Helios
Unlucky0013
Lord Zee
DracoLunaris
Frettzo
Vec
Eviledd1984
Kalmar
ButtsnBallsHot & Angry
Po & Anath Homura
The colossus continued on its journey along the north eastern shores, beyond Lektoria’s Stormbreaker Mountains and the cold woodland realm created by Ravdur. It followed the jagged path where the sea mingled with the land, swiftly traveling southwards while accompanied by the shimmering lights that Myrtu had set loose upon the world.
Anath Homura stood upon the crown of the colossus in pensive silence, arms crossed and a brow arched as she contemplated the various accumulating contributions and creations across the world brought forth by the new pantheon. A strong heat bathed over her back as she thought, quiet yet crackled until a scratchy shout broke the peace.
“Your fire is a little flat!”
“So it is.” The red goddess replied, as she turned her one-eyed gaze from the heavens, and looked to the flame that had addressed her. “I am Anath Homura, and I have come offering peaceful greetings and gifts to bestow upon you.”
Po pointed to Homura’s straight red hair. “Are you cold?”
“Hmm… do I seem cold?” Anath Homura asked, as she swiftly shifted through her silken hair with her hand in a single motion.
“Your fire is flat,” Po reiterated. She held up her hands, the flames flickering a hot blue. “I’ll help.”
The red goddess gave a gesture of approval, awaiting whatever assistance Po could provide with an amused glint in her sole eye.
Po’s fire flared and her cloak fluttered as she heated up. Her blue flames turned white and then with a loud roar, a raging torrent of fire exploded from the fire goddess and engulfed Homura as well as the entire crown of the colossus.
“Do you accept my gifts?” Anath Homura asked, as she remained standing still in the inferno while Po worked with the flames, so she would not interfere with much more than a simple conversation.
“Huh?” Po was squinting with concentration, stopping for a moment. The fires swept away to reveal a red hot area as well as a toasty Homura. “Gifts? Yeah! I’m hungry.” A pause and Po lifted her hands again. “Are you still cold?”
“No, your flames were sufficiently warming.” Homura replied, and then gestured towards the lower sections of the colossus. “If you wish to feast on the flames of humanity, they await your burning touch within.” She explained.
“Oh, thank you!” Po abruptly grabbed Homura. It was less of an embrace and more of an investigation as the hidden face of Po looked her over. “And what about you?”
“Hmm?” Homura brows furrowed with bemusement.
“I’m hungry,” Po said simply, her grip heating up. “Show me my food.”
Anath Homura held out her hand, and the colossus rumbled with inner activity as metal grinded against metal and split apart. Once more, many openings and orifices appeared along the exterior of the colossus, revealing the still slumbering vessels that resided within the multitude of chambers and cavities inside its immense hollow chest. The pale featureless faces of the primordial humans gazed up at Anath Homura and Po, calling to them with their silent voices.
“Gimme!” Po screeched before blazing away from Homura. Her hood flew off her forehead to reveal her face burning with hungry passion, her eyes as wide as saucers. She smacked her lips and dove into the mess of humans, her flames immediately flooding the cavity. Anath Homura remained silent as she watched Po consume the slumbering humans within the colossus. The resilient earth that acted as their flesh was not designed to withstand flames from outside their forms, and it crumbled easily. The water and wind were devoured, and the little fires of each vessel were overwhelmed by the much more potent and vast flames of Po. Thousands upon thousands, all that were dormant within the colossus, turned to cinders.
By time the cavity was a swirl of ash and fire, Po was on her hands and knees, fiery teeth gnawing on the very material of the colossus. “Oh wow.” Her voice came out muffled. “Thish part ish really toughf.”
“I suggest sending your flames elsewhere. The celestial metal of the colossus will not burn.” Anath Homura called out.
“WHAT!?” Po shrieked. She jumped to her feet, her fires skipping right to white hot. She fumbled her words a moment before falling on, “WHAT!?”
“Your flames will not burn that metal. You cannot feast upon it.” The red goddess affirmed, shifting her one-eyed gaze between Po and the parts of the colossus that glowed white-hot from the searing touch of the former.
“No!” Po hissed. “Everything can burn!” She stomped her foot, a plume of flames so hot it burned iridescent popped up. She stomped her other foot and her white mantle turned to the same intensity, reigniting the cinders around her. The ashes disappeared under the new heat. “I will eat it!” She slammed a fist against the wall, the bang echoing through the cavity.
“Your flames lack the strength required, and the colossus belongs to me. I do not intend for you to eat it.” Anath Homura remarked, her apathetic visage descending from atop the crown to the exposed and empty chamber where Po fumed.
Po continued to throw her fit, stomping and hissing. With each hit, her flames grew and grew until they expanded to fill every corner of the chamber and then started to engulf the outside. Before long, vicious licks of fire were devouring everything around the colossus and burning the air itself orange. Po was a solid white figure at the epicenter of the growing nova, her swearing drowned out by the ear shattering crack of fire.
“You will not consume it.” The red goddess repeated without inflection, standing somewhere in the raging inferno.
“Shut up!” Po roared. Her voice summoned a popping silence. Time seemed to slow and the whipping flames that devoured mountains shrunk for a moment only for everything to come rushing back. The earth below the colossus was lifted from the massive explosion as Po vented all her heat outwards. Her flames turned to rings of fiery destruction that reigned taller than mountains, radiating from the still intact colossus. The grinding storm evaporated everything in its path, leaving molten residue and snapping white flames in place of whatever lived there before.
Po slouched for a moment, noticing she was still standing on the colossus. There was an unseen pout, a flip of her hood to its upright position and then with an angry plop, she sat back on the floor and crossed her arms. Her licking flames returned to her, though the devastation outside was still growing from the epicenter. “You win…” Her voice was small. “This time.”
Anath Homura approached where Po was seated, and kneeled next to her. “It was never a battle.” Homura murmured, and then glanced around the barren interior of the colossus for a brief moment. “It seems my travels have come to an end, and I shall return to my realm. Po, I ask that you visit my home and share with me the gift of your tenacity again.”
“You don’t get it,” Po snapped, refusing to look up from her pout.
“You are a different kind of flame. A familiar flame, but not the same as me.” Anath Homura murmured, peering at Po with the unrelenting weight of her otherworldly gaze.
“You invited me here,” Po turned her head so she couldn’t see Homura at all. “And it’s so cold, and you wanted my fire, but then you made something I can’t fix.”
“Perhaps I intended for another to mend the broken. Your fire is welcome, but you cannot consume all that is, do you understand?” The red goddess inquired with a sharp tone, rising to stand beside Po.
“That’s so unfair!” Po turned to look at Homura from her sitting position.
“It is what it is.”
Po pointed a finger. “You don’t even care about me!”
“I have been told that I lack love in my heart. I have murdered my children, and consumed the corpse of my father. I have betrayed many, and I will betray more. Perhaps you are correct… I do not care.” Anath Homura intoned, before she ascended from the desolate interior now levitating above the scorched colossus and the burning land.
“Well, you don’t have to prove it!” Po shouted over a sniffle. She rubbed an arm over her face for a moment before growling. “Ugh! You’re just like the others! You talk a lot, and say so many confusing words but they are as empty as smoke. Talk talk talk, no fire!” She turned away from Homura, content on staying in her spot on the colossus. “Leave me alone!”
“So I shall… though I would enjoy your presence in Keltra.” The red goddess replied, and then held out her hand. The colossus stirred, its celestial metal shifting and grinding against itself as its shape began to swiftly change. Within the interior; panels overlapped and merged, larger pieces became condensed smaller pieces, and the walls folded in upon themselves. The immense form of the colossus was reduced, reduced, and reduced, until it was too small to carry even a crumb of dirt, or a pouting goddess. At the end of the transformative process, the colossus had vanished from mortal sight. Its miniscule shape, visible only to the eyes of the Divine, now resting in the outstretched hand of Anath Homura.
Po’s voice came from the molten waves and spinning flames below. “You’re mean.”
“I am what I am. Farewell, until we meet again.” The voice of the red goddess echoed as she vanished as well. With her journey concluded, Anath Homura departed once more - feeling a pang of regret. It was unlikely her intention to end her travels with letting the remainder of humanity be consumed, and an angry goddess exploding in her face, but sometimes that happens.