Necrophage

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz just shook his head with a sorrowful sigh. "You know only death, Geode." Oz tried to mimic what Geode had done, displaying small faceless figures above his hands as he moved them back and forth. He closed his eyes. A blissful dog, a happy family, a new child. It started to grow grimmer from there, a man holding a dying woman as a stream of energy poured out of her until she was nothing. The same man standing over a huddle of bodies, looking down and away. Then he found a new girl and held her close. The images faded and his hands went to rest on his knees. "You're wrong to accuse us of knowing no light when all you can reveal is death and darkness. You're permeated by it. You've become it."

Finally, but slowly, Oz stood up. "Why is it that you, who knows so much, who is so enlightened cannot show us any light?" He stepped back to Jenso's side. "If you have no revelation for me, then you know my answer. I will not roll over and die, nor will I watch as you annihilate everything. Your cold calculations are better fit for machines. We are not your machines. I don't want to end you. I don't know what it would do to our world. Yet you give us no choice."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz connected the dots. "With all the time you've had I'm sure you realize that your children - the elementals - created us and by so doing you, yourself indirectly created us. We are all part of your legacy and that of the elementals, your children. It is one long link that joins us all together. We are - for all intents and purposes - one great family." He shifted himself a little closer to Geode and left his arms wide in an unhostile position. "The good that there is in humanity carries on the uncorrupted task of the elementals; creating, improving and making abundance in life. Hell, I was part of a farm, nurturing life, enjoying my work. Even then not every branch on a tree makes good fruit. Inevitably rot comes but it just makes us savor the sweet of the good that much more. You cannot have the best in life without experiencing hardships, whether it come naturally or from the evil of others." Oz stopped his advance and sighed. He wasn't done yet, he took a seat on the ground and crossed his legs. Geode was a great deal more complex than he ever knew. After all, as far as he could tell he was the Greatest Creator and under this logic Oz held some respect.

"I hate to say this, I really do." Oz looked downcast at the ground. "But it needs saying. The world needs the good and the bad. It requires opposition. Without it nothing advances, no one grows stronger, no steel is shaped and no secrets are uncovered. Creator Geode, I think you need to see this world from another perspective. Care for the work of your children, their humanity. To simply wipe us all out would be to destroy everything they left behind, the world of life they had indeed created! They fulfilled the measure of their creation. Purging their work would be like erasing the fact that they ever existed."

"You have borne witness to what atrocities mankind has wrought and what evils we can do. Yet I have not heard you utter at all about the great people. About the inventors, the healers, the leader -- the good fathers and mothers. We have learned of the arcane that you hadn't even considered. But because you have been attacked and spited by a single group out of a massive world of people you deem it relevant to wipe out EVERYTHING!" Oz's face was flushed. He wanted to be respectful to the being responsible for his very existence but he was pissed. There was no doubt he had a right to it. Geode had just moments ago announced his intention to essentially kill everything. Oz held silent for just a moment.

"Creator. I am in your debt for life itself but I will not roll over and die. I would help you if your goals were just. If you were open to suggestion I would ask for help in keeping the darkness at bay without snuffing out the light just to stop it." Oz bowed his head briefly before looking back up and frowning at Geode.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz shook his head. What would Gaians have to do with this? "I am no Gaian. Is that what you thought? What would they have to do with any of this? Are they the reason you conspire to destroy everything?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz looked at Geode with some skepticism but replied nonetheless. "Related? No, not at all. Just a friend of circumstance." He narrowed his eyes at him. The golem should know why he was brought here to begin with. "You are the one that had me brought here are you not?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Six circles. Seven circles. That was his limit. Oz's focus was like stone as he extended a hand to his side. With his palm downward, he dragged his hand up. A set of glyphs spun in place where a floor would have been if Oz had been standing on solid ground. From it raised his rod of force. He drew it back in his hand and stared down at the coming wave of darkness. No turning back now. This would work or he would be facing some of the worst burns in history. The end of the rod phased into a speartip. He gritted his teeth as he poured more of his ki into it, wound back and threw it through the gates.
Each gate chimed as the spear glided through and each in turn sped the spear up until, "BOOM!" It broke the sound barrier. It rippled through the air and even threw Oz off balance as it sailed toward Geode.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Their attacks barely warranted a response from Geode. It just stood there like the two heroes were nothing more than flies buzzing around. It was this time that Oz started to notice it though. The attacks did actually register a bit of a response from the giant. Jenso's whip actually managed to touch it and interact if only for a moment. Perhaps since he seemed to be protecting everything else around him it might prove better than he initially thought. "Jenso, in the case this works -- DO NOT STAND BEHIND HIM!" Oz warned.
The farmhand-made hero drifted back a little and started his work. The arcane symbols started to form in front of him as he twisted a hand through the air, forming his momentum gate. He didn't stop there though, he used his other hand as well. Together they moved rhythmically through the air and several more gates formed in front of those, each adorned with slightly differing symbols and glyphs. If stronger attacks could push through that dark field this one would do it. Oz just needed a little more time.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"We'll need to split up for this. Take him from two sides. That means I have to drop you on the sphere. Otherwise he'll just use one hand to block each of us." Oz maneuvered the disc around to the far side of the sphere as quickly as he could. G-force ripped at the two of them, threatening to tear them away. "Better get ready! I don't want to come around again." He shouted over the wind as the two of them bolted up the sphere. "We don't have much time left, you'll have to give it everything you've got!" They whipped up to the top and slowed down for just a moment. "Drop! Now!." Oz commanded.
Free of a Jenso to carry Oz forced his will upon the disc, shaping it as he glided in front of the colossal Geode. The disc shrank to a considerably smaller size, much more suitable to a single person. Some of that excess energy wrapped around his legs as he stood up, fixing him to the disc. Satisfied with his mobility he began his barrage of force pulse attacks, swapping his hands back and forth as he pelted the shadowy Geode with weaker attacks that he knew would have no effect. They were going to be nothing more than a nuisance and that was exactly what he needed them to be. There was no point using his full power against something that would just consume it so he needed to pace himself until a real chance was revealed.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Global Extinction huh? That's just freakin' perfect!" The disc swerved back into a more straight trajectory for the orb. "I'm going to get us on top of that thing. Keep away from that thing's hands. I don't like the prospect of you fizzling away just like that fire." It almost seemed like Geode didn't even consider them a threat, appearing more concerned with using them as a power source than trying to get rid of them. "I don't think he's afraid of us. Any ideas?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The monstrous version of Geode crawling out of the sphere only confirmed Oz's suspicions."Ho boy! It's times like this I hate being right! You better hold on. I'm going to do my best to avoid whatever it's going to try but no promises." A small collumn of energy phased out of the disc next to Jenso. Enough of a surface to hang on to for the inevitable. There was no telling just what power this thing was going to use. Just to be on the safe side, Oz immediately started swerving the disc to the side and raising in elevation. "When we get close enough I want you to try and hit the sides of that portal. I doubt a direct hit on this thing will be as effective if we have no space to work with. It's exposed the sphere to us, let's see what happens!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz peered down the huge gap separating them from the core castle. "I hate to be predictable but it looks like we don't have any other choice here. I have a hunch this core can also be used to attack with. I hope I'm wrong." The wind picked up just a little harder. "Because that's one hell of a distance to try and make up for an error in judgement."
Oz extended his hand just like last time to will the disc into being. This time however he knelt right around the middle of it. He would begin as soon as Jenso joined him. "If my hunch is correct I will do everything I can to protect us but I won't be able to attack back in this position."