The Omnipotent - Round 1.

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"Shall we ever forget that day where the powers that decide our very fate clashed? The world was to reel at their prowess as there was nothing on this green Earth that could stop them save for themselves."

Who would have known that the Earth was to burn that day? An entire world simply set ablaze with the fire of chaos and madness.
There was no warning, no sign. It happened too fast for the forces to intervene, not that they would have any effect on what followed that day. For it was not apocalypse at the hands of biotic factoring; there was no meteor that had crashed into the planet's crust, nor was there any supervolcanic activity that had laid waste to so much.
No.
For Kivuli had deemed this little world unworthy.

The King in Black had arrived to herald the end of days for the puny denizens of this unremarkable world, despite it's sprawling metropolii and pristine jungles. His madness did not give way to mercy or repent. The religious fanatics had ordered their subjects to prostrate themselves to their helpless Gods in order to save themselves from the Man who simply watched. He could be seen at the heart of every major urban establishment, simply standing and watching for Seven Days, not moving or interacting... Black as the night and inciting madness in all who set eyes upon him.

On the Seventh Day, the world burned.

As The Stygian King revelled in the ruins of a world ablaze, he awaited whatever eldritch beings would come to his side, either to battle him for the prize of Eight Billion Human souls, or to take his side for a stake in the spoils.

One does not simply incite madness without his consent.

Of course he followed the source of the most beautiful of madness, the madness of a god. That specific brand of insanity being delicious to him; he could almost smell its aroma, like that of a fine wine poured over a rotting corpse. Its power, the power it instilled within him, it was what got him up in the morning, so to speak.

Because there are gods who are mad, and then there are gods of madness. Daeh is both.

He burst from the seams of an alternate dimension, his form broken into shards of splendid green, fortunately right in the middle of a church. The sky was burning red above him and the windows of the building shattered, fire licking at the walls. Still the occupants knelt, and they prayed, and they willed the terror away. Daeh resented that, they had not yet given up, had not yet succumbed to glorious insanity.

As his body materialised piece by piece, emaciated, featureless, the bulbous green MelonHead atop the spindly black body, they gaped and they gawked. One shiny grin and they babbled and they screamed, and his arms stretched wide to embrace them. His fists disembowelled the priests and left them caught and impaled, still screeching for forgiveness. The flock broke then, their minds crumbling to dust and their essence infusing him with a warm glowing feeling.

The interior suddenly blurred, and it moulded to fit his template, the angular exterior forming a smooth green sphere. Inside, a colour never seen before in the current universe was displayed everywhere one could see, and the broken humans laughed as they stared at it blankly, not comprehending the majesty of his brilliance.

Then, he stopped the madness, bored of his playing. He returned to relatively normal size and held out one hand, and somehow, despite being within the structure it shrunk and flowed into his open palm. It disappeared, occupants still screaming quietly inside, and he floated down to the ground settling into the crater where once there had been a building. He looked around at the apocalypse claiming the city, and then ran forward blindly his giant head rocking back and forth as if unable to be fully supported on his thin neck.

Then he changed his position, and he was floating high above a city, likely Paris considering the Eiffel tower lay broken on the ground. He gave it no second thought as his arms regrew and he was able to properly navigate the burning air, boulders every so often breaking him in two only for him to regenerate near instantaneously. He headed towards a shadowy figure, one of many he imagined, the madness within it called to him. Eventually he would consume it, absorb the madness into himself, and take its power. For now though, he would help it in its goal, nurture the seed, ready to reap the harvest.

“Hello there friendliest of friends, I see you’ve decided to burn things because why not eh? Well, where are my manners Stygian, as you know, maybe, I am Daeh Nolem. Stupid name I know, I sometimes wonder what idiot gave it to me.”

He paused, his head rolling from side to side.

“Oh that’s right, I named myself. Any-who, what say you to me helping you do things that require me to do things to help you? Basically, I’d like to help you do things, and I’d like you to help me help you do things, so tell me what things you would like me to do friend of friends.” The Avatar of the mad god spoke in a voice encompassing thousands of mad voices, whispers which broke into a strong voice easily heard across the distance they maintained from eachother. Although it was but a fragment of the true fragments of the Mad God’s power, it was certainly enough to cause a little head ache.

It was as if the universe had opened its eye to the nothingness beyond. A slit of white spread across the black cosmic sky and tore open, unleashing a cascade of white light outshining the brightest of supernova, and grander than any star. Within an instant, the small figure of a girl in red had jettisoned from the world beyond and into the universe this burning Earth had resided in. The very stars bent away to her path, like a red carpet laid out before an idol. When the girl came upon Earth, it was temporarily relieved of its terror; the redness of the sky surrounding her impact point washed away to a beautiful morning blue, and the flames consuming the ground were put out by the stamp of an invisible foot. A feeling of wonder, solace, and happiness overcame the quadrant of Earth in which she stood, but her power could not overcome the combined madness of whatever entities resided on the rest of the planet. Glowing with the power a of countless stars, her warmness had suddenly broken those who gazed upon her into a flood of grateful tears.

But this was not all she would do; the rest of the world still required her help. As it would seem, those with an incredible power did not care for the emotions, hopes, and civilization of mankind. Gods who did not take responsibility for their power. The Steel Queen, First Circle, Zvezda, looked to the distance despite seeing all, and glared with a vengeful intent upon the two mad gods who conversed with one another. The world around them began to warp and pressurize like the deepest of oceans as her gaze struck down upon their beings with a physical emotion. Leaving the cleansed land on its own. In a flash of light, her avatar appeared before the two dark gods, battering away the ghoulish aura lingering within the very air. The sky above too made way for sunlight, though did not extend beyond the horizon as it had done previously. The gods were present here, and their ill-intent upon Earth was powerful enough to resist her own will. With crossed arms and an air of dominance, Zvezda stood before Kivuli and Daeh Nolem as if to challenge them with mere presence.

"What is the meaning of this, Kivuli, Daeh?" she questioned the two. Her voice called out from the heavens itself, rumbling the air and throwing the flames of darkness to the floor with every letter. These two, she had seen before. A god of complete madness, appearing as so ridiculous a creature. Daeh Nolem was chaotic, terrible. She had seen beings of "madness" before, unleashing what she could only describe as true madness... Indiscriminate and random... But this Daeh Nolem was one of terror alone; for him to be called madness itself was insulting those she had seen elsewhere. And then there was Kivuli, the one who killed his own gods after succumbing to his own emotions. Not even Galvatine herself could stop him. To turn upon those he used to protect, she could never understand. Why had he unleashed this power upon the innocents of Earth? The gods were not present in their souls.

"Begone, or face utter annihilation."

On the surface of a desolate planet tucked away in the furthest reaches of a galaxy nestled within the thinnest of threads which connect the opposing reality plains to one another; the last living being was taking its final breath. Standing over this dying creature was what remained of who had once been a great and noble warrior of his home world known as Xavier Bloodbayne, now a cruel shadow of the man he had been those countless years before. Feverishly the creature plead for life in a dialect Xavier had not cared to learn and simply kept his foot rested upon the creatures skull, grinding the side of its face into the stone floor of its feeble housing. With cold eyes Xavier watched while increasing the pressure exerted upon the creatures skull and relished in the crescendo of screams and cracks before it was all silenced with a final crunch, squish and a gurgle.

Letting out a quiet sigh Xavier righted his body and shook off his boot before scratching at the edge of the red metallic mask which covered his face. "That part never gets old." The mask upon his voice lowered his tone and distorted its tone, a small change he simply enjoys making for fun. It was as the final syllable fell from his lips that a barely audible incredibly sharp ring sounded from the back of his mind, his head snapping to the right and gazing off into the stars. "I sense a disturbance in the threads." Somewhere there was a force amassing upon a single plain of reality which threatened to snap the thread, it would undoubtedly prove entertaining.

In one instant a deep pulsation sounded off on the surface of the planet which shook the entire reality plain it was connected too as its threads were forcibly connected to those of another for a brief moment. On the other end of this connection a very similar pulsation sounded off and shook the threads which held together the dying planet upon which Xavier now stood. Before him lay the remains of what appeared to have been a towering metallic structure of intricate design, clearly a desolate attempt to prove ones building superiority against some other power. Turning his attention away from the tower Xavier peered into the air high above him and noticed a living piece of fruit conversing with 2 other beings, needless to say at this point things were about to get very interesting. However there was a feeling in the back of his mind which Xavier could not shake, something which told him the best option for the moment would be to wait. Sad as it was to admit such a thing, there was no way that he could take the 3 of them on his own, surely some other power was sure to follow.

Kivuli had always been one to advocate madness within the minds of weaker beings, though he did not bear to control the illogical delirium of the Melon-Headed creature that had offered Kivuli an inconceivable tiny-but-huge church that was the size of such an establishment, but also as tiny as the smallest grain of sand, and every calibre in between. It was filled with the wailing hysterical voices of disembodied but overly real humans, somehow trapped within the enigmatic architecture of madness itself.
The creature floated there alongside the King in Black, speaking in a most unusual of voices that would be clause enough for any mortal or weak-willed creature to fall prey to the dark recesses of madness induced by some eldritch fear.
The creature’s voice was comprised of many thousands upon thousands of individual murmurs, each hinted with a crazed inflection.

“Daeh” Kivuli commanded with a rhythmic boom. “I have seen your arrival from futures unwritten and pasts unlived and unborn. I have seen your rise and your demise a thousand times over at the hands of Steel and Star, Fire and Logic”

He looked Daeh in his beady, soulless eyes. “Powers arrive from all directions, brought forth by the lamentation of Billions of wailing mortals. Stand with me and claim their blood for your own, and I shall give to you power far beyond that of Madness alone, MadGod. Or do you simply wish to incite madness? I offer you a chance for both.”

The MadGod had little time to respond to such aspiration before the blazing sky was momentarily ripped apart to give way to the unimpeded rays of a morning sun far above the blackened smog that choked the city sky. From this small crack in the suffocating red did enter a transcendent figure, barreling from above and hailing from some hidden dimension beyond, trailed with a brilliant stream of light that cut open to darkness for a mere moment. And then She stood before Daeh and Kivuli.
The King in Black immediately ejected from his conversation with Daeh, and instead took notice of the Steel Clad Goddess that now made empty threats to he and the MadGod.

"Begone, or face utter annihilation!" it cried in a forceful tone, supported by confidence that could only be held by one of the Inner Circle.

“Ah, yes. Zvezda.” Kivuli retorted in a comparatively calm manner. “Do not make such empty threats. You have answered my summons and for this I am willing to make you an offer.”
He knew for a fact that Zvezda would not trust any of the legendarily empty words he had to say, but on this particular occasion she would be left with little choice other than to listen.
“I have met you in times passed, but you have yet to meet me in your future. A clash of Steel and Darkness will follow in the wake of our next meeting. This is how I know what drives you - what motivates you to attempt to impose your will upon a being such as I, or the MadGod”, Kivuli mused, gesturing towards the limp and sickly-looking, bulbous headed figure hanging in the air close by.

“I can tell you that your compassion is your strength, but also your weakness. I will make you a deal. Three Gods and Deities will find their way to this broken little husk of a world in accordance with their own gains in due time. Kill them. Take my side and spill their blood and I will spare Two Billion lives for every one you vanquish.”

Kivuli had begun to pulsate with a dark shroud that shimmered across every inch of his corrupted armor; the blood that dripped from it’s unyielding spikes that had found themselves to jut from every polished face or plate.

“There is no more noble a cause. After all, Xavier has already found his way to our little commune.”

Kivuli turned straight towards the Demigod that had travelled far across the Universe to meet them.

“Do not worry little man!” he shouted down. “We will wait for your allies”

Death can wait.

Daeh was sad to part with his toy, the small melon shaped church full of screaming innocents who he had first encountered on his arrival. He knew however, that if they were to work together in happy and glorious and smiley harmony, sacrifices had to be made. The Mad God was willing to bestow a boon or two when necessary; of course Kivuli was like many, unable to understand the implications of what he had received.

“I’m glad you like my little gift oh dark and scary one.” Daeh smiled, watching the small melon shaped object bouncing up and down in the air. He nodded numbly as Kivuli offered him a boring boon for his aid, something he just said he intended to give at no particular cost. His eyes returned to the floating church, tiny screams within holding him mesmerized. Only a strong, sickening voice of order and power snapped him from his reverie. He hovered for a moment, and then cartwheeled in the air as he twisted his bulbous green head around to stare at Zvezda.

“Pretty.” He muttered, his eyes stretching outwards in cartoonish fashion. With a burst of air he displaced himself, suddenly appearing at her side as just a few fragments of his being, which began to take form almost instantaneously. Atop his massive head was a bowler hat, and a long fashionable black cloak adorned his stick like body. As his hands regenerated one clutched a long cigarette, which he puffed on seductively, blowing pink smoke in Zvezda’s direction.

“Baby, you are so beautiful, we belong together. You are a delight, and as you can see.” He gestured at the fallen tower far below the scorched sky. “We are in the city of love, it is fate, no?” Although insanely hysterical, the voices took on a mock French accent as he spoke. He twisted upside down again, the vibrant smoke swirling around his body and leaving him naught but a pink cloud in the sky beside Zvezda.

Kivuli was busy giving the opposition a chance, shouting at Xavier far below. Daeh had no fear for the demi-god, he would understand the true terror of pure insanity soon enough.

“It must drive you insane baby, all you’ve achieved and still no one takes you seriously.” He whispered to Zvezda from within the cloud of smoke. Daeh so very much enjoyed his little games.

FROM THE DEEPS OF SPACE

From the icy deeps of space, amid the music of the spheres, Simargl watches a pale moon as it circles the large gaseous planet, which in turns orbits a blazing yellow orange star. On the moon, the third cycle of life has risen and once again, yet something thrummed the great multiversal threads of fate. Turning his attention away from the moon before him he cast his far-reaching gaze towards a small planet in the outer rim of a moderate sized galaxy.

Something was occurring, something that ripped and warped the fabric of the multiverse, something that called out to him, more out of curiosity than anything else did. Turning his gaze upon the moon, Simargl raised two of his four hands before him, his six eyes closed as he pondered the decision before him. Before him a small moon full of quadrupeds’ intent on killing themselves, choosing to enslave one another for a few bits of rock and detritus. It had been another failure, at least he could not see any further evidence that this race would be worthy of growing into the ripe old age of stellar explorers.

A grim smile as he opened six gray eyes, staring at the world he had decided, and yet there existed a niggling at the back of his consciousness regarding the twisting of space/time on a small planet a galaxy away. Reaching out again with his senses, Simargl extended them through the many light-years of distance and scoured the planet seeking the cause for the fluctuation of existences.

Aware that his sense scan along the vast dark energies that inhabit the unseen universe would be detectable by any being sufficiently powerful enough and these beings were. For upon the planet, a coalescing of power that put to shame the power of several galactic empires combined. A gathering of beings, a gathering of powers dark and gray, a gathering that by virtue of their presence drew the attention of Simargl.

Tapping several fingers together, while thrumming others on his knee, the primordial being pondered the events as they appeared. Standing slowly as a shimmering nimbus surrounded his form, a twinkling of light that the inhabitants of the moon could see, a new star in the night sky. A star, an omen that would be the last thing the inhabitants would see. As Simargl opened a portal to the small planet orbiting the middle-aged yellow star, an intense burst of scalar energy erupted from his form. Those on the planet had less than 9 minutes before the energy would strike the magnetosphere. Nine minutes and three-tenths of a second before it would punch through the upper atmosphere setting it aflame. Nine minutes and one second before it struck the pristine ocean a hundred miles from the shore of the largest continent creating a tsunami several hundred feet in the air, slowing the rotational spin of the moon by nearly a minute, causing an extinction event that eventually wipes out 90% of all life. Life would start over, perhaps he would return, perhaps they would evolve differently.

Simargl forgot the moon the minute he stepped into the gate, stepping out in a heavy atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. Before him as he planted a foot on the hard ground, stood four beings of incredible power, beings that usually had the respect to avoid one another, yet here they stood. Adjusting his senses, he tracked the conversation, catching bits and pieces as he emerged fully from the portal.

Simargl craned his neck as he focused on the beings talking, one, Kivuli, seemed the point from which all radiated outward, the reason for this gathering of beings, usually too busy to mind much what each other did. Flexing and folding his tattered wings close to his body, Simargl squatted down, unintentionally crushing a small building beneath his haunches. Two of his arms braced him, while the hands of the other two clasped together a moment as the tail helped stabilize him. It seemed he had come in on some discussion, six-eyes focused on Kivuli, a simple question hissed then thundered across the planet as a sonic boom reverberating in all corners of the world, “Why?”

Death Comes

Theme

Death waited for no man, god, or being of power. Death itself was force, a force with an undeniable will of it's own. A power far beyond the comprehension of mortal minds, or even that of so called greater ascended beings. In the ash filled streets of the often called "Holy City" Jerusalem, the ground shook with a tremendous cacophony of splintering stone and earth. It was as if the very ground was heaving open to the fires of hell. Great fissures began to form, and out of their depths sprung forth fountains of fire and brimstone. In time that same fire came to rain back down from the heavens, smashing back down into buildings, structure's and vehicles. Some car's came to screeching halts attempting to avoid falling into the burning pits of flames. Wide spread panic quickly spread as traffic came to a complete stop, causing car crashes, untold amount of property damage, all adding to the increasing chaos. Suddenly small rifts in space and time began to appear all around the city and surrounding countries. These tears in space were random in place and size, and many quickly grew from small cracks in reality to outright gaping holes.

Then they came, beings of horror and nightmares leapt forth from the rifts, Undead abominations of all kinds and size. Soon the very earth itself began to give rise to more of these creatures, burning skeleton warriors clothed in hell like flames, skinless ghouls with their red gleming flesh visible to all to see, as if it had been brunt or stripped away long ago, had started to claw their way to the surface from more burning pits. Out from the still open rifts demon like spirits of the dead poured out to harass the living once more. The unliving army was like a growing tide of destruction, methodically sweeping through and across the city and land, killing everything in sight. None could hide from the countless living souls that phased through stone and wall, passing each innocent a d tearing out their life force. Not a single one was spread or escaped, soon more beast came forth, the ground sundered entirely as giant skeletons sprung forth, many ablaze. In the surrounding deserts more giant skeletons sprung forth, their first steps shook the ground with such force that it toppled buildings, and where they went, destruction was certain to follow.

Every major city in the world from Moscow to Salvador, all experienced the exact same horror, as untold billions and trillions of unliving creatures began a seeming war with all things living. A slow purge of all life had begun, the beginning of the end for untold trillions of lives. The beings of this realm would not have been the first however, nor would they be the last.

Thanatos had come.

With his arrival herald the ultimate end.

Man would fight feebly, with mortal weapons, but it was all for naught, in the end all would come to heel as the Reaper took them into his cloak. As the land became rampant with Undeath, in the midst of the oldest cities in the world. Jerusalem. The ground shook once more, and the entire city seemingly parted as a structure split upward like a spear striking through man. The entire city began to seemingly transform as our of the fissures was unleashed a wave of miasma and amethyst energies of witch fire. The blood-soaked ground echoed a great fortress city rose seemingly from the depths of hell. At the center of this mighty fortress lied the Citadel of Bones, where Thanatos's macabre Throne of Skulls acted as the malevolent beings seat of literal power. It was there he sat surrounded in a shroud of darkness atop a mountain of skulls, heads of long dead lords and deities, and those who had been slain in his name cursed name. Within the center of the massive chamber a great witch fire of amethyst energies lite the gloomy halls, the dark flames consuming the souls of every being that died upon this planet. Around the citadel flowed out a mighty moat, filled not with water, but with the boiling blood of countless mortals from ages and realms long forgotten.

The entire structure as forged not of stone and brick, but bone and flesh, mutilated corpses, some no all quite dead, could be seen sticking out of the walls and towers. A truly horrifying and sickening sight, a sight that would send even the most sane of minds made with fear. But it was deep within this vile structure the Lord of Death, King of Bones, The Great Father of Death sat. Here he would wait, cloaked in long dark ceremonial burial robes of expensive linen. In one hand he held his legendary staff up right, a fell weapon known by countless names including Deathmaker, and The End of All Things, a weapon so terrifying it was said capable of laying waste to entire worlds with a single blow.

Thanatos sensed the many beings outside his great fortress, and to two worthy beings he extended his mind. Reaching out he called them to him, for as proud and mighty as he was, he could easily sense that three powerful beings had conspired. No doubt seeking to take this world for themselves. But they did not realize they played with forces beyond their sphere of influence, this world had been chosen.

It could only belong to one.

"And the other two billion?" Zvezda rose an eyebrow, clearly not satisfied with his proposal. There was no way she'd sacrifice two billion innocent souls for the sake of maintaining a peaceful trio with known mass murderers. She could, if she deemed it ethical, destroy this world and reproduce a copy over time, wiping away all five without battering an eye. Unless Kivuli topped off his words with a final offering pertaining to the remaining two billion souls, she might retract her intent. Nevertheless...

"Nevertheless, you have still caused terrible suffering upon countless humans already. I cannot overlook this." Zvezda maintained a strong gaze into Kivuli's dark mask even as the mad god beside him incessantly blabbered on with noisy jests. She paid no mind to his helplessly chaotic mind; she almost felt sorry for the pitiful god. Did it hurt, continually suffering from such insanity? As more and more deities descended upon this iteration of Earth, she realized with greater conviction how she would never bend to the requests of Kivuli.

"I will not participate, foul man," Zvezda spat. Looking towards the sky, she gazed into the brightened sky that still loomed over her position and out for the darkness of space. "And I will not allow you to hurt these innocents." Her eyes flashed a bright blue, and in and instant the ground below the divine gathering began to shatter, though strangely was replaced as soon as it had disintegrated by the same exact material. It was as if a lower layer of the world was surfacing, like the Earth itself was shedding its skin. The sky erupted in a sea of white, and the stars disappeared from the universe. All at once, the souls of the planet vanished instantly, leaving the world populated by empty husks. Zvezda had since faded into the cosmic background, and spoke out to the remaining five gods;

"And so I leave you with a copy. Feel free to battle as much as you like, but the souls you reap will not be ones with emotion or self. They will emulate emotion, nevertheless, all for the sick pleasure of you terrible beings." The white cosmos turned off like a light, becoming black once more and leaving the Earth darkened under clotting clouds and burning infernos.

"But I would hate to leave your battle unbalanced..." Zvezda's voice trailed off into oblivion.

“Where are you going… princess… NOOOOOOOOOO!”

Daeh cried for a moment, before the smoke dispersed and he splayed his hands. The tendrils were launched, and whatever hope there was for those poor souls reft from their bodies was entwined with the Mad God himself. Madness was sewn into their very being, and they would never find peace so long as he existed, the fight was set in stone now, kill, destroy, or lose everything.

“Well, now, Kivullilililili, it looks like it’s just you and me against the world so to speak, personally I’d like to kill that giant dragon thing over there because it looks just divine, I’ll see you later buddy.”

Without another word, the strange creature floated downwards incredibly quickly, shattering the earth with its collision with the ground. One long arm stretched outwards, reaching out to seize the Eiffel tower with one hand and effortlessly lifting it from the ground.

“Why, you say, big space whale, dragon, thing.”

He span rapidly, faster than humanly possible, the Eiffel tower sliced buildings in half as he built up significant centrifugal force.

“WHY NOT?!” He threw it, full force, the spiky building hurtling towards Simargl. Its colour changed rapidly as it moved, phasing in and out of dimensions before bending into a final abstract shape and settling as it was once, suddenly coloured a startling shade of green as it appeared about twenty feet away directly in front of the creature. Somehow it had broken every law of physics in that short space of time, for when it appeared once more it was moving forty times the speed of sound, and reinforced to become near indestructible despite the ensuing impact. The Mad God’s will still acted on it, preventing it from being easily removed from play or destroyed mentally.