Part 1: Time is a Knotted Rope
Visij watched the sensor readings. It was light years from Temporal Booking Station 74 and the TemporalMax Gu’ah Station, but the Da’uhnb knew he could teleport between the two within moments if he chose. But such a choice was a bad, bad choice. Every Da’uhnb who had reported to the prison break had been gunned down by automated defenses.
It was ironic, he had lowered the facilities computer defenses just so Hekeriki could hack it showing her value to the Pirates and getting them to take her to the rebel, Maverick Multimancer. Visij had hoped that trading Jak’hal’s freedom for capturing Mortis Leonin would be a worthy trade. Jak’hal was a pirate and treasure hunter, he liked most species and didn’t want the timeline destroyed, whereas Leonin was a xenocidal maniac. It was a trade but he never expected this sort of fallout.
Sensor readings showed cell after cell open up, countless dangerous and deadly species and individuals released. Millenia of work undone by a single act of a single hacker who used the lowered defenses for an even more spectacular prison break than the one Hekericki and Visij had discussed. He tracked it back to its source using an expert system, and found to his dismay, the codes that hijacked the AI and turned it on the guards came from Refuge, and bore the signature coding of a war criminal known as Olgog the Olgog. Visij guessed he shouldn’t be surprised. These days, whenever he found something funky going on in the timeline, it did trace back to Refuge.
This time his work was cut out for him. He began scanning the dockets on the escaped prisoners, and felt a deep gloom overcoming him. The Kefeda Queen of the Quall escaped, sigh. The human serial killer Maximillion HorrorShow had escaped, grrr. Ceroxis 10.1.2 escaped, that was going to be a pain. The Tzira Keikan Shurn, well he is going to try and wipe out the Iron Republic before its time…gotta stop that. Cyborg Hunter Model 207…after all his temporal hijinks…
AND Vox Seraph, oh my Queen, what are we going to do with the Vox Seraph? How are we going to capture her again…worried Visij.
Visij sunk his claw into his desk with enough force to cut the desk in half.
The temporal agents who were monitering screens around him took a step back. None of them wanted to see an angry Da’uhnb in action.
Then Visij got to the name on the bottom of the list, passing by hundreds of lesser temporal criminals and his eyes opened wide. He called up an emergency line directly to the Da’uhnb Queen.
“Most beloved mother, Queen of our kind, I have the overwhelming duty to advise you that Temporal General Hurniker Guerre has escaped. My Queen, no TEA outpost is safe. Please initiate full lockdown. The only Da’uhnb to ever fall to serve as an avatar of Warmonger has escaped. I repeat Hurniker Guerre has escaped with all those he once consumed.
In his gut is the demonic princes of all four of the great ancient evils, all those he culled when he helped Warmonger rise to power. I do not fear him directly, but deeply fear what would happen if he were killed in a time period where other Da’uhnb were not ready to consume the demons he had fed upon.
They will be free. Strong, powerful Demonic Princes who need to host. Creatures who warp reality with their presence. And I fear Hurniker Guerre will seek out the armies of Warmonger, and he will aid them, using all held within his gut as a deadman’s switch if any were fool enough to try and kill him.
Hurniker Guerre will try and end time as we know it, before it even began in this multiverse. He will seek the start point, where you my Queen stood firm against the Warmonger, and end this reality before it even begins.”
The Da’uhnb Queen was great and mighty, and devoted her life to the support of this reality. She smiled upon the devotion of Visij and said, “DO not worry my Temporal agent, my child, Hurniker Guerre has already been eaten by me. Consumed at the start of time where he sought to turn the balance of power.”
Visij realized that time flowed as it did. But his fears were not yet assuaged.
“If at the beginning of time, this temporal criminal was destroyed, do you know what he accomplished first before his arrival at his termination???” asked Visij.
“No…I only know his end. I do not know his beginning, his middle , or his acts,” agreed the Da’uhnb Queen.
“Then we must assume he knew his death would lie with you my Queen,” said Visij, “We must discover what he changed, before he arrived at his final death.”
“Yes my child, such are the tasks set forth for the TEA,” said the Da’uhnb Queen sadly, “Time is a knotted rope. Certain events are fated, not because they are just, but because they are needed, they are necessary. They are the path that leads us to salvation and destruction. Despite so many timelines spreading out endlessly around us. There is but one path to prevent this timeline falling to evil. One path, by which the Ascended may overcome the Descended. And there are many roads to this one path. Many roads twisting, and turning through time and space. Roads that the mortals do not even realize they tread. And when they feel the universe shake around them. May they be drawn to the path, that frees them from the Warmonger’s corruption.
Warmonger has at his side, the upstart evil known as Kalok. He hopes to turn Kalok against the mortal beings and consume them in fire, so that Warmonger may march upon their burnt remains with his conquering army. Kalok does not realize he is a pawn, just as the Dragon of Unity does not realize it holds the key to Warmonger’s permanent imprisonment.”
Visij choked at that spitting out, “You want us to aid the Dragon of Unity?”
“No” said the Queen, “But the Dragon of Unity, the Dragon of Fate, stands at a crossroads. As a greater evil it must choose. Will it stand alongside the four great Ancient Evils who have already sworn loyalty to the balance? Or will it consume reality after reality as the Warmonger does. With the fires of Kalok and the intelligence of the Dragon of Unity, the four Ancient Evils might once more free themselves from Warmonger’s chains. They might once more devote themselves to the balance.”
Bearing her terrifying fangs, the Queen said, “Evil is but one part of balance. Good is another. The balancers the third. But the Warmonger seeks the end of all life. The end of the balance, and the end of all reality. Because the Warmonger sees only worth in destruction.
The Creeping Darkness sees the beauty in consuming of lives, but it requires those lives to exist and perpetuate for its harvesting. The Maw of the Deep sees beauty in the greed of its followers and their endless sacrifices to feed that greed. The Accuser sees the beauty in heartless indoctrination of the masses, their devotion and corruption at its touch. Xephon of the Sky sees beauty in their oppression, in the conquest of their souls, and their lingering worship. Kalok sees beauty when the mortals burn others in his name. And the Dragon of Unity, sees beauty in the connectedness of the mortal minds, and how it can control the masses through this connection between people.
All of the above desire mortals, need mortals to live and thrive and spread across the stars so that it can achieve its own desires. All of these six greater evils, at their core, are servants of the Balance. An end to sentient free willed life, they fully know, would result in their own eventual death by starvation.
But the Warmonger desires none of this. Not even a single dissenting voice. For even a single voice must be crushed under the boot heel of its armies. Must be killed. Must be wiped out. Until only the Warmonger remains, the king of the hill, a hill of dead, destroyed lives. Warmonger seeks pure stagnation for this reality, Warmonger seeks the end of all choice. Warmonger seeks the end of balance.”
Visij sat back in his chair overwhelmed by these statements. He knew the Da’uhnb where there to prevent the Ancient Evils from overstepping their bounds. But never before had he heard the truth behind the delicate nature of balance. “But what of the Time Shredders, my queen?”
“They utilize the annihilation to rip apart and rewrite realities as they pass. Each new reality they spring forth is a new battleground. A new place where either Warmonger will win, or the Balance will win. Do they aid us? I do not know. But look at the birth of Kalok the Volcano. Look at the rise of the Dragon of Unity. Even evil may aid us against the Warmonger. For the Warmonger is beyond evil and good. It is pure destruction of all we hold dear. Even the evilest of Oppressors still dreams of holding a kingdom of living beings in their control.
Despite their evil nature, they seek to promote life (if only to make themselves grandiose). I know this is hard my child. But look to the evil ones. They will be your best allies, simply share with them, that all they have built will be shattered, all they have loved lost, and all they wish to build will be an ashpile if the Warmonger gets its way. Once you show them that…even the worst of evils often bends to the balance.”
Visij watched the holographic screen go dark. He muttered to himself, “And I thought when Rurik doppleganged me and it caused the K’ias Wars it was bad. This seems… so much worse.”
And the mighty Da’uhnb hero cried. He cried for all those who would feel pain, and all who were already suffering.
