs on the Prison of Les’tas’tral.
The Warmonger is trapped within the body of a Quall Avatar and could be granted final death.
If we do not falter and do not fail, within weeks we will have saved this timeline permanently from the Warmonger."
In the rear of the assembly stood Lord Azrael the All-knowing, and he was quiet. The sort of quiet one had when one is holding their tongue.
The Bladed Sun could tell Azrael knew something about the upcoming battle. Something the Falosini Sovereign was purposely not sharing. Uriel and Kincaid could pick up on it as well…
(After the events of Running Gagg 2017)
Ceroj slammed down his fist so it echoed off the many walls of the temple.
"Ascended Beings, the balance is moving against us. With the mortals annihilating Warmonger and driving the Ancient Evils from this timeline, they have set in motion a catastrophic set of motions.
It will allow the servants of the Descended beings to strike directly at one of us. And possibly seal us all away."
Berototh said, "Maybe it is for the best. The border wars proved that using the mortals to fight the battles between the Ascended Beings and the Ancient Evils only benefits the Ancient Evils. In a scant three years, we went from no known operating Ancient Evils in this timeline to full Armies of Ancient Evils fighting for the spirits of every living thing.
Now the mortals have reset that. They have driven off the Ancient Evils. Maybe we should simply willingly step back from the mortal realms."
Len of the Ascended Legion interrupted, "The Unity is in turmoil. Their thrones, their cherubs, and their other demonic organisms have disappeared overnight. As a result entire sections of their society are fighting over what to do next. Some have gathered with the Builders to build a Unity that Kal’Shek once dreamed of. But others…factions serving the Unity Cyborg Hunters are rapidly searching for ways to expand on the powers they gained through studying the ancient evils…
The E-strain Manslayers of the Angels of Desolation have lost their demonic lords as well. Angel D herself has lost her mind, and wishes to see the universe burn.
The Kasanthians have lost their demonic farmers and evil growths now expand over countless planets. The Demonic may have been purged from this timeline, but Evil…evil will remain as long as people choose greed over empathy."
Azrael’s grave voice said, “Our only hope is to erect a Prison of Light. A place where the Ascended Being can willingly sequester themselves.”
The Quall Hivequeens roared in response, “Of course, you Falosini want us to leave our hives? What do you think they would do without us? It would be a new age of conquest!”
“Why would the Quall continue to steal others if their Queens could no longer impregnate more Quall?” asked the Bladed Sun.
“Ledasha Hivequeen has already unlocked the technology for Quall to breed without their Queens,” roared Ayx HiveQueen, a new addition to the HiveQueen Council, and even newer to the Ascended Beings, “And the Quall will not rest while the Neliff roam this reality.”
“The Neliff must be wiped out,” agreed Ceroj, “They have already conquered Refuge in months.”
Azrael corrected him, "We are all lucky it was Neliff the Radical who conquered Refuge. Had it been Neliff the Orthodox, Warmonger would have won this last battle.
I understand your concern about the Neliff, but we must allow Neliff the Radical to police his own. Especially if extinction is potentially in their future. They must be given a chance to redeem their species."
Ceroj sneered, “Why am I not surprised that the fallen one sides with the Neliff?”
Azrael rose up to his full height, extending his black wings so they filled the chamber, "For millennia I have allowed you to call me Azrael the Fallen. Equated me and my Uthvelor and Pelebor to be like the Ancient Evils. You unleashed the entire armies of the Falosini on my wounded warriors and made them hate themselves. Even driving some of them directly into Warmonger’s arms.
It ends now. You may call me Azrael the Fallen, but I AM Azrael the All-knowing, and I know the truth that lies in your heart Ceroj.
Your hatred against all the failed children of the falosini, comes from your own failure to protect our Father Lord Falos from the Aegelis so long ago. Your hatred has grown with the loss of your daughter to Ceroxis, and watching the Falosini Army become less and less against the Quall Hordes.
But do not let that hatred blind you now. Join together as true Ascended Beings. Let us choose what will align with the balance, rather than let it drive us apart."
The Quall HiveQueens as a whole refused, “We will not give up on our own Children.”
Only one HiveQueen, old and greyed, with cracked and broken horns stood when the remaining HiveQueens left with Queen Ayx. This old and greyed Queen had seen much in her time, "Lord Azrael, I remember the days of the Quall Progenitor Queen. I remember the first Falosini Quall War, and I remember the K’ias Wars. I remember the second Falosini-Quall War, and I remember when the Children of the Falosini claimed so many planets in this timeline.
I even remember when Dagros HiveLord brought us the Treaty with the Earthers of the Iron Republic, and our new conquest began. "
Azrael said, "Yes that conquest, that treaty with the Iron Republic. It has granted you so much…benefit?
The death of your Progenitor Queen at the Planet Killing Missiles created by the Iron Republic. The infighting between the Quall Hives ever since?
Perhaps the creation of Ceroxis and her Minions, or countless other types of technomantic monstrosities created from your Larval young without your species permission?
Or perhaps the Return of the Neliff?"
The old Quall HiveQueen stood without fear and said, "That is why I remain here, while so many of my fellow HiveQueens have left.
I am Xydoraq (zi-dor-ak), daughter of the first daughter of the Progenitor Queen. And I will help you construct this prison of light.
What is it you will need?"
Azrael looked at this ancient Quall Queen, knowing how millenia before unknown to her, they had stood in battle against each other. But that was the nature of life, one time enemies could become the greatest allies if one was open to it.
Azrael said, "It will require the gathering of the Bladed Sun weapons, and I have already reached out to the bearers so they might gather.
Second it will require a dimension to be sealed away. I already know of a place, the prison dimension of Les’tas’tral. It was once where Warmonger himself was sealed away, what an irony to repurpose it for this grand plan."
“And third?” asked Xydoraq.
“It will require the same device that ripped a hole in the transit point down on Refuge,” said Azrael, “It was built by the K’ias, used against the Nightmare Lords, and since lost to time. And like many of the weapons made during that age, it is hidden from the view of the Ascended Beings and the Ancient Evils.”
“So you need the Hivemind to track it down? Our collective memory?” said Xydoraq with some humor.
“I even know where the information is hidden, in a part of the hivemind known as the Temple of the Rogue HiveQueens,” said Lord Azrael.
At that moment Xydoraq lost all humor, “That place is forbidden to us.”
“Then dear Xydoraq, you will have to decide if that taboo is strong enough to prevent you from reaching it and finding this information,” said Lord Azrael already knowing the answer.
Azrael stood alone in the Assembly hall. Then a shadow passed by the doorway in a realm without shadow. The ancient falosini sovereign turned and was surprised to Ceroj the Red had returned alone.
“How goes your hunt for the parts to assemble your Prisons of Light?” sneered Ceroj.
Azrael replied, “Well enough, well enough. You have not been the same since the border wars. Your time enslaved to Xephon…it has left scars that all the Ascended can sense.”
“The only scars I have is knowing your machinations caused me to have to watch our great Lord Falos die again. To have to watch it and be unable to do anything. That left scars. My time tortured by the Ancient Evils just hardened my resolve.” said Ceroj with a deep seething rage.
“Hardened your resolve? Resolve to do what?” asked Azrael growing large and dark and foreboding yet the glowing stars of his eyes lit the room with a hard light.
Ceroj stood without fear in front of the twin beams of light, and replied, "To destroy the undead, to slay the Warmonger Cultists and their allies, and to finally wipe out the Quall N’drone once and for all.
The Ancient Evils are driven from this timeline. Therefore the Quall serve no purpose in the grand ecology of this timeline. They have none to cleanse with their birthing. They serve no purpose."
“So your purpose is to kill, to destroy and to eradicate?” asked Azrael nearly bemused.
“Only those who need to be cleansed from this timeline,” agreed Ceroj without any sense of irony.
“And that makes you different from the Warmonger how?” asked Azrael.
Ceroj drew his sword with a roar, “You dare. First you imply I am corrupted by Xephon. Now you say I am the one we just succeeded in annihilating from this timeline? Maybe you should travel to another timeline and remember what facing the Warmonger is like. I should drag you there myself!!!”
Azrael had now spread across the entire half of the room, but Ceroj did not waver. His zealous nature without any limit.
“And how would you do that?” asked Azrael, “You think I do not know you have been traveling on Refuge among the Falosini Armies. Leading them against potential allies as usual. I would bet your wrath that you have lost the ability to reach out to your self from other timelines!”
Ceroj charged Azrael, and his sword swung with enough force to begin cutting reality. Azrael had already moved away and was hidden, and Ceroj’s attack smashed uselessly through the facade and the wall behind it. In that moment of confusion and reeling, Azrael’s scythe snaked out, perfectly lining up with an annihilator bone armor plate on Ceroj’s shinguard. It caught Ceroj and tripped up the Red cloaked Falosini, and then spun around with the blunt rod of the scythe knocking into the falling Ceroj’s chest.
Azrael said in a hollow voice, “I cast you down, Ceroj the Red. I cannot take away your rank as Falosini Sovereign, but the corruption you have accepted into your spirit drags you from your greater self. You are no longer of the Assembly of the Ascended. You are on the path to become a new Warmonger. Stop yourself before you take a path even I cannot save you from…”
Ceroj found himself rushing through time and space as dimensions rushed around him. Energy flared around him, and suddenly he felt so cold. His breath was stolen and he found himself floating high in the sky above the Glacial Wastes of Refuge.
Then he realized he wasn’t floating, he was falling, and falling with increasing speed. Suddenly his feelings of cold were replaced by extreme heat as the feathers of his wings began to burn. Then he struck the icefield. There was an explosion of snow, and a crater was there when the snow finally settled again. In the center of the crater lay a shattered, burned Ceroj wrapped in a fetal position.
Ceroj raised his head slowly, he saw a creature approach. It looked like a Bestial, but its body had been treated to the same surgeries done to one of Warmonger’s Dead. Its chest, arms, and legs were covered by grey carapace armor. The bestial’s head had a blue mohawk, and its eyes glowed with the power of undeath.
Ceroj snarled, reaching for his sword.
But before he could gather it, the bestial dead spoke, “You have suffered the great fall, just as Mar’un’ga did in the old days of the K’ias Wars. Ceroj the Red, you are the true leader, the true master, now that the master of Old is dead and gone. You are the true heir to Wa…”
Ceroj grabbed the bestial dead by the neck and raised him up cutting off his speech.
“You listen to me, monster, I will destroy your kind and all who served the Warmonger,” Ceroj said with true rage that caused smoke to roll off his shoulders.
“But don’t you wish to destroy the Quall N’drone, Ceroj?” asked the bestial dead, “Don’t you wish for revenge for so many loved ones lost in their endless hunger?”
“I do,” said Ceroj.
“Then let us die for you,” said the bestial dead, “Hundreds of thousands of Warmonger’s Dead await their master, and their master is annihilated. And they will die for you Ceroj, die in battle against the Quall or any target you wish…”
Ceroj said, “You want to die for me? Why?”
“It is our role to kill and be killed in battle,” said the Bestial Dead, “Of all the beings, on all of Refuge, only your pain, your anger, your rage is equal to our old master. And your spirit has the right broken edges to control our kind.”
The Bestial Dead handed a control crystal to Ceroj. Ceroj cut the Bestial dead in half, seperating its upper half from its lower half and sending them flying in two different directions. Walking away from its dead body, Ceroj began to reach into the control crystal. He could feel countless armies scattered across the planet Refuge.
As his wings regenerated, he shapeshifted a Red cloak to cover his face and head. He leapt into the air and began flying towards the nearest Falosini army post. Ceroj would ponder this control crystal.
Azrael looked between dimensions and saw Ceroj’s great fall, both symbolic and so very real. Maybe it had helped if only for an important moment, Azrael wondered if this was the inevitable result of Warmonger’s Engine Dimension and allowing the mortals to finally destroy the Ancient Evil they hated so much. But balance affected all things, and Azrael could already see how the balance was swinging to account for the loss of the Warmonger.
Ceroj would try to resist the power awaiting him, but his damaged personality would inevitably drive him towards it with increasing ferocity. Azrael could foresee it, and the Falosini felt great grief in his heart for Ceroj’s crisis of faith. But in the end, free will would decide whether Ceroj became the next Lord Falos or the next Warmonger.
Berototh the Blue confronted Lord Azrael.
“Sovereign-brother, did you forsee the Assasination of the Da’uhnb Queen by the villian Ryuk?”
Azrael looked to the blue cloaked Falosini and said, "I can only forsee the effects of those who use annihilation to reknit time. The Da’uhnb and their kind are beyond my vision, except in how they connect and interact with mortal beings.
"My fear, Sovereign-brother, is that this timeline is being fully destabilized. Endless time shredding ripping apart and knitting reality aknew is now being effected by another Leyas type. I see a moment of confluence and then after that there are three paths…which path our timeline takes I fear is beyond both the ascended and the descended.
My visions show me it is the Apprentices who will make this next catastrophe happen… the Apprentices of Tharr led by Volphis Starfalcon fighting against the Apprentices of Mortis Leonin. They will make the Temporal cold war turn hot. And in that moment…I fear for our timeline…
My future, the one I had spent generations creating and nursing, the Future where the Quall know Peace, and the Falosini-Quall war ends was within reach…but that timeline required the loving support of the Da’uhnb Queen…"
Berototh grew worried. Never since gaining future sight had Azrael spoken with such fear and worry.
There was a sundering in the Assembly of the Ascended Beings. The ground crumbled and the sky was ripped by multiple tears in the fabric of space time.
Berototh looked around knowing what it was but not wanting to believe it.
“What is happening?”
Azrael replied to his brother Sovereign with a voice filled with sadness.
"The timeline has been sundered, it has been shattered. Now where one timeline was, a timeline I had guided towards the grand peace when the Falosini-Quall War ends is now gone… In its place are three timelines each one linked to the other, the way the Mirror Crystal timeline had once been linked to the main timeline.
There three timelines will require different Ascended versions of each of us to maintain, and my future sight now returns but slowly and only showing these three dark futures."
Berototh’s body language became agitated, “But how…?”
Azrael replied,
"Just as the Time Shredders ripped apart timelines and reknit them, mortals have used the body of the Da’uhnb queen to unlock a most corrupting power. They have bound the six elemental Leyas and Annihilation Leyas together into a Transcendental Leyas known as Chronomancy. But its use is toxic and destroys any timeline it is used in.
The originators simply hoped to “control time”, but controlling time is the same as Annihilating the reality of those who did not experience the “controlled timeline”."
“Why would anyone try and CONTROL TIME?” Asked Berototh growing increasingly irate.
“Simple they wish power of everything, and the one way to take away an opponents choices is to alter their ability to do anything…” said Azrael.
“How could the Da’uhnb allow such a thing to happen?” Berototh continued with rage.
"Calm, calm. The Da’uhnb were powerless to stop it. We Ascended Beings tied their hands by guiding our followers to unlock the Forbidden Ritual and grant the Warmonger final death in this timeline.
Berototh calmed instantly not for being told to calm down, but the content of Azrael’s words.
Berototh said, “We have sown the seeds of our own defeat by Killing Warmonger? Yes that makes sense. Our balance point is met by balancing the evil of Warmonger with our good and the good of our mortal allies. But in killing Warmonger we did not redeem his followers nor balance his power. Instead we just swept him from the grand game, and left his spot open to others…”
“And doomed our original timeline in the process. But these three linked timelines have hope…hope that one of the three will lead us to the place of peace…”
Azrael said, "Yes brother Sovereign. One cannot murder an idea, even if you kill its standard bearer. Since the banishment of the descended beings and the final death of Warmonger, war has not ended. Peace has not appeared.
Instead petty mortals still seek their own fame, their own power and in the seeking of power and control they corrupt their goals and their alliances.
This is why so many Primal Descended have shown themselves. The evil we face is no longer embodied by a single face, Warmonger. It is embodied by every individual hatemonger on the streets and settlements of Refuge.
Queen Ayx appeared before the council of the Ascended and began speaking, "I have witnesses the rise of the Monster Holys and his extensive work to supplant and replace the powers that view for control of this timeline. He has claimed the minds of all Quall. Somehow, the Cult of Ayx is protected. It is profoundly protected from all mind control that Holys and the Hiveking can impose upon them.
I demand the immediate withdrawl of Queen Qu’oa from the role of High Queen. I also demand that I get the title and rank rewards of being the new High Queen.
Even during the Month of Sorrow as the Quall served Holys, I, Queen Ayx fought against their efforts to fundamemtally change our reality.
Only I cared for you. Only I can see your dreams made real. You all know that Lord Holys represents a grave and present threat to this timeline since unlocking chronomacy.
Chronomancy and Time Shredding are anathemas, they are abomination in this timeline. But yet my forces, the forces that do so much in my name, are ready to counter this effort.
This timeline is to be claimed by the Quall if it even seems like the Warmonger might win."
Queen Ayx was proud as she stood there, but Sovereign Berototh countered, “It is your Quall and the Quall dating back to the fracturing of the Progentior queen that caused this. Quall serving ancient evils and others who have expanded into every settlement irregardless of whom bore them.”
Ayx replied, “That may be true, but when all life on this timeline is Quall, well this entire situation will be fixed permenanetly?”