ULTRAMagic Babel - Chapter 12
Previous | First | Next
Master Post - Patreon
That night’s dinner in the luxurious, Victorian-Greek dining hall felt like a true victory lap for the group. While it was true that Gudrun had gotten away, Valdemaras had failed spectacularly, with Lia and Buster happily enjoying their scrumptious food. And if The Vermilion King was to be believed, everything was going according to plan. Ozymandias and Tereza were simply upbeat in every possible regard, recalling their past adventures (that did not involve them enabling The Sepulcher God). It was surprising to see Ozymandias so jovial despite the slaying of The Vulture God a couple of days prior. And of course The Vermilion King also had his fair share of stories to tell. Truthfully Lia, Buster, and Odo were hoping the night would last forever, as it was vastly preferable to the conflicts that waited far outside the tower.
The next day saw the group at Ozymandias’ living space so he could tell them his tale of how he became intertwined with the tower in the first place. Ozymandias lived in what could be best described as a truly grand palace that defied the confines of the tower’s structure. It was breathtakingly beautiful, consisting of Roman architecture with traces of Babylonian. The group was in awe as they marveled at the countless artifacts, treasures, and art pieces that lined the walls, indicating the eons of travel that the tower had undertaken. And in the center plaza of the palace was a golden statue of two primordials very familiar to everyone present.
Tusk gave a joyous laugh seeing the statue of the dragon, feeling a great deal of nostalgia. “Drago, take a look at the statue of Leif.”
She smiled, her eyes nearly welling up as she witnessed the glorious depiction of their late friend. “Goodness, I should’ve brought Blood and Desislav along.”
“I owe everything I now have to Leif and The Madman of Old,” Ozymandias said as he stepped over to them. “They’re both unsung heroes that deserve more recognition.” There was a subtle longing in his voice, no doubt indicating he wanted Leif to return despite how pointless such a wish was. “Gather around, everyone, and I shall tell you my story. The only thing I ask is that you don’t pity me, but learn from my mistakes. I take no pride in my past actions, but I also won’t run from them.”
“I raise my glass to that, Ozymandias,” Waramunt stated as the others got comfortable around the large pedestal of the statue. “As natural as tears are, they won’t bring back the dead…”
“Nor will they solve our problems, Waramunt. Only reaching the light can do that.” Everyone else heard Ozymandias say ‘Waramunt,’ but Waramunt himself heard ‘Valentin.’ “Now this is a long story of mine, but I will do my best to condense the countless eons of history, haha.” He then waved his hand in front of the statue, causing Leif and The Madman to hover up into the air and out of the way as a pool of bubbling gold rose at the base of the pedestal.
“Incredible,” Dragoslava remarked as she took a seat at a nearby table, getting out several notepads and pens. “Are you two sure you’re ready for all of this to be written down?”
“Yes, Dragoslava,” Tereza replied. She then looked at Ozymandias and nodded. “There’s no use in keeping quiet about it anymore.”
Ozymandias looked up and took a breath, steadying his nerves. He then conjured up a younger figure of him from the gold. “I was never a truly special god, just one out of many with nothing meaningful to his name…” The gold statuette looked depressed and lonely as a group of other gods chatted and laughed with their followers in the distance. “I was and still am tenth dimensional, with nothing for man of the Epoch to revere, so naturally I grew a bit desperate for something, anything… and then he came along…” Everyone shuddered a little as a skeletal statuette appeared and offered the lone god what looked like an apple.
“The Sepulcher God,” Waramunt remarked. “Of course that charlatan would just so happen to be in the neighborhood.”
“My desire for success no doubt caught his attention, so he came to me with silver words, offering to help me achieve the glory I desired. All I had to do was help him with his master plan…” His gold statuette sunk back into the pool, causing it to bubble widely. “And thus I became The Royal God…” Emerging from the liquid gold was an imposing figure in the image of a mighty king who commanded his underlings to gather vast riches for him. It was easy to tell that this newly christened monarch was not a true leader, however. “In hindsight I did too many embarrassing things to recount…”
“I’d imagine you could relate to The Royal God, Waramunt?” Adriana tactfully inquired, hoping to get some information out of him.
“Certainly, Captain,” he replied. “Albeit I was never visited by The Sepulcher God, obviously.”
“And fortunate you were, as no one should ever have the displeasure of meeting with that irreverent excuse for a god,” Ozymandias continued. “Now what really thrust me into the limelight was the aftermath of the shattering of The Tyrant God, a vocal and vehement opponent of The Sepulcher God…” What appeared from the pool next was a bestial god striking down an ar’ton, followed by The Madman destroying The Tyrant God. “Framing The Tyrant God would have worked had The Dead God not interfered, helping The Behemoth God one moment then ratting him out the next, followed by our higher dimensional troublemaker helping Lord Anti reassemble himself…”
“Well I’d dare say The Sepulcher God needs to be more mindful of the help he enlists…” Serjiel noted.
“If any of you are wondering why The Eternal Order has adopted such a cutthroat mentality of leaving behind anyone who does not yield results in recent times, The Dead God is probably one of the reasons why,” Ozymandias stated with certainty in his voice. “Now since there was a power vacuum, I filled the position and got to work with a campaign of subterfuge to get the heat off of us, no thanks to The Behemoth God’s arrogance…”
“So where does Tereza play into all of this then?” Adriana wondered.
“Perfect timing, as this was around the time when I entered the scene,” she answered. “I was made Ozymandias’ right hand woman.” A new statuette appeared out of the gold, depicting a less powerful version of Tereza. And as to be expected, The Sepulcher God was there, offering her a fruit like he had done for Ozymandias… except this time there were terrifying specters of unspeakable form dancing around the two. It was clear they were something else entirely and gave the group chills. “I… I was a lowly ar’ton of water who had learned about the horrors of the Outer Void and the True Abyss and… I was scared, with The Sepulcher God offering to make it all go away… and I was stupid enough to believe him.”
“Hold on,” Adriana interrupted. “Tereza, pardon my asking, but what made you so scared? It can’t be any worse than The Reverse Serpent…”
Tereza shuddered as the water-like substance that filled her metal frame began to freeze, with the strange ice even creeping towards the group and starting to crawl up some of their legs. “There are gods-dark, ancient gods that predate the Outer Void and slumber in prisons impossible to reach. They are horrid things that we should never have found about, that should have remained forgotten! Even in their slumber they quietly influence everything and we can’t even fight back! And understanding them? Good luck with that one!”
Ozymandias stopped Tereza and gave her a hug, trying his best to soothe his panicking lover. “Easy, Tereza, easy. The Ancient God has everything under control, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean we're not in danger, Ozymandias!” she reminded him, accidentally causing everyone else to be encased in a thin layer of ice up to their torsos. “Oops, my apologies…” Tereza said as she focused, melting the ice and drawing it back into her.
“The Ancient God?” Serjiel questioned, somewhat confused. “Ozymandias, is this something the guild should be looking into? At the very least to quell Tereza’s fears…”
“No. For now focus on stopping The Sepulcher God. I have no doubt he will try to rouse The Lost Gods if he is able to usurp God. And we can’t let any of that happen. Thankfully, like I said, The Ancient God has our backs-doing his best to keep his kin asleep.”
Tusk sighed, letting out a fair amount of oxygen. “Jeez, no wonder Eustorgio lost his marbles back in the day… aside from the obvious. What next? Lost Lost Gods?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, Tusk,” Ozymandias replied with dread in his voice. “The concept of infinity is truly terrifying once you grasp the full scope of it… and speaking of Eustorgio, perfect segue!” The change in his tone of voice to energetic again was a little surreal, but the group remained quiet as the gold pool shifted and brought forth the three great mages of the Epoch. Unfortunately they were arguing amongst each other, with Leif and Eustorgio spearheading the heated debate. “Eustorgio was on to me, Tereza, and the others, but no one believed him, or were too afraid to speak up for The Mage of Old. And of course The Deep God’s prophecy sent him over the edge, causing him to begin directly opposing us and The Sepulcher God. And Eustorgio’s plans to stop us inevitably drove a rift between him and his family. I felt no sympathy at the time, until my first major failure, the attack on the dark angel home realm of Luna…”
As a moon rose from the pool, Waramunt realized how familiar it looked. “Wait a second, isn’t that the moon?”
“Indeed,” Serjiel replied. “But what we see as the moon is merely an illusion across the Cosmos, hiding the home of the dark angels.”
“I’ve heard of the dark angels, but I lack the proper insight as to what separates them from regular angels.”
“Dark angels are ancient beings that rose from the darkness when God shone his light on the Outer Void and created the Cosmos,” Serjiel began to explain. “In this regard they are similar to Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim in how they predated the arrival of the angels across the various versions of Heaven all over the Cosmos. Eclectic and reclusive, they prefer to explore the Cosmos and beyond rather than getting involved in our conflicts. Zozena and Schwarzes are notable exceptions, obviously.”
Tusk had been nodding along when the latter name caught him off guard. “Hold the phone! Schwarzes is a dark angel?”
“You never noticed that, Tusk?” Serjiel questioned.
“Not really…”
“Well I will note that it was not obvious at first until I started noticing the oddities of his existence… annoyingly the majority of dark angels won’t let him into Luna yet, so we cannot figure out how or why Schwarzes is a dark angel. Again, they are incredibly reclusive, so gathering more information on them is difficult. And all of you can understand the need to clear up Schwarzes’ origin given where and who he came from.”
“Well actually I know a dark angel who wanders the Pool Expanse Reality Errors…” Odo started to say.
“I’m sorry, ‘pool expanse?’” Waramunt interjected. “What in the blue blazes is that?”
“You know how Reality Errors tend to reflect the reality of the Cosmos when it overlaps with The Unlight?”
“Acutely aware…”
“Well take a concept like public pools, apply that to Reality Errors, and have that expand into Somnium, allowing it to become a realm in and of itself.”
Waramunt took a second to think about it and nodded. “How strange…”
“People from your Earth are obsessed with that whole liminal space weirdness and I think the concept of liminal pool realms may have escaped out into the Cosmos,” Dragoslava noted.
“I see… I’m not too well versed in internet culture, so that’s a bit of a new one for me.”
Odo cleared his throat, returning attention to himself. “Getting back to my friend, her name is Ezomathon and she’s a little more sociable than the other dark angels. While the Pool Expanse is quite big, it shouldn’t be too hard to get ahold of her, especially for Valentina and Schwarzes.”
“Huh, we’ll have to look into that one,” Serjiel noted. “Thank you, Odo.”
“No problem. Now, Ozymandias, the attack on Luna?”
Ozymandias gave a guilty chuckle. “I know I promised to tell you guys my story, but I was also kind of hoping you would keep talking, haha. Anyways…” He snapped his fingers, causing the moon to shift over to a scene of a great city of immense proportions at the south pole. “Tereza and I were after The Inverted Philosopher’s Stone held by Lemogethon at his castle. The inverted stone is a powerful artifact from a different time that grants one the ability to collapse superposition, so you can understand why The Sepulcher God wanted it.” The liquid gold was following Ozymandias’ story perfectly and the group was eager to know what happened next. “We launched our attack, but Lemogethon was one step ahead of us and severed his castle from Luna, plunging it into the Dark Void. We tried to chase after it, but The Dread God stopped us. The Tyrant God’s old mentor is vastly more cunning than The Sepulcher God and is not someone you want to get on the bad side of. And of course this blunder of a defeat revealed how truly dumb The Sepulcher God is…”
Adriana noticed a familiar snake slithering around the miniature Dark Void landscape and took a breath to ease her nerves after the surge of adrenaline she felt. “Oh dear…”
“That’s right, we disturbed The Reverse Serpent,” Ozymandias recounted with frustration in his voice. “The poor thing slithered out of universe with alarmingly high levels of Iteration Generation Loss, hoping to find a place to rest… and then we came along, scaring it and no doubt waking up all sorts of dangerous entities in the process. This whole fiasco shone a light on The Sepulcher God’s schemes and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he will get us all killed if not stopped! There are forces he’s meddling with that even the thirteenth dimensional entities will not trifle with!”
Dragoslava had to pause to shake her cramping hand. “Ow… well ain’t that a fine howdydo… Wait a second, Adriana? Why are you guys so up in arms about the serpent again? It sounds like he’s a victim to me…”
“Well again, Drago, we’re reevaluating what the synopsis to GRO was actually referring to,” she assured. “I really wish Mads would just spill the beans already…”
With a nod she got out another pen and flipped to the next page. “Yeah, I know that feeling, in regards to Achasiah and Deimos. So what happened next?”
“Aside from a string of failed schemes, no thanks to The Crimson God?” Tereza answered. “Ozymandias and I fell in love, given all the trouble we had gone through together.”
“Looking back on it, it was inevitable and the beginning of the end of us as cohorts of The Sepulcher God,” Ozymandias added. “Our last big mission was during the Epoch-transition phase where we were to claim the tower for The Eternal Order…” a recreation of the tower itself sprung forth from the gold, with Leif, The Madman, and The Automaton of Old guarding it as Ozymandias and Tereza approached. “The Monolith of Old was on to us and used the tower as a trap. We were both defeated, with I becoming the Tower Arbiter and Tereza being sentenced to be the warden for The Requiem Cosmos.”
“And yes, our hearts certainly grew fonder for each other over that period of time,” Tereza added with a hint of lovingness in her voice. “You know what happened to me; I was let go for good behavior at Lord Anti’s request.”
“As for me…” Ozymandias paused, needing to take a breath as he felt a lump of guilt build up in his chest. It could be sensed that he was growing rightfully emotional. “After millennia of wandering the Cosmos with the tower, Leif came to visit me a night not too long ago…” The golden pool shifted to a scene at the top of the tower with Leif and Ozymandias. “Leif had learned of my history over the eons and had taken pity on me, even going so far as to ask God to restore my honors should he forgive me…” The gold shifted one last time, returning to the statue of Leif and The Madman. “And then? He… he forgave me…” Ozymandias struggled to say. There was a brief moment of silence before he dropped to his knee and began to cry profusely. “HE FORGAVE ME, DESPITE THE IRREVERENT ACTS I COMMITTED. Even after all the pain I caused him, Eustrogio, Mal, Ermenrich, and Tiberius! HE FORGAVE ME, OF ALL PEOPLE.”
There was a surge of emotion in the room as the group remained silent. It was hard not to shed a tear alongside the troubled god. Even though Tereza got down beside him, the tears continued to flow as regret and sorrow spilled forth from Ozymandias. At the same time, hope could be sensed in the emotional release. Dragoslava closed her notepad, calmly got up, and went over to Ozymandias with Tusk. There stood a deity that had contributed greatly to all of the grief the two had experienced over the past decade, but they were not mad, not in the slightest.
“Royal God, I forgive you,” Dragoslava said with a gentle smile.
“Same here,” Tusk added. “Water under the bridge, as trees don’t hold grudges.”
Ozymandias could not help but give a comforted laugh through his tears as he shakily rose to his feet. “Is it any wonder all of you became friends with Leif? Thank you, but please keep calling me ‘Ozymandias,’ as I don’t want to forget my past mistakes.”
Buster was trying hard not to cry, with Waramunt putting his arm around his shoulders, like a father would. “I’m glad you and Leif were able to reconcile, Ozymandias,” he stated. “See, Lia? If he can move on, you can do it too…”
“You’re absolutely right, Buster,” she replied in a hopeful tone.
Waramunt ruffled Buster’s hair with a smile on his face. “We all have the light within us, waiting for it to be let into our lives.”
Odo shook his head with a smile, having figured out who Waramunt was thanks to some insight he had received from Dragoslava in the past. “So, Waramunt, how’s Earth-23 this time of year?”
“Splendid, but are you sure you want to send Buster there? It’s fraught with danger and uncertainty…”
“I think he’ll be fine. He’s all grown up now after all.”
“Then follow me,” Ozymandias said as he began to lead the group to the exit. “I know a truly beautiful section of the tower to see him off in.”
Next: Chapter 13
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
That night’s dinner in the luxurious, Victorian-Greek dining hall felt like a true victory lap for the group. While it was true that Gudrun had gotten away, Valdemaras had failed spectacularly, with Lia and Buster happily enjoying their scrumptious food. And if The Vermilion King was to be believed, everything was going according to plan. Ozymandias and Tereza were simply upbeat in every possible regard, recalling their past adventures (that did not involve them enabling The Sepulcher God). It was surprising to see Ozymandias so jovial despite the slaying of The Vulture God a couple of days prior. And of course The Vermilion King also had his fair share of stories to tell. Truthfully Lia, Buster, and Odo were hoping the night would last forever, as it was vastly preferable to the conflicts that waited far outside the tower.
The next day saw the group at Ozymandias’ living space so he could tell them his tale of how he became intertwined with the tower in the first place. Ozymandias lived in what could be best described as a truly grand palace that defied the confines of the tower’s structure. It was breathtakingly beautiful, consisting of Roman architecture with traces of Babylonian. The group was in awe as they marveled at the countless artifacts, treasures, and art pieces that lined the walls, indicating the eons of travel that the tower had undertaken. And in the center plaza of the palace was a golden statue of two primordials very familiar to everyone present.
Tusk gave a joyous laugh seeing the statue of the dragon, feeling a great deal of nostalgia. “Drago, take a look at the statue of Leif.”
She smiled, her eyes nearly welling up as she witnessed the glorious depiction of their late friend. “Goodness, I should’ve brought Blood and Desislav along.”
“I owe everything I now have to Leif and The Madman of Old,” Ozymandias said as he stepped over to them. “They’re both unsung heroes that deserve more recognition.” There was a subtle longing in his voice, no doubt indicating he wanted Leif to return despite how pointless such a wish was. “Gather around, everyone, and I shall tell you my story. The only thing I ask is that you don’t pity me, but learn from my mistakes. I take no pride in my past actions, but I also won’t run from them.”
“I raise my glass to that, Ozymandias,” Waramunt stated as the others got comfortable around the large pedestal of the statue. “As natural as tears are, they won’t bring back the dead…”
“Nor will they solve our problems, Waramunt. Only reaching the light can do that.” Everyone else heard Ozymandias say ‘Waramunt,’ but Waramunt himself heard ‘Valentin.’ “Now this is a long story of mine, but I will do my best to condense the countless eons of history, haha.” He then waved his hand in front of the statue, causing Leif and The Madman to hover up into the air and out of the way as a pool of bubbling gold rose at the base of the pedestal.
“Incredible,” Dragoslava remarked as she took a seat at a nearby table, getting out several notepads and pens. “Are you two sure you’re ready for all of this to be written down?”
“Yes, Dragoslava,” Tereza replied. She then looked at Ozymandias and nodded. “There’s no use in keeping quiet about it anymore.”
Ozymandias looked up and took a breath, steadying his nerves. He then conjured up a younger figure of him from the gold. “I was never a truly special god, just one out of many with nothing meaningful to his name…” The gold statuette looked depressed and lonely as a group of other gods chatted and laughed with their followers in the distance. “I was and still am tenth dimensional, with nothing for man of the Epoch to revere, so naturally I grew a bit desperate for something, anything… and then he came along…” Everyone shuddered a little as a skeletal statuette appeared and offered the lone god what looked like an apple.
“The Sepulcher God,” Waramunt remarked. “Of course that charlatan would just so happen to be in the neighborhood.”
“My desire for success no doubt caught his attention, so he came to me with silver words, offering to help me achieve the glory I desired. All I had to do was help him with his master plan…” His gold statuette sunk back into the pool, causing it to bubble widely. “And thus I became The Royal God…” Emerging from the liquid gold was an imposing figure in the image of a mighty king who commanded his underlings to gather vast riches for him. It was easy to tell that this newly christened monarch was not a true leader, however. “In hindsight I did too many embarrassing things to recount…”
“I’d imagine you could relate to The Royal God, Waramunt?” Adriana tactfully inquired, hoping to get some information out of him.
“Certainly, Captain,” he replied. “Albeit I was never visited by The Sepulcher God, obviously.”
“And fortunate you were, as no one should ever have the displeasure of meeting with that irreverent excuse for a god,” Ozymandias continued. “Now what really thrust me into the limelight was the aftermath of the shattering of The Tyrant God, a vocal and vehement opponent of The Sepulcher God…” What appeared from the pool next was a bestial god striking down an ar’ton, followed by The Madman destroying The Tyrant God. “Framing The Tyrant God would have worked had The Dead God not interfered, helping The Behemoth God one moment then ratting him out the next, followed by our higher dimensional troublemaker helping Lord Anti reassemble himself…”
“Well I’d dare say The Sepulcher God needs to be more mindful of the help he enlists…” Serjiel noted.
“If any of you are wondering why The Eternal Order has adopted such a cutthroat mentality of leaving behind anyone who does not yield results in recent times, The Dead God is probably one of the reasons why,” Ozymandias stated with certainty in his voice. “Now since there was a power vacuum, I filled the position and got to work with a campaign of subterfuge to get the heat off of us, no thanks to The Behemoth God’s arrogance…”
“So where does Tereza play into all of this then?” Adriana wondered.
“Perfect timing, as this was around the time when I entered the scene,” she answered. “I was made Ozymandias’ right hand woman.” A new statuette appeared out of the gold, depicting a less powerful version of Tereza. And as to be expected, The Sepulcher God was there, offering her a fruit like he had done for Ozymandias… except this time there were terrifying specters of unspeakable form dancing around the two. It was clear they were something else entirely and gave the group chills. “I… I was a lowly ar’ton of water who had learned about the horrors of the Outer Void and the True Abyss and… I was scared, with The Sepulcher God offering to make it all go away… and I was stupid enough to believe him.”
“Hold on,” Adriana interrupted. “Tereza, pardon my asking, but what made you so scared? It can’t be any worse than The Reverse Serpent…”
Tereza shuddered as the water-like substance that filled her metal frame began to freeze, with the strange ice even creeping towards the group and starting to crawl up some of their legs. “There are gods-dark, ancient gods that predate the Outer Void and slumber in prisons impossible to reach. They are horrid things that we should never have found about, that should have remained forgotten! Even in their slumber they quietly influence everything and we can’t even fight back! And understanding them? Good luck with that one!”
Ozymandias stopped Tereza and gave her a hug, trying his best to soothe his panicking lover. “Easy, Tereza, easy. The Ancient God has everything under control, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean we're not in danger, Ozymandias!” she reminded him, accidentally causing everyone else to be encased in a thin layer of ice up to their torsos. “Oops, my apologies…” Tereza said as she focused, melting the ice and drawing it back into her.
“The Ancient God?” Serjiel questioned, somewhat confused. “Ozymandias, is this something the guild should be looking into? At the very least to quell Tereza’s fears…”
“No. For now focus on stopping The Sepulcher God. I have no doubt he will try to rouse The Lost Gods if he is able to usurp God. And we can’t let any of that happen. Thankfully, like I said, The Ancient God has our backs-doing his best to keep his kin asleep.”
Tusk sighed, letting out a fair amount of oxygen. “Jeez, no wonder Eustorgio lost his marbles back in the day… aside from the obvious. What next? Lost Lost Gods?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, Tusk,” Ozymandias replied with dread in his voice. “The concept of infinity is truly terrifying once you grasp the full scope of it… and speaking of Eustorgio, perfect segue!” The change in his tone of voice to energetic again was a little surreal, but the group remained quiet as the gold pool shifted and brought forth the three great mages of the Epoch. Unfortunately they were arguing amongst each other, with Leif and Eustorgio spearheading the heated debate. “Eustorgio was on to me, Tereza, and the others, but no one believed him, or were too afraid to speak up for The Mage of Old. And of course The Deep God’s prophecy sent him over the edge, causing him to begin directly opposing us and The Sepulcher God. And Eustorgio’s plans to stop us inevitably drove a rift between him and his family. I felt no sympathy at the time, until my first major failure, the attack on the dark angel home realm of Luna…”
As a moon rose from the pool, Waramunt realized how familiar it looked. “Wait a second, isn’t that the moon?”
“Indeed,” Serjiel replied. “But what we see as the moon is merely an illusion across the Cosmos, hiding the home of the dark angels.”
“I’ve heard of the dark angels, but I lack the proper insight as to what separates them from regular angels.”
“Dark angels are ancient beings that rose from the darkness when God shone his light on the Outer Void and created the Cosmos,” Serjiel began to explain. “In this regard they are similar to Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim in how they predated the arrival of the angels across the various versions of Heaven all over the Cosmos. Eclectic and reclusive, they prefer to explore the Cosmos and beyond rather than getting involved in our conflicts. Zozena and Schwarzes are notable exceptions, obviously.”
Tusk had been nodding along when the latter name caught him off guard. “Hold the phone! Schwarzes is a dark angel?”
“You never noticed that, Tusk?” Serjiel questioned.
“Not really…”
“Well I will note that it was not obvious at first until I started noticing the oddities of his existence… annoyingly the majority of dark angels won’t let him into Luna yet, so we cannot figure out how or why Schwarzes is a dark angel. Again, they are incredibly reclusive, so gathering more information on them is difficult. And all of you can understand the need to clear up Schwarzes’ origin given where and who he came from.”
“Well actually I know a dark angel who wanders the Pool Expanse Reality Errors…” Odo started to say.
“I’m sorry, ‘pool expanse?’” Waramunt interjected. “What in the blue blazes is that?”
“You know how Reality Errors tend to reflect the reality of the Cosmos when it overlaps with The Unlight?”
“Acutely aware…”
“Well take a concept like public pools, apply that to Reality Errors, and have that expand into Somnium, allowing it to become a realm in and of itself.”
Waramunt took a second to think about it and nodded. “How strange…”
“People from your Earth are obsessed with that whole liminal space weirdness and I think the concept of liminal pool realms may have escaped out into the Cosmos,” Dragoslava noted.
“I see… I’m not too well versed in internet culture, so that’s a bit of a new one for me.”
Odo cleared his throat, returning attention to himself. “Getting back to my friend, her name is Ezomathon and she’s a little more sociable than the other dark angels. While the Pool Expanse is quite big, it shouldn’t be too hard to get ahold of her, especially for Valentina and Schwarzes.”
“Huh, we’ll have to look into that one,” Serjiel noted. “Thank you, Odo.”
“No problem. Now, Ozymandias, the attack on Luna?”
Ozymandias gave a guilty chuckle. “I know I promised to tell you guys my story, but I was also kind of hoping you would keep talking, haha. Anyways…” He snapped his fingers, causing the moon to shift over to a scene of a great city of immense proportions at the south pole. “Tereza and I were after The Inverted Philosopher’s Stone held by Lemogethon at his castle. The inverted stone is a powerful artifact from a different time that grants one the ability to collapse superposition, so you can understand why The Sepulcher God wanted it.” The liquid gold was following Ozymandias’ story perfectly and the group was eager to know what happened next. “We launched our attack, but Lemogethon was one step ahead of us and severed his castle from Luna, plunging it into the Dark Void. We tried to chase after it, but The Dread God stopped us. The Tyrant God’s old mentor is vastly more cunning than The Sepulcher God and is not someone you want to get on the bad side of. And of course this blunder of a defeat revealed how truly dumb The Sepulcher God is…”
Adriana noticed a familiar snake slithering around the miniature Dark Void landscape and took a breath to ease her nerves after the surge of adrenaline she felt. “Oh dear…”
“That’s right, we disturbed The Reverse Serpent,” Ozymandias recounted with frustration in his voice. “The poor thing slithered out of universe with alarmingly high levels of Iteration Generation Loss, hoping to find a place to rest… and then we came along, scaring it and no doubt waking up all sorts of dangerous entities in the process. This whole fiasco shone a light on The Sepulcher God’s schemes and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he will get us all killed if not stopped! There are forces he’s meddling with that even the thirteenth dimensional entities will not trifle with!”
Dragoslava had to pause to shake her cramping hand. “Ow… well ain’t that a fine howdydo… Wait a second, Adriana? Why are you guys so up in arms about the serpent again? It sounds like he’s a victim to me…”
“Well again, Drago, we’re reevaluating what the synopsis to GRO was actually referring to,” she assured. “I really wish Mads would just spill the beans already…”
With a nod she got out another pen and flipped to the next page. “Yeah, I know that feeling, in regards to Achasiah and Deimos. So what happened next?”
“Aside from a string of failed schemes, no thanks to The Crimson God?” Tereza answered. “Ozymandias and I fell in love, given all the trouble we had gone through together.”
“Looking back on it, it was inevitable and the beginning of the end of us as cohorts of The Sepulcher God,” Ozymandias added. “Our last big mission was during the Epoch-transition phase where we were to claim the tower for The Eternal Order…” a recreation of the tower itself sprung forth from the gold, with Leif, The Madman, and The Automaton of Old guarding it as Ozymandias and Tereza approached. “The Monolith of Old was on to us and used the tower as a trap. We were both defeated, with I becoming the Tower Arbiter and Tereza being sentenced to be the warden for The Requiem Cosmos.”
“And yes, our hearts certainly grew fonder for each other over that period of time,” Tereza added with a hint of lovingness in her voice. “You know what happened to me; I was let go for good behavior at Lord Anti’s request.”
“As for me…” Ozymandias paused, needing to take a breath as he felt a lump of guilt build up in his chest. It could be sensed that he was growing rightfully emotional. “After millennia of wandering the Cosmos with the tower, Leif came to visit me a night not too long ago…” The golden pool shifted to a scene at the top of the tower with Leif and Ozymandias. “Leif had learned of my history over the eons and had taken pity on me, even going so far as to ask God to restore my honors should he forgive me…” The gold shifted one last time, returning to the statue of Leif and The Madman. “And then? He… he forgave me…” Ozymandias struggled to say. There was a brief moment of silence before he dropped to his knee and began to cry profusely. “HE FORGAVE ME, DESPITE THE IRREVERENT ACTS I COMMITTED. Even after all the pain I caused him, Eustrogio, Mal, Ermenrich, and Tiberius! HE FORGAVE ME, OF ALL PEOPLE.”
There was a surge of emotion in the room as the group remained silent. It was hard not to shed a tear alongside the troubled god. Even though Tereza got down beside him, the tears continued to flow as regret and sorrow spilled forth from Ozymandias. At the same time, hope could be sensed in the emotional release. Dragoslava closed her notepad, calmly got up, and went over to Ozymandias with Tusk. There stood a deity that had contributed greatly to all of the grief the two had experienced over the past decade, but they were not mad, not in the slightest.
“Royal God, I forgive you,” Dragoslava said with a gentle smile.
“Same here,” Tusk added. “Water under the bridge, as trees don’t hold grudges.”
Ozymandias could not help but give a comforted laugh through his tears as he shakily rose to his feet. “Is it any wonder all of you became friends with Leif? Thank you, but please keep calling me ‘Ozymandias,’ as I don’t want to forget my past mistakes.”
Buster was trying hard not to cry, with Waramunt putting his arm around his shoulders, like a father would. “I’m glad you and Leif were able to reconcile, Ozymandias,” he stated. “See, Lia? If he can move on, you can do it too…”
“You’re absolutely right, Buster,” she replied in a hopeful tone.
Waramunt ruffled Buster’s hair with a smile on his face. “We all have the light within us, waiting for it to be let into our lives.”
Odo shook his head with a smile, having figured out who Waramunt was thanks to some insight he had received from Dragoslava in the past. “So, Waramunt, how’s Earth-23 this time of year?”
“Splendid, but are you sure you want to send Buster there? It’s fraught with danger and uncertainty…”
“I think he’ll be fine. He’s all grown up now after all.”
“Then follow me,” Ozymandias said as he began to lead the group to the exit. “I know a truly beautiful section of the tower to see him off in.”
Next: Chapter 13
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Comments
Post a Comment