[IC] A New World of Gods (closed go to chapter 2)

[Ace of flames01]

@Lugubrious@OtomostheCrazy

Everything had seemed under control... that is... Until the black hole appeared. Though it was no bigger than the size of a pinhole, it was just as powerful as any other. It was heading straight for their home, straight towards Rhona. Should it reach the surface, Rhona would certainly die.

Leon made a terrible growl sound, closely resembling that of a beast. His eyes glowed a bright blue as he disappeared a split second, only to reappear directly in front of the Great One. With a solid punch, Leon sent forth billions upon billions of volts of electricity into the Great One's body, ceasing the pillars of liquid light from continuing as it fried the Great One's body. He glanced back at Miriam, briefly making eye contact with her, with a look that said, "send this damn beast back to Hades fer me!" Leon then retreated back a few feet, glancing once more to Miriam with a silent nod, before disappearing yet again.

Leon appeared once more at the door step of their, once beautiful, home. He looked up to the sky and saw the ever approaching black hole near their home. There was no time to sit and idle, and to his misfortune Leon's god mode had worn off. He was going to cut it close. Leon ran to the tunnel as quickly as his legs could allow. Gigantic chunks of Earth, even their house, had already been sucked up by the vortex's pull.

Leon entered the tunnel, a feat that was not easily accomplished as large rocks flew out from the mouth of the tunnel, a few smaller ones impaled him while a larger one hit his head.

Leon pushed forward and eventually arrived at the chamber where Rhona slept. Unfortunately, the black hole had also reached the surface of their realm. Everything outside of the tunnel had been completely destroyed. At this point, all seemed lost... However, like his sister, Leon was not going to go down without a fight. Using whatever power he could muster, Leon teleported himself and Rhona to someplace safe. As to where their location was now; none of the other gods would know, including the Great One. Not even Leon was for sure of their location, but any place was safer than their former home.

[OtomostheCrazy]

@Lugubrious@Ace of flames01

"Greatness? You call this great?"

Miriam began giggling as she resisted the pull of her enemy's attack. Though the black hole seemed like a threat to some, it was seen as a entertaining gimmick to her. It was supposed to be a black hole, something so grand and powerful that not even normal light could escape its vacuum. However...this artificially-crafted gumball of a thing was laughable. It sucked hard in several ways, but not hard enough. She was still standing on solid ground. She saw the other individual hold his own against it long enough to punch the creature in the face! This thing wasn't a black hole. Not by a long shot.

"'Great' is what you call a game you like. 'Great' is how you think of your relationship with close friends. 'Great'..."

Miriam jumped onto a boulder that was being pulled in. The mist that had not been sucked into the void yet gathered into Miriam's free hand. It formed into a murky, red orb. She jumped from one thing to another, getting closer and closer to the amphibious Aforgomon, until she made it close enough to speak and act simultaneously.

"...is something that neither of us deserve to be called!"

As she spoke, she forced the orb into the being's gullet with a strong thrust of her arm, and used the bladed butt of her Rakuyo to stab intp the thing's face as she jumped back onto solid ground.

"Only heroes, saviours, and protectors deserve greatness! " laughed Miriam. "Being a god alone doesn't get you that! Lashing out to avenge the death of others doesn't earn you that either!"

She laughed hysterically as her orb of mist dispersed into a thick haze within Amphoregomonian's body.

[Lugubrious]

So it is the fault of the ant that the boot crushes it. Power is wrongly abused in you—but not enough. Having given more attention to taunting and making excuses than to her defenses, Cia did not reinforce her magical shield, and the torrent of lava cascading over it reduced the barrier to cinders. More than likely, the vindictive Merged would suffer lasting burns as keepsakes of the Great One. Aforgomon glanced at Cythella, who stood off to the side. I am all-powerful, not all-knowing. It occurs to me that none of you alleged gods hindered her either. Did you plan all along to destroy the humans, and so abate their rise to power so that there might come to exist a true excuse for appalling genocide?

The time for bickering was past, however. Cia pointed her hand at the cave ceiling, and through the rock burst a pillar of intense heat. When Flemmings stepped up, fresh from his wanton and careless deicide, his order fell on deaf ears. Turning part-ways around, Aforgomon leered at him. One can only control what they comprehend, little pugilist. The realization flooded Flemmings that the Great One lay beyond him. The next moment, Cia demanded its last words in a quibbling ritual that interested the shambler not at all. Still, the beam presented a problem. Bonds forged with the old gods over the course of a month lay silent, testifying their demise.

At that moment, it all became too much. There could be no recourse from this instant. If any humans still lived, they would soon be dead, their salty tears staining the earth. While gods could never die, those who accompanied Aforgomon into battle would not reappear for a long while. As the column of light drew nearer, the Great One gave a long, low gasp in the manner of one despairing. Even with these Merged destroyed, many others existed, and the young lurker could not beat every one fast enough to do anything truly great in the meantime. Only one solution remained.

It reached out, into the depths of dream, but a dream never explored until now: its own.

Like a massive explosion, blues and purples and whites burst outward from its position. The entire chamber suddenly melted away, and Cia, Flemmings, Landon, and Aforgomon floated in a starry void. No earth or consuming light could be seen. “Filth.” Actual sound issued forth from the creature, its true voice heard at last. It seemed remarkably normal, though backed by a strange resonance. “Is it because I look and think differently? Is it that I, alone, understand the tenets of godhood...that I am sympathetic in nature? Is it so wrong to marvel at creation? I wanted...to see things...no-one else could see. Oh, father...Yog-Sothoth...”

Everything went dark, and when the Merged regained their senses, they stood in the earthen shrine once more. Aforgomon was nowhere to be seen.

-=-=MEANWHILE=-=-

Billions of volts raced through the seabed strider's body, and might have destroyed it of only volts, not amps, gave an electric current its lethality. A plethora of volts merely widened the stream through which the lightning flowed, lessening its peril rather than enhancing it. Amphibious Aforgomon leered and Leon. You who know not the energy that wreathes the heavens: flee from me, like a truant child. And Leon fled.

Disagreeable words issued from Miriam as she advanced, cleverly using chunks of debris as springboards to delay her destruction by gravity squeeze. Something scarlet and intriguing lay between her fingertips. Aforgomon stood its ground, oddly still for a being in the sights of a formidable attacker. When Miriam sprang for it, it refused to move, and swallowed her orb of mist whole. Discomforted by the arcane meal, and weeping in agony at the blade sunk into its flesh, it sank to its knees.

A couple quiet moments passed, and Aforgomon did not stir. Miriam's mocking laughter rang out even as the home of Leon ceased to exist, compressed into a single grain of ultra-dense dust by the singularity that ripped through it.

Ignoramus.

The beast rose to its feet swiftly. In one smooth motion it plucked the weapon from its face, gushing a browning slime down its skin, and popped the Rakuyo into its mouth. When its maw opened wide, Miriam could see what lay inside: a spiraling chaos capable of reducing anything to mere knowledge. Evidently, this alternate Great One shared that ability with the original. Greatness is incomprehensibility. It is to be unknown, and to be feared by those who fear the unknown. It is to be shapeless, limitless, breathless, unspeakable, unnameable, unnatural. To be so far removed from normality that reality itself seems but an unstable illusion manufactured for the sake of sanity. It is no word. It is a state of being.

A new realization came to the creature, and its fleshless lips curled into a disapproving frown. Reaching up, it pulled its skin down over its face before holding its hand out. From memory it recalled the Rakuyo, present now only in its imagination, and created a new, gleaming version from stardust. This it embedded into the ground, a gift for Miriam, before stepping back. Do not be afraid of not understanding. Every Great One whispers its affectation....you need only listen.

The seabed strider began to fade, its form becoming like mud. While its godly spirit disappeared, a final intonation resonated through the Nexus. The dream was long. Then it returned, perhaps forever, to the bottomless sea for acceptance.

[ActRaiserTheReturned]

Humans
Almost none of them were alive. Those attempting futilely to survive, running off into high rise buildings. . . no matter where they would go it would be impossible to live for long. The world it'self was their enemy. Anatole saw what was happening, he acted quickly. This is what he could do to redeem himself. Suddenly, monsters, some of them looking like demons from hell, others of them, dragons falling from the sky, out of the under world and from the sky, Anatole's agents saved as many as they could, children in the arms of their mothers. . . one million inhabitants of the Earth were saved. A handful of people throughout the whole world. Almost none of them. Almost no Human was left alive. Out of seven billion inhabitants, less than a tenth of one percent were left alive.

[OtomostheCrazy]

@Lugubrious

Miriam had calmed down. Her laughing had stopped. The battle was ending. She watched as the amphibious Aforgomon opened its mouth and showed its endless expanse of complications and knowledge. Though such a sight did not scare her, it gave her an idea of what it was trying to communicate. It didn't surprise her that the deity lasted long enough to remove and swallow her Rakuyo, though she did take a moment to clench her fist at the act. She watched it craft a new Rakuyo from stardust. She watched it embed the blade into the ground and melt into its death.

A moment of silence passed as she stood before her former opponent's gift. Finally, Miriam spoke,

"I may very well never be able to know what you know, or see what you see..."

She lifted Rakuyo from the ground, and separated its dagger and sword parts from each other, holding each part on each hand.

"But you were fun. We should've hung out more..."

Miriam through the two blades into the air, and let the cut her as they descended. Her body...her blood stained the blades. Despite the extra sting of the godly stardust, Miriam shouldered the pain and caught the weapons again before they hit the ground. When she regained her posture, she returned them to their normal state of being as a single weapon.

"The blood of Celestial beings stain this blade. I swear by this blood that I will grow and learn. I swear by my blood...my mother's blood...that I will grow and create a land of peace. For whatever it's worth. Thank you, oh worthy opponent."

What was left of the mist gathered. It surrounded her with a mix of murky red and white. When it dispersed...Miriam was gone.

Meanwhile...

@Cuccoruler

When the battle ended, the Departed had stopped their roar. Long ago, Claire had listened to the final words of the lingering spirits. Though it was out of greed to gain inspiration, they were grateful nonetheless. They had pledged to do her one single favor for her. All she needed to do was ask, and speak nonsensical lyrics that held the degradation of their sanity. A reminder of what they had suffered before they departed for the afterlife. That favor was fulfilled.

It had taken a lot out of her, and but in a battle with olden gods, she had to admit that she should've expected it. Still, Yuki was unconscious and injured. She could have died in a battle that was brought about against her wishes. Claire knew her sister. She knew that she didn't wish for the extinction of the human race. It was THEIR fault. It was Cia's...!

Claire stood up and opened a portal. From it was the sound of calming music. She gently placed Yuki into it, and let the bending light and soft darkness drift her unconscious body to a safer place. Claire simply stood where she was, thinking about things. She had come to a decision, and would voice it. No matter how insignificant it would be.

"This is exactly why I ran away from my mother" said Claire. "I thought that living among the mortals and bonding with them would help me to learn their struggles. It would help me learn how to help them when they needed it. So that they'd learn to live and love, instead of..."

Claire clenched her fists.

"I thought, as the next generation of gods, we were supposed to prevent ourselves from making the same mistakes as our parents. Instead we've made things worse!"

Her grip was tightened.

"We had friends among those humans. Now they're all dead, because we 'had no choice.' Not only that, my sister was pulled into a battle she and I had no right nor reason to be involved in. All because you..."

Claire almost drew blood from her grip, but relaxed and let go. She let out a sigh.

"Ah, well. I guess it couldn't be helped...Because of all the **** my sister had to go through, I'll call this Strike One. From now on, I'll join your meetings, potlucks, and whatever the **** else you guys do, but two more strikes and I'll make sure you all have a bad time."

She turned to the other deities with a wide smile on her face.

"Seeya's!"

Claire stepped through the portal to her own realm and closed it. She let out a sigh and returned her focus on nursing Yuki as she rests.

[Cuccoruler]

After everything was finally over Cia fell to the floor her legs giving way. She had a burn on her arm and looked pretty severe. Bone could actually seen from this burn. "I've done horrible things." Cia said tears coming down her face. "The humans were going to kill us we had to defend ourselves with the best way we knew how." Flemmings said trying to confort Cia.

Cia only cried. She and everyone else left the shrine room and the portal to the room closed. "I-I need time to think." Cia added before opening a portal to what almost looked like a void. It was full of healing light which could be used to heal her burned arm. "Please, forgive me for what I have done." Cia said through her sobbing before stepping into the portal and disappearing. As she did so the portal closed. Not even Flemmings could get to Cia at this point.

The screen faded to black and the credits began to roll. Along with a blooper real.