ULTRAMagic Babel - Chapter 1

Eon 1 | First | Next

Master Post - Patreon


    “Well, all ashore who’s going ashore,” Tusk stated as the cruiser came to a stop at the stone shore. Hopping out of the boat and on to the rocky island, Tusk sighed as there was no soil to be found. He shuddered a little, as the damp, cold air chilled him. Tusk Willfort was a Tree Person, a humanoid tree from The Unending Forest region of The Unlight. He was very far from home, but an important mission from The ULTRAMagic Guild brought him to The Great Stone Lake. “Jeez, could the tower not have appeared closer to one of the shorelines?”

    Yoshihiro Higasa, a man with black hair and red eyes like twilight sunlight walked over, his boots splashing the small puddles with each step. “Goodness, Tusk,” he said as he felt the dark brown bark that covered his friend’s body. It was incredibly damp. “You’re not too cold, are you?”

    “Yeah, but it’s not that big of a deal. I’m more concerned about growing moss and fungus. You see this?” He waved his hand in front of his face, indicating a yellow light in the mist, emanating from his glowing eyes. “I hate that…”

    Yoshihiro focused and summoned an orb of red energy that he sent skipping across the ground and through the fog. “Alright, looks like the footing is stable.”

    “Well that’s a handy technique,” a voice remarked as the other two members of the squad joined them.

    “Gragmund taught me the spell not too long before you showed up, Serjiel. It’s an aura technique for detecting booby traps, but I’d argue it has more uses.”

    “Tiberius would commend that ingenuity,” Serjiel complimented. Serjiel was a demon with golden eyes, tidy brown hair, and skin as red as cinnabar. Two curved horns sat atop his forehead, his simple tail gently swished about, and he adjusted the belt to his leather and steel armor. “Shame we can’t use your knowledge of the lake region to help us out, Yoshihiro.”

    “I know,” he acknowledged. “This island wasn’t here before the tower arrived.”

    Tusk shook his head, not looking forward to the task ahead. “And I trust that that is the Tower of Babel?”

    “Indeed it is, Tusk…” Serjiel replied. “Indeed it is…” The four all looked up at the monumental sight before them.

    The Tower of Babel was a dark, looming, colossal tower that stretched through the cloudy, overcast sky and far into the heavens above. Many Earths across the Cosmos proper told legends of such a tower, but this was not the one detailed in the Bible. This tower was born from the collective dreams of man, presenting the idea of such a tower existing in the first place. The tower was a living being in a sense and traveled from realm to realm seeking whatever knowledge it could attain. Of course the denizens of those realms were welcome to peruse the tower’s vast wealth of knowledge, but this always led to eras of great confusion and chaos. Entire universes would go out of their way to block their tower’s arrival if they merely sensed its presence from halfway across the Cosmos.

    Gazing upon the tower was an experience in and of itself, as it was hauntingly beautiful in an eerie, ominous way. Sculpted and built from black brick that was almost an intensely dark purple, the tower was an architectural marvel impossible to build by even the most unhinged craftsman imaginable. A mix of Roman and Babylonian construction was fortified with a brutalist foundation, adorned with touches of gothic, and dashed with hints of the angelic and demonic. It all gave off a truly otherworldly feel that threatened to shatter one’s sanity if they fixated on it for too long. Very few dared to stand before the magnificent structure, let alone be actually mad enough to ascend the stairs to the ornately carved, gigantic double doors that warned all who stepped inside to tread carefully.

    Serjiel was feeling a mix of emotions as he was all too familiar with the tower, it having visited his universe in the past. “And to think I’m standing just outside the thing that caused me, my family, and my kin so much trouble…” he remarked. “It’s a monument to unchecked pride that needs to be removed from the Cosmos…”

    “As much as I would love to philosophize on the nuances of the tower, gentlemen, we have our missions to tend to,” the woman in a regal military uniform stated.

    Tusk sighed, although it was more of a groan. “Of course, Adriana. Bloody Eternal Order…” He then indicated for everyone to start walking up the steps. “We find Odo, help Buster get to safety, and get out-badda bing, badda boom.”

    “And we are also here to retrieve and secure Lia Ascher so she can be escorted to The Iron City for questioning, as per my orders as a member of the Blades of Dunja,” Adriana reminded, tying back her dark blue hair afterwards.

    “Oh yeah, her… you realize she said she was going to turn me into a recliner a year and a half ago, right?”

    “Yes, Gratiana has informed me…” Adriana took a moment to study the mind-bogginly complex mechanisms of the doors with her focused, amber eyes… only for the intricate locks to undo themselves as if the group was being let in. “Normally the information I am about to reveal would be kept top secret, but it is relevant to the mission. Lia, through secret communication, has revealed that she regrets her past actions and wishes to divulge everything she knows about The Eternal Order to The Iron City.”

    Tusk nodded in a skeptical manner. “Uh-huh, I see. Couldn’t hack it as a cult leader, so she’s going full turncoat…”

    “Are you sure your skepticism is justified, Tusk?” Serjiel questioned.

    “Well pardon me for being a little on guard given that she was Milosh’s right hand man… woman-argh, you know what I mean.”

    Yoshihiro wanted to speak in Lia’s defense, but a strange sensation stopped him as the doors closed behind them. As he stared down the long, foreboding hallways lit by sconces past the foyer, he felt a wave of something he could not immediately identify hit him. It was intense and all over the place, causing him to shudder and recoil a little. His senses were overwhelmed as he fell back into someone’s arms, struggling to regain his bearings. Serjiel then snapped his fingers a few times to regain Yoshihiro’s attention.

    “Yoshihiro, are you okay?”

    “Huh, what?” He glanced around, noticing the others looking concerned. “Uh, yeah, I’m okay…”

    Adriana had a look of concern that was fairly critical. “Is this an issue we need to address, Yoshihiro?”

    “No, no,” he answered. “I’m just… I was taken by surprise is all. You weren’t lying when you said this place is alive, Serjiel. The whole thing is a living being, but not in the way we’d know it. Its aura is everywhere, causing all of it to blur together until you focus. It’s certainly something else…”

    Tusk could see that Ardiana was still somewhat critical and grabbed her by the shoulder. “Hey, take it easy, soldier girl. I know how he feels as this place is something else, even for me.”

    She gave Tusk an unamused look as she lightly shook herself from his grip, but she relented and her expression relaxed. She was still concerned, however. “An interesting observation, Yoshihiro, as it speaks to the eldritch wonder of the tower. Perhaps you could provide some insight on living realms, Tusk? You have expertise on this subject, given your expedition through the Crimson Mega Abyss with Sir Raynot…”

    She was cut off by a hearty laugh with subtle hints of mockery from Tusk. “Look, Adriana; I know you’ve dealt with that insane undead plague back where you came from, but this tower is a 5-star, luxury hotel compared to the nightmare that was the Crimson Mega Abyss. I’d only wish such a fate on my worst possible enemies.”

    Yoshihiro nodded and sighed. “Heh, I wanted to prove myself to you guys and the guild, but I am questioning if this was the mission for that…”

    “Goodness, Yoshihiro, what happened to all of that bravado you had during the Chaos Wasp invasion?” Serjiel asked.

    “Serjiel, you and Gragmund did a lot of the heavy lifting while me and Yuuma got in the way…”

    “Hey, kid, don’t put yourself down like that,” Tusk interjected. “Take me during Leif’s final battle at the Dark Grand Desert. There was no way I would’ve been able to fight The Lich of Old alongside The Dragon of Old, but the ritual I used against The Lich to weaken him?” He put his hand on his shoulder, indicating a line of separated bark running along where it met his torso. “Worked like a charm, although I hope I never have to do that again. And here's further hoping I don’t have to get in between a fight with two primordials…”

    The quiet stillness of the tower was disturbed by a series of rumbles coming from deeper within. Focusing for a moment, Serjiel and Yoshihiro could sense two presences clashing. One was terrible while the other was awesome, and they were close enough to be reached. Serjiel indicated for the group to move, so they hurried through the main foyer and into a long hallway. It was like reality itself was being shaken the closer and closer they got.

    “The Cosmos hates me today, doesn’t it?” Tusk joked as they ran, nearing the battle.

    “Serjiel, you don’t think that’s our contact, do you?” Adriana questioned, hoping the demon had an answer.

    “I wouldn’t be surprised if The Eternal Order had already sent someone to pick a fight with Ozymandias!” he replied as he pulled out one of his arcane revolvers.

    “Wouldn’t that imply there’s another god present, given how powerful the tower arbiter is?” Yoshihiro pointed out. “How are we going to deal with something like that?!”

    “I don’t know, Yoshihiro. I don’t know…”

    Upon entering the grand hall, the group was met by the harrowing sight of a chaotic battle between titans. A mighty, 15 foot tall, golden man with white light for eyes was brutally fighting with a 30 foot tall, winged beast. The ragged, horrid creature looked like a vulture, but one would be forgiven for thinking it was a feathered, avian dragon. Both combatants seemed evenly matched, with the golden man’s punches devastating the vulture to the response of frenzied talon slashes mixed with nasty beak strikes. Sensing that things were going nowhere fast, the vulture started playing dirty. It rammed into the golden man, suckerpunching him and leaving him winded.

    Seeing the vulture attempt to rip into the golden man, Serjiel quickly loaded six glowing rounds into his gun and took aim. He fanned the harmer as hard as he could, causing the screaming, magical bullets to rocket towards the vulture and hit it in the head. It let out an ear-piercing screech in sheer, animalistic rage and turned its attention to Serjiel, barreling as fast as it could towards him. The group started to panic, but Serjiel stood his ground. He did not even put a dent in the great beast, but that was not the point as he was merely providing a distraction… A good punch to the head from the golden man sent the vulture careening into a wall on the other side of the room. It gave another godawful screech as it flailed around like a rabid, crazed animal.

    “TRAITOR-TRAITOR, OZYMANDIAS!” The vulture’s shrill voice was truly an abomination, like the toughest nails on the thickest glass. To call it an audible voice was being incredibly generous and an insult to the act of speaking itself. “OZYMANDIAS THE TRAITOR!”

    The golden man spat out some shining, golden blood and laughed condescendingly. “You were always some of the lowest scum, Vulture God! You received your honors out of pity and were too pathetic for the light of God-The Source, so you sided with The Spulcher God who kept you around only because he favored you as a lowly pet!!”

    “TRAITOR! YOU WILL REGRET BETRAYING US!!” The Vulture God screamed back, preparing another attack. “THE SEPULCHER GOD WILL WIN!!!” Its maddening screaming trailed off into it spewing forth a stream of rancid lava from its mouth that wreaked the most putrid, festering bile. Anyone who inhaled the noxious fumes would have died on the spot, and many of the stewards watching were fainting from the mere wisps of it wafting near them.

    Ozymandias saw that his stewards and the group were in danger, so he had to act quickly. He slammed his hands together with a thunderous boom, causing golden barriers to stop the lava from flowing wherever it wanted. He then leapt into the air and landed a devastating elbow drop to The Vulture God’s back, disabling its wings. He then got it into a headlock, The Vulture God forcing Ozymandias to spin around with it to not lose his grip. His barriers could only protect everyone else for so long, especially with how hard The Vulture God was thrashing around, reaching a fever pitch as it screamed in anger over its broken wings. The foul creature deserved no mercy or sympathy, however, and Ozymandias was ready to end the battle right then and there.

    “NO ANIMALS IN THE LIBRARY!” Ozymandias growled in cathartic revelry.

    “THE SEPULCHER GOD IS THE RIGHTFUL SOURCE! HE WILL CORRUPT THE PRIMA MATERIA!! WE WILL WIN!!!”

    “DIE, YOU VILE WASTE!!!” Ozymandias roared as loud as he could as he tightened his grip with a primal rage, tight enough to cause a loud crack that made The Vulture God go limp. Everyone went silent as it dropped to the floor with a thud, completely lifeless. Ozymandias shuddered, repulsed at the irreverence he had to commit, but he did not regret the lives he protected. He then snapped his fingers, cleaning up the lava and sending the dead god away. “The Madman of Old shall deal with you…” It was safe to say that he needed a moment to calm himself down after all of that, remaining silent for the time being.

    The group respected the remorseful still, up until Tusk broke the silence out of shock, being beyond words for what he had just witnessed. “DID HE-DID HE JUST KILL A GOD!?” he cried.

    Ozymandias was about to sink into a mire of ill feelings, but that outburst snapped him out of it. He straightened out his hair and took a quick breath to prepare his nerves. With a smile on his face, he clapped twice as if signaling for instruction. “Stewards, let us compose ourselves and clean the rest of this mess up! We have guests and some very important matters to tend to that we best not keep waiting.”


Next: Chapter 2

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ULTRAMagic Alternate Legal Disclaimer

ULTRAMagic Prelude - Cover

ULTRAMagic Alternate Master Post