As Galaxor did what he did best, destroying the tiny skeletons by any means necessary, kicking them, smashing them, throwing them and a few other ways of achieving the same effect, the others dealt with the Wraith. Not that it was a very successful undertaking..with one exception. Terilu’s second attack seemed to work better than the first and the Wraith was hurt, truly hurt, for the first time since the battle started.
Then, Ivraan screamed the only words that Galaxor needed to hear.
“DESTROY THE THRONE”
With a powerful leap, Galaxor soared high into the air, his massive form silhouetted against the dim, flickering torchlight making him look even more terrifying than he already was.
The runes on the massive throne pulsed ominously as Galaxor descended with formidable force, aiming to destroy the throne in one hit. The Wraith, sensing the threat, let out a guttural "NOO! STOP HIM!" and the room shook violently as Galaxor's attack connected with the ominous throne.
Pieces of rock flew all over the room as Galaxor used his axe like a hammer. Each hit caused a small tremor through the room and with each hit, the Wraith became paler.
Soon enough, tens if not hundreds of eerie lights started to exit the throne and swarmed over Galaxor as tiny cuts appeared whenever one would touch it. The skin turned a sickly white around each cut as Galaxor’s life essence was slowly consumed.
With a loud scream, Galaxor hit the throne once more and an explosion of light followed. It threw Galaxor through the air, hitting the entrance to the throne room with a loud BOOM.
Momentarily dazed, Galaxor couldn't help but notice that everyone in the party suffered a similar faith. Either thrown through the air or hugging the floor as the shockwave hit them.
With a loud, blood curdling scream, the Wraith collapsed on the floor and turned into ashes almost immediately afterwards. While the remaining skeletons turned back into simple bones, as the magic that sustained them disappeared.
In the next following minutes, the group would feel the effect of their actions. The very air seemed lighter, welcoming them.
The effect soon extended through the forest, spreading like wildfire. It would take many years for the forest to get back to its original beauty but even now, there were new plants growing, and birds started to sign through the trees. Life returned to the Emerald Forest.
Back in the throne room, a ghost of a paladin appeared. His armour was shining with divine light and a mighty mace handed by his waist.
Upon looking closer, the ghost looked like the skeleton the party first killed when they entered the tomb.
“Adventurers. My name was Arthas Merenthil and I was one of the many sworn to the Old King, my father. Once, he ruled these lands with love for his people. No one starved, no one needed to die. His necromancy was used as a power for the Light. Sadly, he received a gift from a jealous neighbouring kingdom, a cursed artefact.
The throne which you destroyed. The more he sat on it, the more his mind became twisted and the more his mind became twisted, the more people suffered.
Until everyone left or died and came back. Twisted versions of themselves. I stood up to my father towards the end of his reign and killed for it, turned into what you saw…so, I thank you brave pilgrims for finally allowing these old souls some rest. “
And with that, in a blinding flash of light, the old ghost disappeared onto the next world…and the Pilgrim's Caravan lifted their first curse and saved countless people.
The assassin attacked by Dal was bleeding hard and was in a great deal of pain but when Dal challenged him, he smirked. Many died upon his blade after words like this.
Dashing forward and leaving a trail of blood behind him, he lifted his blade up to strike only for another smaller blade to appear in his other hand and stab Dal in the side of his body.
1d20+1 = 17, Success
Sadly, the second assassin was unlucky, as his sword missed Fyr as if he wasn't the person that he was. Almost...like magic.
Storm clouds hung above Tricity, thunder rumbling and lightning flashing through the sky while below, the settlement itself was experiencing a storm of its own. Its major population centers sat on either sides of the eastern great river just before it flowed into the lands of origin, a third sat on an island in the center, which was connected to the other two by a pair of grand bridges. These bridges were the first and so far only way to cross the globe spanning river without superior swimming, beetle boat, or mundane ship, and as such mortals from far and wide had flooded towards it, fleeing the outer beasts.
The monster had nipped at their heels, harried them, nibbled at the edges, pushed them to flee faster, more recklessly, till a great bundled mass of mortal kind had arrived all at once, utterly overwhelming the city and causing mass panic. Joined by much of the civilian population of the south a great press of bodies filled the streets around the southern side of the bridge, while the city's defenders, who had attempted to hold the wilds, then the mines, then the outskirts, were now barely a street from the refugees.
Beetle boats, wooden ships, and aquatic beastfolk were attempting to ferry additional civilians out, and more defenders or supplies in, but they were making hardly a dent in the masses of people still trying to cross.
Lilly, daughter of Asheel, was among them. Having assisted her mother in regaining her power somewhere in the southern farm land, and then gotten somewhat delayed, she’d gotten caught up in the wave of people fleeing. She might have managed to get ahead of the rush thanks to her buggy had it not been for two things.
The first was simple civic duty. As a member of the council she was a representative of the people, and so at first she’d tried to manage the situation, to help them get people safety. At this point that had fallen through, however. Order had collapsed, and what little remained was in the hands of the city’s commanders, who had taken over from her once it became clear just how dire the situation was.
The other was a number of small vials of black sludge she’d acquired from a secluded little laboratory she’d had set up after a great deal of discussion with one of her past lives. She still prayed she’d not have to use that old wisdom of a forgotten race, but she’d ended up putting herself in a situation where the inevitable eventually happened.
She wasn’t the first to do something truly foolhardy however.
Instead, from a position atop a number of crates where she was trying and failing to maintain the calm of the people on the docks, she saw that opening act first hand.
Behind the civilian crowd were rows of dock side warehouses with relatively narrow side streets in between them, and out from these two chitin armored snouters stumbled, one holding a billhook, the other just a long knife having lost their primary weapon at some point. The second lost his life a moment after coming into sight, as the outer beast that had been pursuing them lunged out of the alleyway on a dozen fleshy limbs, flicking one past the guard of the billhook armed warrior and cleaving it through the knife armed one’s neck.
With a breathless cry he collapsed, knife slipping from his dead hand and towards the crowd, while the other squealed with anguish and rage and tried to fight back once more, fear overwhelmed by rage. It was not a fight they looked set to win.
The appearance of an invader spurred utter panic in most of the crowd, many diving or being pushed into the water as a result of their desperation to flee. One, however, did not flee.
A young human-seriema beastfolk, a boy with spindly limbs who, despite being a wild blood, looked like he’d snap like a twing if you breathed on him wrong. Yet despite this he had put himself in between the beast and a much smaller child despite the likelihood of him only being only a road bump if, or rather when, the beast came for them first. As fate would have it however, the fallen snouter’s sidearm had slid towards him when the warrior had fallen, a long knife with blood of beast on its edge and the blood of its fallen owner on its hilt.
The seriema glanced at the blade, at the snouter, behind him at the wash of mortality, and then did the foolhardy thing. He picked up the knife.
With an impressive burst of speed that would have surely let him get ahead of the invaders had he abandoned all he held dear, the seriema raced forwards to try and help, holding the knife in just the entirely wrong way, because he was by no means a fighter. Just a messenger boy.
He still tried to stab the beast anyway, dashing past the thrashing limbs that were tearing at the snouter’s armored body, and then hacked the knife into its side. He struck and struck with strength he should not have, only to be batted away, going tumbling to the ground. He lay there for a moment. And then got up and tried again despite his bruises. In response to a shouted instruction from the snouter, he tried stabbing rather than slashing this time, the knife found something important this time, prompting the beast to pivot to properly retaliate, only for the snouter to plunge the billhook forwards in response to that opening.
The beast roared in pain, trying to back off, only for the seriema to leap onto its back with a flap of vestigial wings, and begin stabbing it there over and over, clinging on with avian claws as it tried to shake him off, til finally it collapsed to the ground, dead.
He almost collapsed off of the beast, only for his arm to be grasped by the snouter, who gave him a nod while the crowd cheered and Lilly breathed a sigh of relief, having been unable to rip her gaze away from the fight. Yet even as she went to try and shout to restore order in the rest of the crowed, her words died on her lips as a pair of outer beasts came loping down the alleyway, a third leapt down from the rooftops and a fourth simply burst out through a wall.
For a brief moment she almost fled, but instead she breathed, gripped a vial in her hand and then started running towards the monsters instead, letting a more martial past life guide her footfalls so she could step from shoulder to shoulder of larger beastfolk and snouters. She was not, it seemed, the only one to be moving forwards, for in her peripheral vision, she saw another goblin moving towards rather than away from the danger, one that had arrived on the riverbank almost unnoticed while the fight had been ongoing.
Jaxx. What can one say about poor Jaxx? After his failed fight with Galaxor, he focused his quest to save the goblins kept by the beastfolk.
Guided by his hero sense, he found them and with a bit of foresight from his other ability, he was able to single handedly save the goblins…but that was many months ago. Maybe even years. Jaxx didn't know exactly nor did he try to keep count. His hero sense pulled him to a different issue as soon as he solved the previous one. A non-stop ringing in his mind kept pushing him more and more. Only stopping when he was too tired to listen to it.
One might ask how he reached his current location. He was deep asleep after a 3 day battle with a group of human bandits when his hero sense exploded in his mind. Screams, ringing and an overall sense of wrongness overcame his mind from every direction. The sense tried pulling him in all of them at once. It was as if the whole world was in danger.
After a few days of wandering aimlessly trying to understand what's going on, Jaxx settled on a direction and walked and walked until he reached a river. A brief discussion with the owners of a beetle boat, he understood what was going on and why he was directed in that direction in the first place.
What Jaxx didn’t understood was that time was fickle. In his journey, he had crossed multiple different timelines and met quite a few civilizations. Goblins that were still savage, beastkin that learned the art of agriculture, highly mutated creatures and rune magic users. He never understood what exactly was happening but he didn’t care either, it was what it was.
Eventually, he reached the riverbank and saw a group of monsters attacking civilians. With a mighty war cry, he pulled his sword off his back and jumped upwards as his sword went down in a deadly arc.
Lilly was, naturally, ignorant of all these facts, and instead only saw another goblin charging into the fray. Her steps might have faltered, her mind might have prayed that the hero with his mighty sword would be enough, but in that moment her body was not hers.
A warrior’s soul in a preacher’s body landed on the street by the docks, and then an ancient tendriled thing known as an Octari was wearing her skin. Yet even as it uncorked the vial of blackness and raised it to her lips, she did not fight it, for it was her and she was it, and together they became something new.
R’kava, freshly harvested from a spawning pool she and a select few others had found and cultivated using the wisdom of the dead and their own crude runecraft. Yet they had never tested the effect it had on people. Till now.
It probably should have killed her, that reckless act, but one god had made the universe a lover of the courageous, determined and resourceful, and so just as with the seriema boy, just as it was doing with so many more, it gave her the edge she needed. Endurance, strength, and most important for her, magic.
Evolution flowed through her veins, and then by her lifetimes’ worth of will, flowed to her upper back and burst from it, forming long thin tendrils tipped with venom dripping blades. She staggered, young mind seering in pain even as her old soul endured. Asserted control over this temporary flesh. Sent it racing forwards into the fray.
Said fray contained only 2 mortals now, for the snouter had fallen, though they were only broken, not quite dead. The seriema now held their allies billhook in hands that should not have been able to lift it, but the newly minted hero was nothing when compared to the old hand that was Jaxx, facing down the four cart sized outer beasts without fear or hesitation.
The blade came down and up went the outer beast's claw as it flew into the air. A massive ROOAAAARRR following it and then with the other, uninjured claw hit Jaxx. Normally, a hit like that would've been fatal but due to the heroic foresight, Jaxx managed to put his sword first and block the blow.
And…Jaxx flew in the air for a meter or two before turning in midair and shoving the sword into the ground, slowing him down. Any normal sword would've broken by now but Jaxx had this sword for a long time already, it became a hero roughly at the same time he did. It was more durable and sharper than any normal blade.
As he stopped himself, Jaxx surveyed the battlefield for a sec, noticing the seriema and Lily. Seeing that they've got things handled, at least for now, he ran once more towards his opponent. Circling it, as it tried to strike Jaxx with its tail, Jaxx delivered a series of small blows all over its body. It might've been a strong monster but it wasn't as fast as Jaxx was.
“Who along the river is that guy?” the seriema had to ask as he warded the outer beast off with his billhook, only to glance to the side and find he had to ask “and who, and what, along them are you?”
“We are-” the soul in the goblin’s body began to reply, before the goblin herself resurfaced to reply “I’m just Lilly, and I ain’t got no idea!” as she lunged one of her new combat tentacles forwards, sinking the tip into exposed flesh of their foe, which began to instantly necrosis as snake venom was pumped into its system.
“How bout you?” she asked as she reeled it back, before briefly letting a warrior past life take the wheel so he could parry an incoming slash from the poisoned beast using the knife the seriema had been using.
“Seam” the seriema named as such replied, as he hacked the curved blade of the billhook down onto the limb that had tried to hit Lilly, and finding that fighting alongside her, alongside of both of them, was somehow easier. He put it down to learning on the fly, but while that was part of it, the universe was cheering the fresh heroic band on, letting them work better both as a team and as individual parts of that team than they would have alone.
“I'm the Hero Jaxx. ” he said in a tough, loud voice, as if two rocks were hitting each other. Everything relating to Jaxx seemed to have changed from before his heroic journey started, it molded him into the person he was now.
After his words, he started again circling the outer beast and in that moment Jaxx locked eyes with Lily and Seam briefly and what happened next was truly heroic.
Described before this universe's existence by Galaxor, the three heroes felt a surge of power as they now formed a party of heroes. Their wounds suddenly stopped bothering them, the exhaustion they felt gone and their general confidence grew tenfold. It was as if they knew they'll survive. They will win this fight.
Jaxx never felt such a connection before but quickly understood it must've been Galaxor’s influence, somehow. So, he continued doing what he did best and that was killing monsters. At the same time, the outer beast lunged at him, abandoning any self preservation instinct it had.
Using his new found confidence, Jaxx simply stood still right until the outer beast was about to catch him in its mouth and moved to the side…at the same time as his sword made a downward arc and off came the head of the outer beast.
Behind him, the final beast of the four suffered a far less dramatic death, particularly because it experienced it half way up the alleyway which it had tried to flee up, only for the venom and the dozens of puncture wounds inflicted by hook and claw to cause the last of its vitality to drain from it.
“Wait, did ya say Jaxx? As in the Jaxx?” Lilly asked as she turned back to the hero who was a legend of the riverlands. A living one too, it seemed, which she had no idea how it was the case, as even some of her oldest lives had tales of his exploits.
Still, with what they’d just seen, as Seam pointed out “He does fit the barter” before blinking a few times as the dying adrenaline let his mind catch up with what had just happened. He looked a bit sheepish, before doing a halve bow towards Jax, fist held just above his chest while his thumb traced a circle on it, and saying “thank you hero, I… I’d be dead without you” before turning to Lilly and offering her the same thanks.
Jaxx started cleaning his blade of the black ichor that acted as blood for the outer beasts when Lily addressed him. Stopping, he looked downwards to the minuscule form of the goblin that stood before him.
“The Jaxx? I’m just Jaxx, the Hero Jaxx and no need to thank me, beastkin. It isn’t as if I do it because I want it but the curse placed upon me by our creator doesn’t give me any peace if I don’t do what I do. ” said Jaxx before looking away in the distance. It was as if he was here in body but his mind somewhere else. Lost, one might say.
“There are more monsters around. Other people to save. I can feel them. ” added Jaxx as he turned his gaze towards the city, trying to figure out where the greatest danger was based on his heroic foresight.
Ironically in this instance that sense wasn’t needed, because the cheering from the people they had just saved was suddenly drowned out by screams of panic coming from the nearby bridge where far more people were trying and failing to cross the river. Said place had also had the largest concentration of soldiers trying to hold the main road, but if the barely controlled panic was spilling over into outright panic …
“Mother preserve us” Seam whispered in horror at what must be occurring, while Lilly found herself glancing between the people they had just protected and the far larger group that was now in trouble.
“Guide these people to safety. No need to put yourself in more danger. ” said Jaxx, leaving the other two to keep protecting the naval evacuation as he started to sprint towards the bridge.
As he ran, he muttered under his breath, suddenly feeling more tired than before :”A hero's job never ends. ”
Running as fast as his heroic legs allowed him, he jumped over debris, smaller goblins and whatnot, following the arched street and using his heroic senses to guide him towards the bridge.
He encountered only a few stray beasts on the way, as well as streets packed with refugees guarded by what remained of the city’s warriors who thought him mad to be running through the streets on his own.
It was not they who needed protection however, and so the hero’s took him on an arch around the outside of the city blocks filling blob of mortal lives, until he burst onto the main road leading to the bridge, and in doing so, right into the ranks of the outer beasts.
In the instant before they noticed him, he comprehended the scene. Outerbeasts were streaming down the main road, their endless limbs trampling over the remains of the last defenders of that main road, and were now tearing into the rear of the refugees and civilians. Now finally cornered, those untrained mortals were fighting back with tooth, claw and tool, but desperation was not heroism, and they were being slaughtered as a result.
Instead heroes, as they so often did, arrived late, and as Jaxx did, they had been led by instinct or coincidence into a flanking maneuver, hitting the press of beasts from the side. He caught sight of goblins, beast folk, snouters and even a crystal strider, all armed with whatever they had been able to scrounge in their first moment of heroism, be it weapons of fallen soldiers, kitchenware or knives tied to sticks.
Two found the same alleyway as Jaxx, and came charging in just after him: a snouter chef, complete with poofy hat and apron, armed with a pair of cleavers, and an incredibly young goblin on a tricked out two wheeled Buggy wielding a wrench.
A roar was all that Jaxx gave to the outer beasts as he charged them, sword held up high, ready to cut through anything that was dumb enough to try to stop him. At his back, he felt the snouter and the small goblin followed him, echoing his war cry.
The moment the outer beasts noticed him, a few of them attacked and died. Jaxx was a whirlwind of death, jumping, kicking and slashing as he moved forward. He didn't stop, he never faltered…he just killed. One by one. Outer beast by outer beast.
And that's when the outer beasts, maybe guided by a primal instinct, declared him the biggest threat. Suddenly it wasn't 1 vs 5 but 1 vs 20 and no matter how strong and experienced Jaxx was, it proved not to be enough.
‘Alas, he achieved what he wanted. He got their attention. It seemed as if all the outer beasts not yet engaged in combat with someone else, converged upon Jaxx.
In that moment, everyone that was on the bridge, felt a divine presence. Just for a second. Something…heroic. And time slowed down. At least, for the outer beasts. It was as if their movements were sluggish. As if time itself declared that they were a bit behind.
The tiniest moment of clam was ended when an arrow flew through the air, fired by some unseen sniper, striking one of the beasts which moved too slowly to avoid this shot. This had occurred several times before, indeed the sniper was almost out of arrows, but what had not occurred was the way the outer beast recoiled from the relatively minor wound it had taken, crying out in guttural agony where before only a great or multitude of blows would prompt such a response.
Beneath the heroic aura, a second one had slipped a subtle knife into the beast’s nerves, cursing their pain to be tripled in intensity.
Another beast was struck moments later, and in an agony filled panic spread wings it had not used till now, and began to try and take flight to flee, only for lightning to crash down from the stormy sky the moment it cleared the rooftops. There was a reason no one was daring the skies today, be it outer beast or beast folk.
Jaxx roared in anger as he effortlessly defended himself and looked into the sky and shouted “LEAVE ME ALONE! STOOOOOP! ”
Poor Jaxx, not even in what seemed his final moments wasn't left alone. He longed for peace, for silence…yet he wouldn't be getting any. Not as long as Galaxor watched over him. Not as long as the heroic aspect shined its golden aura over Galbar.
After the moment of anger passed, Jaxx continued the slaughter. Slowed down as they were, the outer beasts stood absolutely no chance to survive. Even the most unprepared civilians seemed able to injure the outer beasts, for Jaxx it was less than nothing.
Many of the beasts began to turn and flee as they felt true pain for the first time, but one surfaced above the rest who knew that fear, and was able to face it. It looked old and worn and sacred, as if it had faced many fights despite, from the city’s perspective, the crisis had barely just begun. Stranger still, it was not only flesh, several of its many arms had been severed in battle, and had been replaced with limbs made from a metal unknown to all of this world, inside which gears clicked and whirred.
With these cold hard limbs that flet not a thing, it protected itself from pain, and even when stuck, it endured the wounds with endurance born from true suffering. With scything blades of cold steel it struck down the freshly forged mortal heroes, the heroic aspect’s thumb on the scale being outweighed by the coiled knot of time and the experience wrought from it.
The creature started sprinting towards Jaxx, declaring him the greatest threat, but was soon stopped by the newly made heroes…for about a second or two before its scything blades cut them in half. A shower of blood was all that was left behind it and the broken bodies of any that came in its path.
Even as slowed down as it was by Galaxor's curse, it seemed faster than the rest. More intelligent. Dangerous. And if it wasn't for Jaxx’s heroic foresight, it would've been deadly for him.
The blades came like a whirlwind towards Jaxx who didn't even have time to raise his sword to deflect, only merely pulling himself backwards enough not to be cut in half.
A large slash wound appeared on Jaxx’s chest as blood pooled around his feet.
“You look different, creature. Stronger. It'll be an honor to put you down. ” said Jaxx as he tried circling around it as before, only to be met every single time by a blade. It was as if the creature had no blind spots or better said it knew which blind spots it had and how to protect them..
Now that Jaxx knew what to expect, he knew how to defend himself, ‘alas for each other blocked or dodged attack, one would go through. In minutes, Jaxx’s body was filled with cuts, some small while others, like the one on his chest, big and long. It didn’t help that his heroic endurance was slowly reaching its limits. His moves started to become sluggish and his blows barely had any true strength behind them.
It seemed that all was lost once more.
Suddenly, from the street Jaxx had entered through, there came a rumbling and rattling before a goddess’s personal transport flashed out of it… With Lilly at the driver’s helm. With the dock now guarded by soldiers relieved by the beast’s pouring towards this very battlefield, she’d had time to recover her mother’s Buggy, which she now drove headlong towards the beast.
Though an experienced defender, the outer beast had never had to guard itself against something close to its own mass before, and so there was a moment of hesitation that saved the heroes’ lives. Blades came up both to guard its body and to try to skewer the driver, only for Seam to grab the comparatively small goblin woman right before impact, and to then leap out of the vehicle who’s accelerator the goblin had stabbed into the floor using her borrowed knife.
Flightless wings caused enough drag to slow the pair’s fall, while in contrast nothing could slow their runaway machine, which smashed into their foe and practically bowled it over, showering it with splinters for good measure.
Not that the creature was done for. Just as the Buggy was about to hit it, it jumped high up into the sky or as high as it could without getting hit by lightning from above. Still, the Buggy managed to catch two of the blades that weren’t pulled up in time and made the outer beast do a cartwheel in air before plunging into the ground…a crater appearing from the impact with the street.
A nod was all that Jaxx gave his saviors as he tried to run towards the outer beast, hoping to finish it off while it was still stunned…but he couldn’t. After a few hurried steps, Jaxx’s blood loss and obvious exhaustion finally caught up. He slowed down and started using his sword as a cane.
“Ki-Ki—Kill it. Fff-aa—s–t. ” was all that he managed to say before collapsing on the floor.
The pair glanced at the legendary hero brought low by mortal limits, then at the beast presently pulling itself out of the wreckage of the buggy, and then like fools they charged. Seam thrust slashed his billhook around in a sweeping blow, while Lilly stabbed out with her new tendrils, only for a blade to block the first blow, and the goblin to scream in pain as her biological weapon was severed by another.
The beast had endured much, a fresh upset was but a lesson to learn, not a reason to fear. The same could not be said of its fellows, who all around it had fallen or were fleeing, beaten by the rats they had cornered, and the indirect hands of their divine patrons. Even so, the beast did not yield, not now, not yet. The insult of injury would be answered with death.
Forward it came, and the pair of heroes found themselves on the defensive, Seam blocking strikes with his billhook while Lilly used ancient wisdom, and new limbs to dodge to and fro. Yet in doing so they lost ground, being driven back towards the hobbled Jax.
From his downward position, Jaxx barely saw what was happening, especially as his vision kept blinking in and out. This was a fight he was happy to have lost, finally, some peace. But wait. If he was about to die, why did the ringing in his mind not stop? Why was it ringing louder and louder? Why did it keep pushing him to act?
Lilly’s scream answered that question as one of her natural weapons flew off. Another blink and now they were closer to Jaxx. Losing ground. They were about to die. From somewhere within him, Jaxx felt the hero call. The power that drives all heroes to do what they do. To fight against any and all opposition in their path to greatness.
Immediately, Jaxx stood up, using his sword to push himself up…even as blood flowed out of him. Blink. He was closer, his hands gripped the sword tightly, making his knuckles white under the strength. Blink. The outer beast was closer, Lily and Seam between him. Blink.
He was behind the outer beast. Why was he behind the outer beast? Blink. Pain. Blink. Blink. Blink. PAIN. Blink. The beast was still fighting Lily and Seam, even as they both sprouted new injuries. Blink. Lifting his…arm? Blink. Where was his arm? Oh. Blink. Why was it on the ground? Blink. What? Blink. Blink. Left arm. No more. Blink. Just a sword and a right arm. It was enough. Blink. JUMP. Slash, slash, dodge. Blink. Blood. Blink. Even more blood. Stab and…blink. Sword stuck into the neck of…something. Blink. Blink. Screaming. Blink. Where? Blink. Pain. Pain. Pain. Blink. Darkness. Silence. Blink. Nothing.
The hero collapsed next to his severed arm as the other two heroes screamed in both horror and fury as they rushed the several wounded beast. Yet it was not done. Or rather it was, but it was done with these gnats, done with this city. Its remaining arms parried their thrusts as it stalked towards the fallen Jaxx, wishing to end him as a last act before it fled with the rest of its kin.
Then it flinched as it heard a familiar rumbling, only this was deeper, louder. Its awareness that had been fixated on this fight glanced outwards, seeing that its kin had in fact already fled, and that something was coming. From another alleyway came another buggy, but this one took up the entire space, and made the beast itself look small by comparison. Atop this machine a goblin with a very large hat screeched orders at an entire team of her fellows, who turned cranks that spun gears which pivoted the muzzle of a ballista mounted atop their war machine at the Beast. A massive wooden bolt then was lossed, taking the beast’s only remaining flesh arm off in the process and pining it to a wall behind it.
With the situation by the docks stabilized, the city had been able to squeeze the armored cavalry past the civilians, and other rumbles drawing made it clear that this wooden tank was only the first. Upon realizing this the beast decided that it had in fact had enough. It abandoned its vengeful stalk and took off at a gallop up the main street, weaving between piles of dead, and then was gone. Beaten, but not broken.
In its wake it left the bodies of fallen heroes be they corpses or crippled, and the dawn of its own legend… and, as Lilly stared sorrowfully at the now one armed Jaxx as a medic stemmed both his and her bleeding, the dawn of an idea.
Up a mountain, just below the storm clouds, on an outcropping overlooking the city below, there sat two gods and a hunk of flesh and blood of the greater outer beast Egrioth. It had had a vast number of purple needles and a small piece of the artifact which Galaxor created earlier, sticking out of it, both these effects faded, along with the storm that had denied mortal and beat-like access to the skies.
A haggard looking Breaker slumped and released a sigh of relief, and declared that “it’s over”
“They won, they won, they won, yipee!” a less drained and much more excited Maiden replaced her older self to cheer, before the Mother took back control and fixed her comrade in arms with an accusatory stare, saying in a rather outraged tone that “I thought you agreed to leave Jaxx alone!”
“Of course they won. They had Jaxx with them. That mortal is worthy of his title. Your Lily was interesting too. Tell her good job on achieving herohood from me. She’s earned her title. ” replied Galaxor with a knowing smile before laughing at the Mother’s outburst.
“I did agree to leave him alone and I haven’t done anything to him specifically. I just slowed down all the outer beasts. Also, it ain’t as if I can’t stop myself from watching over him. He’s the first self-made hero and my creation. If I wanted to intervene directly, I would’ve sent the Cosmic Destroyer over or just appeared there myself and taken them all out but that isn’t my style. None of them would’ve learned anything if we would’ve saved them. See how many new heroes were made? ” added Galaxor once he stopped laughing before making a 3D map of the Tricity appear with each living being that was now a hero appearing on it like a big golden dot.
“He certainly doesn’t seem to feel left alone is more my concern” the Mother replied, before sighing and saying “well at least he’ll be able to take a bit of a break now that there’s more heroes about. Or need to rather, having lost an arm like that, the poor man. I’ll have to make sure he is well taken care of” or rather she’d help Lilly make sure of that.
“It’s the blessing I bestowed upon him that’s bothering him, not me. He received the hero sense and it ain’t an easy burden to bear. It drives you to greatness but…you say goodbye to mundane life and no, he won’t be able to take a break for the same reason. Whenever there are innocents in danger, he’ll feel it. A ringing in his mind will go off and the more he ignores it, the stronger it’ll be. He’s got 3-4 days tops from the moment he’ll wake up until it’ll drive him mad and then he’ll have to go. ”
The goddess just looked absolutely befuddled as she said “but you put it on.. you made it work like…” and then just demanded to know “why?”
“Doesn’t seem too heroic if he’s forced to do heroic things now does it?” the Breaker pointed out, while the Maiden chimed in to suggest “oooh, we should make him some ear muffs”
“In my defense, when I blessed him with it I thought I knew everything there is to know. Now I know that I don’t know anything while also knowing everything. Thing is, he can control it. It’s a skill and any skill can be mastered. He needs to want to learn and there are only two people who can teach him how to use it properly and one of them promised that he won’t meddle with his life anymore. The other person is himself. It takes a lot of work but he can do it. In the future he’ll even be able to locate certain people or objects. ” said Galaxor in an apologetic tone before shaking his head.
“He isn’t forced to go into battle each time. He could’ve started painting or crafting or anything else and the ringing would’ve gone away if he truly dedicated himself…yet he chose combat. ”
“Four days does not seem like a lot of time to entirely change professions, or do much of anything, so it seems I will need to act as the messenger woman for this little tidbit, lest he get himself killed. That man is in no shape to fight anything” the Mother replied, only for the Breaker to chime in “or we can leave him to get himself killed and that’ll be the end of it anyway”
The Maiden however had a concerning thought about that, however, which was “What if it goes with his soul when he reincarnates? Would there be a baby with that ringing in its ears?”
“No one said to change professions but he can start trying, it’ll slowly reduce in intensity. No one said anything about fighting, he could help rebuilding or look for people in danger under the rubbles. The hero sense would make him quite efficient at it. ” replied Galaxor, further explaining how his blessing worked.
“I never thought about your reincarnation. The blessing is attached to his soul, so…I think so. It would follow him in a different body. But OK. Fine. You’ve convinced me. I’ll give him another blessing. Time slow. It’ll allow him to slow down time around him for a very short period of time. Combined with the heroic foresight, even one-armed he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. ” replied Galaxor to the Maiden.
“It’s something” the Mother conceded “but I’ll still need to keep an eye on him, both as he recovers and in his next life. Hopefully a great need to drink milk will satisfy, and if not I shall deal with the issue somehow”
“Or, you can let him follow his path. Just an idea of course. RALK is better than milk, by the way. ” replied Galaxor as he teleported two bottles of RALK in front of them.
“Someone needs to let him know there’s more than one” the Mother replied before blinking and looking confused at whatever this drink was, before responding “Not for babies, surly” as she opened it up, and took a swig, only for her eyes to widen. She drank deep of the gift as the storm clouds above melted away, and the light of the sun shone down upon both them and the city below once more. Only once the bottle was empty, and the skies were clear, did she release the bottle from her lips with a satisfied sigh, and admit “Or you know what, maybe you're right”
Galaxor watched Asheel down the bottle and started laughing, very loudly before stopping and giving her a gentle slap on the back. “Oh’ I know! It’s a godly drink that my GU has. Some small deity gave it to them. Back when I was but a hero and not a god, they called it “Ambrosia”. ”
The breaker made a little annoyed sound when the Mother swapped her out just before that light slap landed, before the Maiden took over to ask “What was it like, out there, where you were a hero? What kinda stuff did you do?” ever so curious about his past exploits.
Galaxor’s face basically lit up when he was asked to tell about his past exploits, as a few more bottles of RALK appeared before them.
“Once upon a time, there was…” Galaxor started and from there, a few days passed as he talked in length about the time he fought a monster that whenever you'd cut its head, two more would appear and a woman who could turn anyone looking in her eyes into stone, while down below in the city only hours passed because time, as its new master well knew, was funny like that.
Tricity is under siege by the outer beasts of the Outer Gods. Lily, Asheel’s daughter, makes a friend, Seam and together they take over the defense of the city. Many civilians die but most survivors have been elevated to hero status as per Galaxor’s Khodex addition.
Jaxx arrives in the city guided by his hero sense and makes short work of a good number of outer beasts before being overwhelmed by their numbers. At that time, Asheel and Galaxor involve themselves and curse the outer beasts.
After a hard fight with an older Outer Beast that moved through different timelines, Jaxx loses an arm while Lily and Seam receive a number of small injuries.
The old outer beast escapes, heavily injured as it was. Scene cut to a dialogue between Asheel and Galaxor where Galaxor explains how the “hero sense” he blessed Jaxx with works and after being told off by Asheel, agrees to bless Jaxx with a new ability.
Galaxor Available - 3 MP -1 MP to curse the outer beasts with “Time Slow”, making their moves sluggish. -1 MP to bless Jaxx with a “Time Slow” ability which allows him to slow down the passage of time around him for a few seconds. Enough to give him an edge. (4/4 MP for Time Domain]
Remaining - 1 MP Asheel Available - 12 MP
-1mp to patronize Lilly’s experiments with R’kava -1mp to brew a temporary storm above Tricity that struck any attempting to fly above it with lighting -1mp and part of a greater outer beast to temporarily curse the outer beasts in the city such that even lesser wounds would cause them great pain
After the battle with Erigoth, Galaxor returned to the Goblin Underground to see how they reacted, seeing that Erigoth was killed just above their caves. What he saw was sad. Tunnels collapsed. Hundreds dead. Even more goblins injured, trapped or missing.
Maxima was overworked, to say the least, as she was directing rescue efforts and the survivors. It was a mess and a half. Lucky for everyone, Galaxor was there to save the day…again.
In minutes, he cleared the tunnels of rocks, saved all the trapped goblins, cleaned up the library and his own temple and then took a nap in his holy temple. Galaxor was tired. Weeks passed as he slept, undisturbed by anyone. In his sleep, his divine blood slowly leaked on the ground until eventually, a hole was formed into the floor of the holy temple which slowly gave away under Galaxor’s weight.
Under the holy temple, unbeknownst to anyone, was yet another cavern. Deep and close to Galbar’s core. With a loud yawn, Galaxor woke up to find himself in an unfamiliar place. Quickly looking around, he realised where exactly he was and let out a laugh that caused a small earthquake.
“Oh my, oh my. Galbar’s core is so close that I can feel its heat. This place is perfect! ” he said out loud before flying upwards back to his temple and let out a huge blast of divine energy which travelled downwards until it reached the place where Galaxor fell and with an impressive BOOOOM a tower was formed. It reached high up but not fully up the hole.
Afterwards, Galaxor summoned Maxima and explained her and the GU’s new task. Go down by any means necessary. Reach the new temple and fill it up with every piece of knowledge possible.
While it was hard for the goblins of GU, in only 2 short time periods they managed to reach it, filling it up with all the knowledge they gained. Inside the temple, they'd find themselves even smarter than before. Things they only heard about, available almost instantaneously for as long as they were inside.
Smol post in which Galaxor retreats to his holy temple and falls asleep for 2 weeks. When he wakes up he finds that his blood made a hole in the floor and revealed a deep cavern close to the Core. Galaxor then proceeded to give GU the task to reach what he built there, a new temple. Some time later, they managed to reach it.
Available - 4 -1 to make a holy temple of Knowledge where anyone can grasp knowledge they only roughly heard almost instantaneously if they worked on it. Left - 3
As the wraith moved with inhuman speed, it cut through Terilu’s skeletons as if through butter and then, something happened. Something Galaxor didn’t fully understand but it seemed similar to the shamanic magic he grew up with. Shamanic magic which he knew little about.
“Move aside! Let the grown-ups deal with this!”
Then Galaxor jumped into the fray and swung his axe in wide arcs, attempting to strike the wraith that danced and weaved around him. The tomb echoed with the clash of steel meeting ethereal resistance.
The wraith, draped in tattered robes that looked like solid dark mist avoided Galaxor's blows effortlessly. Its eyes, glinting with dark power, focused on the giant, and with each movement, the runes on the throne seemed to pulse with malevolent energy. Something was clearly happening, something magical in nature…something evil. It seemed that the wraith had a surprise planned for the party and only the most perceptive or magically capable would notice that the strikes from both the skeletons around and the wraith were never aimed to kill but to spill their blood all around.
Despite Galaxor's immense size and strength, the wraith proved to be too slippery for him. It darted in and out of his reach, leaving small, ethereal cuts across Galaxor's legs. Blood pouring from them. With a roar, Galaxor jumped backwards at the same time as his axe swung around, making the wraith dodge and giving him the opportunity to pull back.
“That thing is too fast for me, someone else should kill it. I’ll deal with the bony fellows. HA! HA! ” he laughed as he started dismantling the skeletons on the side, going straight towards the archers as they rained arrows upon him.
Sadly, for them, these were not magically enhanced arrows and they barely scratched Galaxor’s skin as bones started to fly around the throne room.
As the battle raged on, the room started to vibrate wildly. The runes on the massive throne started to pulsate more intensely and soon, the blood from the wounds inflicted by the skeletons and the wraith started to float in mid-air and each small drop started to fly toward the ominous throne.
As the blood reached the runes, the wright, now empowered by this bloody ritual, started to gain substance. The hood of the wraith’s head fell down and under it, the face of a beautiful person was revealed and a crown magically appeared on his head but the rest of the body was still in an in-between state of undeath.
“Yes! YES! MOOOORRREEE! BRING ME BACK!” shouted the wraith with an unnatural voice, a sense of wrongness in it, as it charged to attack.
The moment Galaxor left Sylia with the Cosmic Devastator, he teleported to the Goblin Underground where he spent the following days guiding Maxima’s goblins in the defence of their underground bunker. Without his presence there, thousand goblins would’ve died when another divine being created a massive earthquake, destroying tunnels and houses. Luckly, Galaxor managed to save all the goblins before their untimely and unheroic death.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Luna was gathering herself an army. Killing anything standing in her path and consuming them, Luna grew into a powerful leader. A white monster devouring any who stood in her path. Her pack numbered 50 and they were all outcasts, killers one and all. Blood Frenzied Wolves. The Death Pack. The White Devils. They had many names. The monsters of the Outer Gods didn’t seem to bother them…too much. It was easy to hide in the desert.
Later on, in the Goblin Underground, the monsters came. Hundreds of them. Not from the surface as one would’ve expected but from within. Hundreds of tunnels opened up with the earthquake and for any kind of monster, it was easy to break through. Sadly…for them, the Cosmic Devastator made short work of them and those that Galaxor didn’t reach in time, Maxima and Rajesh proved their mettle in battle. Both sporting new scars over their bodies. Still…property damage was done. The tablets of the library were damaged and with them, the knowledge of what was written.
Eventually, Galaxor had enough. He deemed the Goblin Underground safe enough and teleported above the Tree of Life…only to see Allianthe being defeated mercilessly in battle but before he could swoop in and save the day, like he planned. He felt a familiar divine presence. The essence of someone he liked.
Across the desert she rode, witch’s hat now atop head once more. Rather than a broom however, the goblin goddess rode atop a machine of death. Two half circle wheels tore up the sands, while in between them unknowable machinery caused blades to slice and dice anything before them, while the goddess herself rode behind, goggles keeping the sand and outer beast viscera out of her eyes.
There was certainly plenty of the latter flying, for after softening up the army swarming towards her Mother aspect’s home of Tricity, the Breaker of Cycles was now blazing straight towards the great beast that had laid Allianthe low.
With a wave, Galaxor teleported a bit to the side of Asheel and bowed towards her. “Greetings Asheel! It is a mighty pleasure meeting you upon the battlefield. Might I say that you’re looking different than before? Wiser. Better looking. Truly, a sight to behold. ” said Galaxor. His voice would be different than Asheel would remember, gone was the obvious bravado, the pointless over-the-topness. This was a calm Galaxor. A knowledgeable one.
After a few seconds of pause, in which Galaxor pointed towards Egrioth with the Cosmic Destroyer, he started speaking again “I assume you’re here for the same thing. To banish or kill that divine. I’ve got the perfect weapon to do so, if you wish to help. ” as he talked, Galaxor showed the Cosmic Destroyer to Asheel. The sheer power of it and deadliness to divines was obvious.
The goddess eyed the god’s weapon with a mix of trepidation and envy before grinning and replying “Oh, so you have a thing for blood soaked older women do you, enough that it has you showing off your mighty hammer?” in a tone that was a mix of sultry and mocking, only for the Maiden to flip out, figuratively, litrily, and divinely as she took over to complain “uuuurgh not you too! I had to blank out the last forever because of this kinda yucky stuff!”
The mother briefly took control to start to request that “Could we stay on task here please?“ only to be banished by the Breaker who responded both to her younger aspects with an exasperated “Yes, yes, fine” and then to Galaxor himself with a matter of fact “We’re here to end a cycle so that many more can continue, yes”
Galaxor laughed politely at the Breaker’s jest even as he realised it wasn’t fully one. “Old, young, age is…how would you say it…just the marking of a cycle. Beginning, middle or just the end of it. I apologise, Maiden, for last time. You could say I learned a thing or two since then. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. It does seem that this divine wishes to end all the cycles there are and he doesn’t look so keen on rebirth either. Such bad manners. Not even a hello to his fellow divines before trying to destroy their creations. ” said Galaxor with a smile before turning to Egrioth.
“Can your machine end cycles too? I can take the divine alone now that he’s slowed down so much but his army too? I’ve killed divines like him before, this won’t be an easy fight. ” added Galaxor in a serious tone.
“Not as well as that hammer of yours can,” the Breaker admitted before adding that “you’ll have to tell me where it comes from later dear.” Now was not, of course, time for talk, and indeed, the time they had spent on had allowed the vanguard mentioned army to start closing in.
“It can break those things just fine however, so how about we do it this way” she said, before reaching down, pulling a lever, and causing the rear section of her mono-wheeled bike to pop out a second seat right behind the first. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the new passenger seat and told him ”You ride with me ‘Gaxi’ and I’ll beak us through their ranks, while you focus on dealing with ol never in date mode of transport over there”
“We both know that my hammer can do much more than that. ” quickly said Galaxor with a wink before looking at the passenger seat and chuckling.
“We are divines, you know that right? We could just teleport right next to the guy. It’s more problematic if I’ve got to fight him and his army at the same time but, alright, I’ll hop on. Might as well enjoy the adventure. ” added Galaxor before laughing so loudly that a good part of the army was now looking towards the two divines.
“We’ll have to fight both anyway, this way we can thin the herd a bit on the way in” she pointed, before revving the divine motorbike’s engine and calling out for him to “now get ready to put some divine amounts of momentum into those hammer blows dearie!” before releasing the brakes and sending them shooting forwards at impossible speed.
Between them and the towering equine mountain were innumerable lesser beasts, all of them wading through the marshlands of Allianthé’s creation. The bike had no such issue with the quagmire of life, for the grasping plants grasping at their foes legs left them alone, and the goddess of cycles herself had plenty of experience driving though the wetlands of the riverlands. So instead it was only the lesser beasts that stood against them, and they were akin to roadbumps.
Blades cleaved through bull sized beasts of soulless flesh as the goddess weaved to and fro, cutting a path of least resistance and, as she had claimed, building up momentum of godly proportions as they sped towards their foe.
As Asheel’s machine sliced through the monsters, Galaxor was throwing his new weapon in every and it always came back to his hand a bit bloodier than before. With his other hand he’d grab monsters or outright push his enormous hands through them, killing a dozen at a time.
The grand beast, however, did not remain idle as they cut down its minions, and instead spread out its wings which glowed a sickly purple, and then unleashed a monsoon of magical arrows of the same colour, each and every one bearing a different crippling curse.
“Ah! I’ve seen this move before! I’ll sort this one out. ” said Galaxor to Asheel as he teleported off of the vehicle, right in the path of the arrows. Taking an impossibly deep breath, Galaxor sucked the air around him in a large area and with the arrows relying on the inherent laws of physics started to drop from the sky in an unpredictable pattern hitting the monsters. Other arrows would veer wildly off course as they encountered the localised area of low/no air pressure. ‘Alas, it didn’t stop them all. A few of them were still close to hitting them.
With a grin, Galaxor spun the Cosmic Destroyer at impossible speeds, forming a whirlwind. This slowed down the arrows enough to just drop or in the case of the one that did still manage to keep up, get destroyed by the godbaned artefact.
The arrows flew every which way, striking the lesser beasts instead of them, and though none of them took visible injuries when they struck, many of them nonetheless promptly keeled over, braying and shrieking as if in intense pain. This made them very easy targets for the Breaker, who did donuts and figures of eight in the marsh to maintain her speed.
If the grand beast could have looked perturbed by this state of affairs, it would have. Instead it folded its wings up, concentrating all of the curse energy it had channelled in the flaps together. Then it directed the elbows of the wings at them and started using the whole set up like a pair of back mounted cannons, a purple glow racing up the length of the folded wings before being launched towards them in the form of singular arrows, each one dozens of metres long and full of the payload as hundreds of the lesser shots it had just taken. Galaxor weaved between the arrows with the grace of one who’s been fighting his whole life, combined with the fact that each arrow had a trajectory which if one would take in account of all the small things such as air resistance, speed, random chance and so on, they could easily calculate when to move away from their path. Unfortunately for Galaxor, there was one thing he couldn’t calculate. The movement of the beast itself.
As soon as Galaxor was in range and past the arrows, a massive claw came down upon him. Using the Cosmic Destroyer, as a shield for the blow, Galaxor was brought to the ground where the outer god pressed on him with all his might, even as the Cosmic Destroyer damaged it.
Just in time, the Breaker demonstrated exactly why she’d tried to insist on not just teleporting in as she ramped off of the corpse of a lesser beast and sent her super cycle smashing into the side of the beast. The vehicle was no god killer, but the sheer amount of momentum getting transferred sent it stumbling off of Galaxor, ending its attempt at crushing him. It also sent the goddess and her machine tumbling down into the marsh below, where they landed with a splash next to the god.
As she pulled herself out of the water, so too did a number of unusual lesser beasts. Moss , vines, and other plant matter seemed to grow out of them, which had perfectly disguised them within the creation of the goddess of life. Yet despite that, they should have been able to sense them, yet instead they blended in perfectly with the essence of Allianthé that suffused her godkiller created swamp trap.
They charged the pair of gods, and in that moment it was as if the trap had turned upon them, as life bloomed all around, forming grasping roots and vines that threatened to drag them down into the mud, and hold them there for these beasts to feast on their divine ichor.
To feast on more divine ichor.
At that moment, Galaxor let out a roar. Something primal. Something to be afraid of. Something out of the nightmares of divines. For a second, it seemed like everything stopped to look at him and they stopped. The sounds, the movement of the creatures and everything around them. Time stopped. (For reference later, -2 MP to create a localised time stopping artefact)
From Asheel's perspective it seemed like Galaxor moved faster than usual but nothing like it was for everyone else. Galaxor blinked out of existence and when he appeared, hundreds of the monsters simply exploded and the Cosmic Destroyer was suddenly full of blood, alongside Galaxor himself. Strangely, there was now a piece of a claw around Galaxor's neck which shined with godly power.
A loud laugh soon followed and a grin on Galaxor’s face. “Wooo! I haven't had this much fun since the invasion of Avenus!” said Galaxor before the great beast took another swipe at him but this time, he expected it and teleported out of the way.
The goddess herself only caught a short moment of this, as she had ducked down to frantically pull some kind of starter cord on her Super Cycle, and only once it purred to life did she look up and see that Galaxor had blitzed everything that had been bearing down on them.
“Ridiculous”
The titan seemed to agree, infinitely frustrated by the teleporting gnat hitting it with disproportionate strength. Still, with its nearby allies obliterated, there was nothing stopping it from being more indiscriminate. It warped its wings around itself, filling them with a glow again, and then swept them out, sending a radial pulse of curse energy washing out around it.
Asheel remounted her bike and throttled the power again, sending her roaring forwards just ahead of the wave which went on and on till it had washed over hundreds of metres of mash land. Only then did it stop. Stop and hang there, creating a bubble of cursed space around itself that promised pain for any who entered it.
The bubble of cursed space stopped Galaxor in his tracks, as he teleported right at the edges of it from all the possible sides and it seemed that Erigoth smiled as he saw his foe stopped in his tracks and then the Cosmic Destroyer flew past it while Galaxor kept his distance, killing the lesser beasts by hand.
Within a breath, Galaxor teleported a few times around, each time waiting until the very last moment, until he felt the curse energy almost touching his majestic skin. Not that it worked very well. It seemed that the Outer God was learning, as the energy blasts followed Galaxor everywhere he would teleport as if homing onto his divine essence.
In a manner of minutes, Galaxor was all over the battlefield. Waves of curse energy following him right into the leftover of the beast army. Some were incinerated upon contact while others jumped away only to be caught in the blast that followed. Seeing that there was no end to the energy, Galaxor shook his head. The time for games was over.
His whole demeanour changed as he channelled his heroic Aspect. Suddenly, a part of the battlefield was covered in a bright yellow light as his aura made him shine almost like a sun. He then shrunk to the size of a flea and teleported straight onto the skin of the Outer God, cursed energy following him only to hit their master. Pain went through Galaxor’s body in waves, his majestic skin burned under the strength of the curse energy.
“I call that. Return to sender. ” Galaxor shouted through the pain before teleporting away from the Outer God and growing 20 times in size, finally matching the Outer God’s enormous size.
And down the Cosmic Destroyer went towards its head as it returned from its flight, while a punch to the sides was readying up the moment he’d raise his wings or arms to protect itself. The line was cast, it was just time for the Outer God to take the bait…only that he didn’t. Using his wings, Erigoth pulled himself out of the blow and his counterattack came swift as a death.
The two wings each went towards Galaxor’s neck while his arms towards the midsection. A similar attack that would’ve been easily dodged or parried, if it wasn’t for momentum of the previous blow or the speed at which Erigoth came at Galaxor, faster than before by a few orders of magnitude.
The Cosmic Destroyer flew from Galaxor’s hand and right into one of the wings, shattering it upon impact while one of his hands went to stop Erigoth’s then went up into the sky, circling the planet…while the other wing, came down upon Galaxor, threatening to cut him in half. Teleporting while also holding the Outer God proved to be impossible, so, the next best thing was what Galaxor did. An eye for an eye. Moving his head to the side, just as the wing came upon him, talon first, it managed to cut through Galaxor’s left eyebrow down until his chin. Godly ichor poured from the wound, scalding the ground below in heroic blood.
A loud grunt was all that was heard from Galaxor and for a split second Erigoth, if he could’ve shown it, he would’ve been proud that he managed to hit the lowly gnat that gave him trouble…not that it mattered. With his attention caught, the Cosmic Destroyer, which had flown out of sight, suddenly reappeared from the opposite direction, having circumnavigated the globe, and riding it like a broom or a bomb while waving her hat in the air and cackling like mad was the Breaker.
She and it then promptly slammed into Erigoth’s back at its weakest point, pulverising in an instant the weakest armoured plate and punching straight into it. There came two shrieks of pain from the goddess, one old, one young, and then the Mother took over and started biting and scratching at the flesh surrounding her, lifetimes of faux mortality enough to grant her the pain resistance needed to endure the curse filled heart of the beast. As she’d say later, this was nothing compared to the pain of childbirth.
Galaxor laughed out loud through the pain of losing an eye and previous burns as he saw Asheel riding the Cosmic Destroyer before stopping as Erigoth doubled his strength, trying to break the hold in which Galaxor had him.
And then they were inside the beast. A fraction of Galaxor’s willpower followed the Cosmic Destroyer inside Erigoth and started banging itself against all the internal organs that it could find. It was as if the Cosmic Destroyer was a bee caught in a glass dome, trying to escape. Hitting everything it could find and due to the strength of the armoured plates, it couldn’t find a way out combined with the distinct knowledge of any and all weak points of a monster, what happened inside Erigoth could only be described as a carnage. An internal massacre.
Deathly screams followed as the outer god was slowly broken apart from the inside until finally it finally collapsed down into the vengeful marsh that had followed it since its first and now only victory. Root and vine lashed up, practically entombing the beast and slowly started to drag it down into the mud. Before it sank completely a green fist punched its way out of the corpse, and a soaking in gore goblin pulled her way out of the carcass.
The mother tried and failed to wipe herself down, groaned, and then yelled “you owe me at least … 3 hot baths!” up at a hovering Galaxor.
Finally Erigoth was dead. Galaxor very quickly gathered up a few of his armoured plates just before they sank into Allianthe’s swamp and then watched as Asheel got itself out of it.
“By all the divines, Maintainer that was EPIC!. Truly, a heroic move not seen in aeons. Amazing! ” started Galaxor with the glee of one who just managed to kill a god before clearing his throat and continuing “3 hot baths? You’re the one that went inside him! You also owe me a new eye! Bloody lost it while you were massaging the lesser beasts with your machinery. ”, initially his voice was meant to be calm and collected but he failed and started laughing out loud for a few seconds.
“Ah quit your babying, I’m sure you’ll look fetching in an eyepatch” she bit back half heartedly, before getting caught up in his laughter more as an outlet for the dying exhilaration than the humour of any of this. As she devolved into her own cackling, her orb-like transport gradually rolled over, arriving just in time for her to dismount her corpse-based perch before it fully sank into the mud.
“That’s where you’re definitely not wrong. I look fetching in anything. ” replied Galaxor with a laugh as he showcased his muscles for her before falling towards the ground and teleporting next to her in the orb and onto the pillow pile within, exhaustion finally catching up with him, as the sun slowly started to rise, illuminating them and the battlefield in a golden light.
Galaxor - 6 MP -2 MP to create the Time Stop Necklace which stops time for any being affected by it for a limited period of time (roughly 5 minutes). The TSN is a small piece of a claw from Erigoth that hangs around Galaxor’s neck. 2 MP towards Time Domain. Remaining - 4 MP Asheel - 13 MP
1 mp boosted by cycles to add to the power of the orbital hammer strike
Remaining - 12 MP
Galaxor prepares his assault on Erigoth but meets Asheel just before he engages. Armed with the orb of Asheel and the Cosmic Destroyer, the two divines obliterate Erigoth’s army before taking the fight to him. Galaxor creates an artefact and loses his left eye in the fight while Asheel rides the Cosmic Destroyer inside Erigoth where they play pinball with his internal organs, making them mush.
Galaxor was having the time of his life. Loud laughs could be heard echoing around the tomb as he swung his axe wildly, breaking skeletons as he went. Occasionally he’d use his free hand to grab one and throw it at others or simply crush them in his hand.
Luckily for the others, Galaxor was the first in the band to go forward and they were safe from his wild swings. Most of the skeletons focused on him too which let the group deal with them easily. By the end of the first few corridors, Galaxor’s legs were covered with superficial cuts and in one case, a toe had a broken nail as an undead sword got stuck in there. Giants had thick skin and simple swords wouldn’t harm them too much.
That is, until they reached what seemed to be a throne room. The group having traversed the haunting corridors of the tomb, emerged into a grand and chilling throne room. The air was heavy with a foreboding stillness, and the room seemed to stretch impossibly tall. Dim, flickering torches cast a pale, wavering light that barely illuminated the vast expanse.
In the center of the room, a massive throne of cold, gray stone loomed, an imposing symbol of the tomb's macabre authority. Carved with runes that shone in the darkness with dark power making the whole throne radiate an eerie presence, as if it were a conduit for the dark energies that filled the chamber. Atop the throne sat a spectral figure, its form obscured by tattered robes that flowed like ethereal mist. If the party would pay close attention to the spectral figure, they’d notice how tall it was and they’d feel a primal fear as it stared at each of the members in the party, in the eyes.
The walls on either side were lined with open stone coffins, many skeletons with bows, swords and spears next to them. Waiting for something or someone. The very atmosphere seemed to tighten, as if the tomb itself held its breath in anticipation for the word of the nameless leader.
As soon as the party entered the room, the door behind them closed as if by magic and all the torches in the room went on at the same time. The fire, no longer orange but a sickly green, only enhanced the evilness of the place.
As soon as the explosion rocked the tavern, Ashevelen slowly stood up and saw the carnage. Shaking her head, she saw how everyone was fighting with quite a streak of bad luck by the looks of it as most missed their attacks. Ashe almost face palmed herself when Lapis tried to throw the knives across the room only for them to fall flatly on the floor.
With a running start, Ashevelen shifted between enemies to attack the ones that seemed the most dangerous, the walking bombs. A jump in the air and sword poised to strike...
Roll = Failed.
Only for the bombs to shift to the side at the last moment. Prepping another attack, Ashe managed to see the leader of the assassins throw a knife at Fyr and nick him.
The merry band transformed from three to 6 in the matter of minutes. With each person approaching the group, Galaxor’s face lit up a bit more. The more, the merrier and when it came to undead it meant more SMASHING! Maybe it was the dwarven ale finally starting to affect him or maybe all this doom and gloom were in serious need of lighting up, but Galaxor started to laugh. Loud, unhinged. Especially when Knossos, a pilgrim that Galaxor knew little about, not a face one would see in the improvised tavern, proposed to talk to the tiny skeletron.
Nemeia soon joined Knossos with “"YES! Let us parley with the poor, wretched creatures that lurk in this no doubt cursed tomb. Not all undead are evil creatures hellbent on spreading death and disease, some are simply weary souls seeking to return to the long, peaceful sleep that they have been promised. It would be right to offer them kindness."”
“HA! HA! HA! You wish to talk with these bones? Baaahahaha! ” said Galaxor while wiping an imaginary tear from his left eye.
But before he could add something more, a creature started talking and talking and…where was it? The Stone King above and below! There was something talking. Squinting his eyes and bending his head down, Galaxor barely managed to see it. A small bat-like creature. The creature named itself Terilu but it was smaller than the others. Way smaller.
And then Terilu went to speak with the skeletron. Pointless action. Very pointless. Undead do as undead want. It will ask for something that’s impossible to achieve as too much time passed since then, find a cursed artefact or maybe it’ll want to give them a quest that’ll change the world and challenge the gods themselves. Something within those lines, irrelevant stuff for the living.
“Let me see if I get this right. They are the ones that are bringing the plague over and if we promise to leave…they’ll stop the plague until we do. Well, I think I know what that means. ” said Galaxor without listening to Terilu anymore or anyone else.
He took a deep breath and gripped his axe and with a mighty heave, Galaxor released the massive axe, and it soared through the mist-filled air. The skeletron had little time to react. The gleaming blade found its mark with a resounding impact, shattering bone and sending skeletal fragments scattering in all directions. The axe was now stuck into the pavement of the entrance of the tomb, with a small crater around it.
Later it was said that the sound of the impact between the axe, skeletron and ground could be heard all the way back to the caravan.
“HA! HA! HA! Look at all those flying bones! Anyways, as I was saying, kill them all and get rid of the plague is the quickest way. C’mon! Let’s go. I’m in the mood to…SMASH some bones! HAHA! ” said Galaxor in his usual very loud voice as he walked towards his axe and pulled it from the ground.
Yet, as the echoes of the confrontation reverberated through the haunted stillness, a lingering unease settled over the scene. The mist, now disturbed by the recent clash, seemed to writhe with an otherworldly energy, and the tomb's entrance exuded an even more palpable sense of malevolence.
As weeks turned to months and months to years, the Goblin Underground kept growing. Soon after Asheel and Galaxor visited, showing them how to use diamonds and mine them, Maxima had a dream. A location just a kilometre below them where large diamond crystals could be found. Something not seen before. Something…almost divine.
Almost immediately the goblins dug downwards and found it…and life changed for the better for the Goblin Underground. With the help of the Smilegma, they discovered many uses for the diamonds. Weapons, armors, a new throne for Maxima…and many more small uses. Not that, that stopped their search for knowledge. A few more rooms were carved out to make room for all the tablets the goblins were writing, with only the most secret and important tablets being held inside the temple of Galaxor.
Galaxor & The Knowledge of Everything
This was interesting. Galaxor the God Of Heroism was thinking. Ever since he met the godling Eidolon or “little one” as he called it, they thought about knowledge. The godling told Galaxor it was a god of knowledge and while Galaxor didn’t believe him, it made Galaxor think. What if he could be a god of knowledge? Surely the hero needs as much knowledge as they can get. Most of the great tales of heroism started with the pursuit of knowledge from the villain or the hero solving the situation.
As such Galaxor spent time working in that direction. Making the Smilegma and gifting knowledge were just the first steps in understanding what he sought. With each action, he felt he understood things just a bit better than before. Actions which he believed to be achieved in one way, he now doubted. He learned to question himself and think. Think long and hard about something before doing it…in a heroic way, of course.
Eventually, after a long time, Galaxor flew high up into space. Taking a deep breath, he put himself in a meditative state and…meditated. Focusing on the knowledge of the universe. What is it, how does it work, how do mortals function? Everything and anything. Suddenly a burst of blue-ish power exploded from Galaxor as his understanding grew. His aura, usually yellow and bright as a sun, turned now a yellow-blue color, while his armour changed to include books and writing supplies.
Preparations for the attack!
It was a quiet day for Galaxor. Most of his day was spent conversing with Maxima about the different problems the Goblin Underground was experiencing or simply answering questions about the universe…to a level that wouldn’t kill a mortal outright.
Towards the evening, Galaxor was about to leave the Goblin Underground only to be stopped by sudden migraine. A strong one. Something that only great danger would have triggered in Galaxor. Almost immediately, his aura burst out, almost blinding the nearby goblins before he teleported away, high above Galbar.
Then he saw them. What he saw made him smile. A quest. Monsters from the blood ocean. Death of hundreds if not thousands and two mighty beasts. While Galaxor’s days were pretty chill, with his pursuit of knowledge keeping him busy, Galaxor didn’t forget how he started. A hero he was born and a hero he’ll die. ‘Alas, he could feel the power of the creatures. The immense powers. Strong enough to topple most divine beings. This was a job for an adventuring party. One led by him and how else to inspire confidence and...fight the monsters if not with a mighty weapon. Something truly divine and he had the perfect person in mind that could provide it.
Galaxor never met Sylia but his goblins did. Maxima mentioned to him long ago that someone else moved into the underground and they had divine protection. Under Maxima’s guidance, the GU kept away from them. Guessing what the divine’s domain is…wasn’t hard for someone with a bit of brainpower.
In a flash, Galaxor circled the planet and spotted what he believed to be a workshop of some kind, nestled in the heart of a vast city. It was well protected. Divine power radiating from it. He teleported once more to a safe distance on the outskirts of the city and let his aura blaze a few times, giving a notice to any divine around that he’s heading their way before slowly making his way to the Atelier.
The white walls of the city loomed large as he walked through gates of wrought iron, thick as twelve or more goblins and tall as a giant. Intricate work was carved into the metal but the visage of a large hand cupping a planet sat in the forefront. Goblins wearing hard leathers and bows looked up at him with awe from their guardhouses, whilst others, the beastfolk and their many differences, bowed their heads in reverence. Many stopped what they were doing just to look. All wore fine cloth of dyed colours and many elders stood by with cane and crooked back as they watched him go by.
Hushed whispers could be heard in every alleway, proclaiming that he be a Divine, the first besides their Goddess and the creator, to visit. Others gawked at his size. His muscles. His hair and skin. Others wondered why he walked the streets. What business could he have? What was happening? Small goblin children and beastfolk offspring ran amok, laughing and playing as if nothing was going on at all.
The God of heroism passed many open markets, some bustling and others quite empty. It looked as if most goods were bartered, the pleasant trading of raw materials. Yet there also seemed to be shadier practices going on. The smells of unwashed bodies in dark stone buildings. A mortal crying here. Another laughing there. The sounds of bodies pressed together, oblivious to anything wherever a quiet place could be found. Life went on in those cobbled streets, for better or for worse. The sound of the river to his ear became apparent long before he neared it and when he reached the great banks of the river, with its arched bridges and long clothed canopies, he could tell it was built to avoid any flooding.
He crossed and eventually came to a part of the city where different people became interspersed with the goblins and beastfolk. These beings were tall, with bodies made of bark and metal. Their flowing tangles of green metallic hair were done in several styles, from buns to plaits, but most kept it long and free. When they saw him, they bowed deeply as he walked by and did not stop until he passed. Then they went about their own business, with friendly chatter of crafting and working, between themselves. Eventually the workshop came into view, with its three tiers and ornate structure. The hovering orb above the Atelier, with its three rings of different materials, cast shadows over the place as they moved.
Galaxor offered smiles and waves to the goblins, beastfolk and all the creatures he would see. Even if this wasn’t a parade, he felt like one as all the mortals looked upon him with awe. The metallic-wooden creatures seemed the most interesting and a tablet appeared above him with a perfect drawing of the creatures which disappeared almost as fast as it appeared
Waiting for him at the entrance of the Atelier stood a tall Goddess. Her posture was erect, with hands held behind her back. She stared straight at him, and if he himself were not Divine, she almost looked like a statue. She had taken the form of reflective silver, and the only time she wasn’t shining from the sunlight, was when a shadow crossed over her.
At his approach, Sylia folded a hand over her chest and bowed slightly. She then took a step forward and studied Galaxor with a scrutinising face.
“Welcome,” She began with a rich voice, “I assume, that you have deigned to visit over what’s transpiring down south?”
With a low, gratuitous bow, Galaxor smiled at the goddess while his aura flared once more. Just a show of gratitude for being allowed in the inner sanctum of a divine.
“Greetings, Goddess. You are correct. Whatever happens over there will eventually reach all of us and our creations, wherever we do something about it or not. As a hero it is my duty to defeat those creatures and I would’ve gone straight away there and finished them off if not for my…powers. ” replied Galaxor with a nod, before realising that he forgot to do something.
“But my apologies, Goddess. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Galaxor. God Of Heroism and Knowledge. The…” added Galaxor before stopping himself and realising he was about to say all of his titles.
Turning away from the Goddess, Galaxor looked at the city for a second before turning back to her.
“Before we get on to business, I'd like to say you've built an impressive place for yourself. I can see my mortals have served you well. ”
She nodded. “They may be diminutive but even I must admit they have tenacity. Though, there are some that are quick to regress to mere primitives. Here in Sylann I’d like to think they are given every opportunity to cast off lesser inhibitions to become worthy of staying.”
“You call them diminutive, but you’ve just chosen the small ones. There are greater specimens out there. Taller. Stronger. Better. But, yes, you are right, they’re not the smartest creatures out there if left unattended. When I made them…I believed it was for the best to leave it like that. Give them potential but not the means to achieve it. I see things differently now. In fact, before we talk, allow me to fix this issue. ” said Galaxor, in a friendly manner before going up in the air, above the Atelier.
In a mere moment, millions of tablets appeared around Galaxor and started to circle him. One for each goblin alive. Looking at the tablets, Galaxor shook his head in disappointment. His previous work was...flawed. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his aura out his body, enveloping the tablets in a bright blue light which after a few moments faded but not before blessing all the goblins in existence with the heroic thirst for knowledge.
Teleporting down on the ground, Galaxor bowed his head towards Sylia. “Their primitive instincts are gone. You’ll find out soon that all your goblins will learn their trades faster. They’ll seek to know more. They’ll wish to master as many skills as one can in their lifetime. ”
She gave him an approving look. “I shall look forward to seeing it.” She mused, touching her chin and then locking eyes with him, her expression softening. “We must be swift in how we handle the south, Galaxor. What is it that you desire from me?”
“Two things. One, an alliance or a non-aggression pact between the Goblin Underground and your metallic-plant mortals. There haven’t been any incidents yet but that won’t last for long. Mortals tend to…have violent solutions for minor issues, no matter how much they’re told by their peers to stop. Coming from their creators on the other hand…that’s something else. In exchange, I’ll have Maxima share the diamond technology with them. ” started Galaxor, as he raised a finger in the air.
“And two, I’ll require a weapon. Something that can kill those monsters before they become a real problem. From what I’ve seen, they’re pretty resistant to your usual artefacts. Offer me a weapon that can kill them and I’ll make sure they won’t reach your Atelier. ” finished Galaxor while raising another finger.
Sylia crossed her arms and tipped her head, slightly to the side. “The Syllianth of the Tree are not mine to command. Only those that work the Forge. I cannot, in good conscience, do as you ask in this matter. Allianthé commands the tree and honestly, the way she fawns over Life, if any of them dared to draw a drop of blood, she would most likely throw them out. I don’t know what she would do with your people, however, I would suggest talking to her.”
Sylia stretched out her arms and rolled her shoulders. “Your second request, I can help with.”
Galaxor listened to Sylia’s explanation and shook his head. “Very well. My goblins were under the impression that since you’ve created them with her, you both hold command over them. I shall have a chat with Allianthé after the current…crisis is averted but from what you’re saying about her…she seems like an interesting goddess. ”
At the mention of her help with the weapon, Galaxor’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“I need something that can pierce armour. A warhammer or a war pick. Something…wondrous. If you can provide. ” said Galaxor with a playful wink.
Sylia scoffed and put her hands on her hips. “Of course I can provide. Such nonsense to think otherwise.” She placed her left hand under her chin and began to pace in thought. “A sword will be of no use against heavy armor. Nor other slashing or piercing weapons. It will have to be a warhammer. Blunt force trauma. Armor can’t protect one if their bones are shattered. Now can it?” She asked herself with a long sigh. Spinning to Galaxor she said, “I shall require Galaxium or even Misrite, but Misrite might be difficult to produce. Come.” She beckoned to him and she began to walk up the white steps of the Atelier.
Galaxor chuckled at Sylia's scoff and followed her. “Just kidding, I can see what you're capable of. ” As Sylia started to explain weaponry to Galaxor he shook his head. A tablet appeared in his hands and he pointed it at Sylia. On the tablet, Sylia saw all there was to know about weapons and their stats. All the knowledge of the universe regarding weaponry, right in front of her. It, as well, contained the best materials to be used for them, albeit in a more basic form than Sylia could produce.
“I know how weapons work, Crafter but I'm at a loss. What is Galaxium? I've got nothing about this material on any of my tablets. ” replied Galaxor while scratching his head. Truly, even with all the knowledge of the universe, this was not something he knew anything about.
Sylia rubbed the bridge of her nose as she looked away from the tablet. She muttered something about ‘children's game's’ and walked in front of the taller god. “Surely you know about Divinium?” She began, turning to face him but never breaking her pace, “The sacred metal? The Hum? It's under the tree alongside your people. Galaxium is an alloy of Divinium that has taken on heroic attributes. Your heroic attributes that were decreed into the nascent universe by the Khodex.” She shut her eyes and folded her hands behind her back.
“A heroic feat or heroic tendencies in general, performed or witnessed by the pure Divinium, will become Galaxium.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “What better substance would there be for a weapon? Besides Misrite, which would require extreme violence to obtain or Bohtrutite, which would require some fashion of toil to obtain, Galaxium is our best bet.”
“I've never witnessed this alloy but I'll make sure to take notes about it. Well. Let's get some Divinium then. Surely my heroic aura will be more than enough to create it. Will it take some of my knowledge about weaknesses too? I have…learned a lot since we've been called to this world. But I do agree. A heroic weapon for a heroic wielder will be perfect. ”
Sylia shrugged. “I have not properly tested if a God's dominion over another aspect of reality can sway the Divinium to alloy. Or even combine with other alloys. However, anything we touch is capable of change. Whether through its base or by addendum. I theorise, if you will such knowledge into the ore, it will take it greedily.”
“Well, I think it's time to test that out. I'm quite curious what it can be used for and how. If it's as useful as you seem to think it is…my GU will be in need of an upgrade soon.”
They crossed into the first tier of the Atelier. The sounds of saws and axes became a steady beat and they crossed mortals, goblins and beastfolk alike, carving, whittling and learning how to work with wood. Sylia glanced at Galaxor, “The Divinium Forge at the Tree can help them, if that’s what you desire. I would be wary of what they might make however. As you will soon see, such weapons forged from Divinium are not to be taken lightly.” They neared the second tier of steps and began to rise.
“Thank you for the offer. They won't be making weapons more than to protect themselves, I can assure you of that. My Maxima hangs onto my every word and I've made it so that no goblin can ever deny her commands…unless they've been protected by one of us. ” said Galaxor with a knowing smile. Mortals. They'll always find a way to cause harm if they've got the chance.
Sylia looked at Galaxor with inquisitive eyes but said nothing more. They quickly made their way through the second tier, a place of cracking stone and melting ore. More goblins and beastfolk were present here. There were also the Syllianth and one of those glowing Striders, all teaching and learning in that bustling place.
Galaxor offered a friendly smile to each of the mortals he saw and in one case, offered a tablet with the library design schematics to one of the goblins. “You’ll thank me later for this, but it’s a useful invention. May it bring joy to your people. ” said Galaxor with a wink to Sylia…and the goblin.
As they walked up the third set of stairs, a troupe of Syllianth walked past and Sylia paused to address them. “Hollis,” A tall Syllianth stepped forth and bowed. “Triple the watch on the walls, shut the gates and allow entry to only those who live here or seek refuge. Inform the Council once this is done.”
He bowed, “As you ask it, Goddess.” The man said in a deep voice before rising and hurrying off with the others.
“They can never be too safe.” Sylia said as the two gods began to walk again.
“I understand that very well. The reason I’ve put the GU where I did was because of safety. They may feel isolated but when they’ll be out in the world…danger will lurk at every corner. Heroes will be needed but to make heroes…one needs to train and learn first. ”
Sylia gave a curt nod but said nothing as they passed the two towering Watchers before the great entrance to her workshop. Once inside she took him past working Syllianth, some so engrossed they didn’t even look up, to her private chambers. At the very heart of the building, twin doors of obsidian swung upon to reveal a well lit room. Sylia took off at once and flew up, where soft white lights hovered in the raised ceiling. She grabbed one and landed at the back of the room where a pool of mercury surrounded a raised platform. As soon as her feet touched the stone, it lifted off the ground. Without looking at Galaxor she spoke, “The Divinium awaits you to change it. Come.”
Galaxor let out a whistle as he entered the workshop, he knew all the designs of all the workshops in existence but this one was new to him. This…was truly a divine workshop, made only by those that have intimate knowledge of this craft. He followed Sylia as she flew up and nodded to her.
Approaching the Divinium, Galaxor inspected from all sides before concentrating the power of both domains in each hand. One to give the Divinium his heroic essence making it a truly heroic alloy and in the other, the all the knowledge he had about monsters, weapons, weaknesses and the sorts. Sylia watched as this happened, the ore becoming entwined with a different hum as it took within it the shades of blue and gold, leaching itself of all white.
When Galaxor was done she plucked it from the air and began to hum along with its tune. She next bid him to leave the platform with a nod from her head and when he did so, it began to hover further into the air. The pool of mercury began to ascend in round globules, shimmering around the platform, fixed into its orbit. She held the ore high in her hands, gently grasping with her fingers before pulling with such force, the ore began to glow white hot. The ore elongated with each pull, its feverish hum growing faint as it became metal, until it had grown forever silent. When she was satisfied with the length of the handle, stretching more than her arm and with the metal illuminating such light, the Goddess began to shape the head.
As Sylia worked, Galaxor watched in silence as much as he could before eventually he started humming a ballad that was written about him while also writing on a tablet something to do with a cat in a box and whether it is dead or alive or both.
First she willed the metal to take a rectangular shape, large and mighty. Then she tapered one end into a great sharp point, for more precise hits. As the metal began to cool and the light became lesser, Sylia worked at a rapid pace. Almost a blur to any of lesser eyes, and it didn’t help that her form was constantly changing. From metals to stone and rock, even gemstones and woods. She embellished, embossed, wove and seemingly lost herself to the fever of work. Then all at once, her flurry of activity was over and that second of silence was followed by a tremendous boom, as she brought the warhammer down right in front of Galaxor’s feet.
With the first genuine smile he had seen from her, she bowed. “One weapon to slay those foolish enough to call themselves Gods.”
What lay before Galaxor was beyond the likes of any mortal craftsmen. The electric blue handle was wrought with a golden vein that pulsed with energy and swirled around the handle in a never ending spiral. The spiral began at the golden pommel that resembled a regal lion, shimmering as if alive. The great hammerhead, the size of a goblin’s torso, was shaped to be flat on one side and of course, pointed on the other. It had the same swirling pattern as the handle. In the very center of the deep blue metal, and visible on both sides of the hammerhead, there lay a circle of solid gold that crackled with energy. It was both a beautiful object beyond the likes of any mortal craftsmen and also a potent weapon.
The moment Sylia’s work was done and the silence descended upon the workshop once more, it got broken again as the newly created weapon was brought down at Galaxor’s feet. With a chuckle, Galaxor said “Careful with that, might’ve actually hurt me there. ” before starting to inspect the warhammer. Taking in everything about it. How it looked, how it smelled, how it felt when he touched it. Its very essence screamed “DANGER” to Galaxor. This weapon was powerful enough to eliminate a divine without a second thought. It was truly a bane of any god and a beautiful one at that. A perfect weapon for the most perfect god, his former self might’ve said.
“It’s a truly beautiful weapon. I’d say I’m impressed but that doesn’t really describe what I feel towards this weapon. Perfect. Divine. Brilliant. Well done. ” said Galaxor, his voice almost breaking as he said the words.
Sylia grabbed the handle and hefted it with ease. “You will find,” she said, swinging it away from him, the air crackling as she did, “That the weapon is perfectly balanced. Capable of breaking the mightiest of foes. And,” The weapon shrank to be the size of a normal hammer, “Crafty.” She smirked and the weapon returned to its original size. She faced Galaxor and placed the hammer before her before leaning on it. “Now, if you had come to me without this great threat upon the horizon and asked for such a weapon, the price would have been far steeper. But I am feeling most generous today and all I request is this; When you have slain the foe you seek, bring to me its plate. Is this agreeable?”
Galaxor chuckled at the pun and shook his head, this Sylia seemed to be a divine after his own heart.
“I wondered when the price talk would come. Only a plate? What about the creature's whole head on a silver plate? Surely you'll find a use for that. As for the threat…I would've handled it on my own if it wasn't this great. But, very well. You've got my word that you'll receive a plate of his armor in exchange for this beauty of a weapon. ” proclaimed Galaxor while putting his hands towards her, in a handshake manner.
Instead of taking his hand with her own, Sylia placed the hammer’s handle and said simply, “Goodluck.”
The GU discover a diamond crystal mine which they now use to make weapons, armor etc. Their library has grown in size too.
Galaxor, after being inspired by the Eidolon, seeks to better understand the knowledge of the universe and after meditating on it, gains the domain of knowledge.
Galaxor feels the disturbance caused by the Outer Gods and flies over the planet a few times to figure out what's going on. After seeing the threat they face, he goes to Sylia. Negotiations happen and The Cosmic Devastator is being created. A weapon so strong it can kill divine beings and has loads of other neat abilities. Galaxor also finds out what Divinium is and how to use it which gives him ideas for the future.
Galaxor Available - 7 -4 MP to Gain Domain Of Knowledge -1 MP (+1MP from Heroism, +1MP from Knowledge) to bless the whole goblin race with “Heroic Thirst For Knowledge”. All goblins will now seek to understand more about the world, their trades or whatever else they’re doing. They will learn faster and be able to understand more than your usual mortal, this will also increase their overall intelligence or the desire to do so. -2MP (with the 2 domain bonus) - to help make the Cosmic Devastator - It grants the artefact the knowledge of all weaknesses, monsters and subtype of each monster, granting the user of the weapon the ability to know exactly where to strike and the heroic essence, granting the wielder increased destructive force.
Remaining - 0
Sylia Available - 8MP
-2MP to help make the Cosmic Devastator (with the 2 domain bonus) Base cost. -1 (metal) - The CD is capable of changing it’s density. Letting it float or letting it sink to the core of the planet. -1 (crafting) - The CD is crafty, and is able to change its size. -1 (From Divinium alloy itself) - Heroic Bond - The CD bonds with the wielder and makes it impossible for it to be taken away. If magically removed, it can return to the wearer.
The Domain of Knowledge signifies a profound mastery over the boundless realms of information, wisdom, and cognition within the cosmic tapestry. It transcends the mere accumulation of facts, offering an intricate understanding of the underlying principles governing the universe.
Beyond information acquisition, the Domain of Knowledge extends to teaching and guiding others, fostering intellectual growth, and preserving the collective wisdom of civilizations. The deity becomes a custodian of knowledge, contributing to the eternal pursuit of understanding and enlightenment.
Also known as : Ashevelendar/Ashevelen/AsheTheReborn
Best compliment so far from [@Tortoise]
[img]https://i.ibb.co/qdK70br/image.png[/img]
On the brilliant roleplay : [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/185726-through-the-gateways-humanity/ooc] Through The Gateways [/url]
Playing as the Goddess of Trade in Divinus 7
[img]https://i.ibb.co/QjWNXR4/Ashevelen-Token.png[/img]
Playing as the Goddess of Shadowy-Trades in Divinus 7
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1006946263599677521/1014229630783340544/ShadowsAspectToken.png[/img]
Thank you!
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Also known as : Ashevelendar/Ashevelen/AsheTheReborn <br><br>Best compliment so far from <a class="bb-mention" href="/users/tortoise">@Tortoise</a><br><img src="https://i.ibb.co/qdK70br/image.png" /><br>On the brilliant roleplay : <a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/185726-through-the-gateways-humanity/ooc">Through The Gateways</a><br><br>Playing as the Goddess of Trade in Divinus 7<br><br><img src="https://i.ibb.co/QjWNXR4/Ashevelen-Token.png" /><br><br>Playing as the Goddess of Shadowy-Trades in Divinus 7<br><br><img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1006946263599677521/1014229630783340544/ShadowsAspectToken.png" /><br><br>Thank you!</div>
Member
Sylvan
PrinceAlexus
Enigmatik
RBYDark
MrSkimobile
Dinh AaronMk
Izurich
Dezuel
Vixere
