ULTRAMagic Eon 2 - Chapter 20

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    The castle of the God of Death was a grand structure of impossible spires and great walls that lay within a labyrinthine city of ageless stone. The City of Death itself consisted of a mix of classical and Romanesque architecture, but stretched and warped into a city that would have been truly impossible for mere men to create. What could have been a normal, two-story building turned into a ten-story fortress or tower. These unintentionally formed more of the great walls that made up the sections of the city. And even though the buildings touched the cloudy, dark sky of the Abyssal Gulf, there seemed to be areas where the buildings stretched downwards into what appeared to be a bottomless abyss. It was almost like the city had risen up from the dark depths to serve as an anchor and focal point for the realm.

    Things were far from stagnant in The City of Death, however. The city gave the impression it was a still and deathly silent oasis amongst the gray crags of the realm, betrayed by the very real and fierce battles going on in its streets. Two forces were fighting each other and showed no signs of stopping until the other was driven out. One army was that of knights led by a giant in armor that had the heraldry of a lion-wolf (a hybrid native to The Unlight, albeit rare in the modern phase of the Cosmos). The opposition were monstrosities that looked they had risen from the abyss itself and shadowy entities of their ilk, whose leader was a bestial, primeval entity that swiped and slammed with its giant, clawed hands. As Blood-Wraith, The God of Death, and Damien walked up the staircase streets to the castle, they paused to discern what was going on far below him.

    Blood-Wraith was stunned by what he saw, as magic of darkness and black fire rocketed back and forth between the two sides. “What’s… what’s going on down there? Who are those people?”

    The God of Death groaned as he rubbed his face, indicating his frustration. “The ancient battle between Feuerland and The Abyssal Lord is still going on, I see. As you no doubt know by now, Blood-Wraith, time is convoluted in realms such as here and The Unlight. A battle that started ages ago can persist eons afterwards, simply because the participants are unaware of the non-linear flow of time we are all subject to. The general you see leading the Feuerlandian knights is Sir Galvyn Akasterr, son of King Ingomar Akasterr. This conflict started in the Epoch-Transition phase, born from King Ingomar’s fear of the Abyss. The Feuerlandians once treaded into the Abyss, and awoke primeval man. Sensing the intrusion, The Abyssal Lord sought to defend his home and launched multiple attacks on Feuerland…”

    “Yeah, I remember reading about that briefly when I first showed up in The Iron City,” Blood-Wraith recalled as he and Damien leaned on the stone to get a better look at the battle. “Information on the War of Fire is a bit scattered and hard to come by, however.”

    “Aye, because the battle has yet to be finished,” The God of Death noted. “Of course I fail to understand why King Ingomar does not simply recall his son and restore some of the glory of his fallen kingdom…” It almost sounded like The God of Death had been discussing that very subject with the forgotten ruler, but that story would be for another day as he tapped his staff on the stone multiple times. A thunderous rumble shook the city and caused both sides of the battle to fall back or disperse. “I will have no ruckus during this important meeting. On the bright side, if Karnage shows his face around here, he’ll have to deal with them. Light and darkness do not always get along, but even they know when to set aside their differences to deal with a greater foe.”

    That caused Blood-Wraith to remember Morrigan, and how she held him close as he passed away following his defeat by Karnage. “I hope she’s doing alright…”

    “I wouldn’t worry about Morrigan, Blood-Wraith. The guild you helped cultivate is full of good people who will do the right thing, despite any past grievances.”

    “Well, I am a little worried about how John will react, as he is a sailor with a strong sense of justice and what’s right, despite being a pirate…”

    “Didn’t he ultimately become a Privateer?”

    Blood-Wraith chuckled as the three resumed their walk up the streets. “Yeah, yeah. I was surprised to hear about his past adventures, albeit they mostly came out of Brandr’s mouth as John was a bit embarrassed by some of them.”

    Inside the castle was foreboding at first, with empty stone halls lit by fire from the ornate sconces that lined them. The tallest points of the high up ceiling was shrouded in inky darkness and chill crept through the place that was near cold to the bone. It was certainly no place for any regular individual and felt like somewhere a ghost could go to be at peace or rest their weary limbs. Calling it dream-like was tempting, but it would have been a haunting dream if one wandered into it while sleeping. Still, Blood-Wraith felt safe and comforted as The God of Death led him and Damien into a parlor where they could take a seat. With a snap of his fingers the fireplace roared to life and provided warmth to ward off the cold. A ghostly steward then brought the two boys a tray with some cups and a pot of tea.

    Setting his staff aside and hanging his lantern on a post, The God of Death took a seat in the chair opposite the two and cleared his throat as he relaxed. “Before we address the obvious, I feel I owe it to you two to elaborate a little further on who I am. I am a god, but not one you would be familiar with. My father is Death, the one who oversees the cycle of life and makes sure that mortals can return to the earth when their time comes so that their souls may further return to the Source. He has no Cosmos of his own, rather he offers guidance and comfort to the old gods who walk the path of love and creation, such as God and Threrth.”

    “So Death is an old god?” Blood-Wraith asked before taking a sip of tea, the drink soothing his cold body. “What about the person Drago met at The Metal Oasis?”

    “An aspect of Death, Dragoslava’s death. She was not ready to pass on, and both my father and Ferro intervened to stop her from giving up on life.”

    “Was my sister really in that much distress?” Blood-Wraith wondered, with even Damien appearing concerned by this.

    “The Great Hunt was certainly an upheaval for the ages, as it defied all efforts The Descendants had made to help get the Cosmos ready for the modern era. The Beast of Old, a primordial that was designated as one who could persist, causing trouble for the modern Cosmos? To say that the Descendants were not ready for such a machination by Karnage and Anne is an understatement…”

    “So it wasn’t Milosh?” Blood-Wraith interrupted, accompanied by an inquisitive nod from Damien.

    “Milosh deceived the Fear of Old, but the instruction to do so came from his mother who was conspiring with Karnage at the time, and obviously still is to this day.”

    “So what is Anne’s story? How in the blue blazes did she even end up in The Unlight in the first place?”

    The God of Death leaned over to prepare himself some tea, took a sip, and cleared his throat. “It might surprise you to know that Anne was originally just a mere human from Universe-23, as you call it. She was a member of the wealthy elite of that Earth, but faced political persecution for a set of controversial beliefs that were shared by a foul order of humans that would go on to form several clandestine organizations which eventually evolved into The Eternal Order. They were all obsessed with wiping out humanity, but The Eternal Order shifted their focus to that of The Sepulcher God’s will. And getting back to Anne, you don’t need me to infer that the persecution was more of a revolt from the oppressed rising up to overthrow the ones controlling them. Facing certain death, Anne made a desperate bargain with Threrth to escape into The Unlight, and would go on to cause great turmoil for Shadowland.”

    Blood-Wraith nodded, taking it all in. It was certainly answering a lot of questions, but there was another he needed answered. “So what was the deal she made with Threrth? Threrth is an old god, but I have no idea why he would work with The Eternal Order. It feels like a conflict of interest…”

    “The old gods are strange and unknowable, especially the four primeval gods, but from what I have been able to discern, Threrth wanted a foothold in God’s Cosmos so he could start working on his own, and saw great potential in Milosh Proch. The deal was simple-Anne let Threrth have her son’s Ego and she would be given an easy escape from her turmoil. And you’ve met the boy that resulted from the deal, Milan Proch.”

    “Well, I see some things never change…” Blood-Wraith noted with a chuckle, remembering the spell that Anne had used to protect herself at The Valley of Eons. He then realized he had forgotten his original question. “Hold up! Before we start a history lesson about the old gods, what was Drago’s issue in The Metal Oasis? I mean, what was the full scope of it?”

    “A bout of dire depression and an existential crisis. The Great Hunt was rife with danger and the death of Ethor Korvarik shook her to her core. You may have noticed her mental and emotional instability during the time before the Descendants returned to The Iron City…”

    “Yeah, uh-huh…” Blood-Wraith remembered with a slight shudder. “Thankfully that went away the more she hung out with Desislav.”

    “Ultimately I am glad that Dragoslava was able to reconcile her emotions and move on from the grief of losing a good friend she was developing feelings for.”

    A moment was needed for Blood-Wraith to process that. It was so simple, yet he understood why Dragoslava had avoided discussing it over the years he had known her. He set down his teacup and gave a gentle sigh. “So what’s going on with me and Karnage? I feel like we should get to that instead of going over history lessons…” Damien placed his hand on Blood-Wraith’s and nodded.

    The God of Death stood up and went over to the window to look out of it. “It’s certainly quite the tale, and I’ll obviously have to leave some details out for the time being, but it all started when The Tyrant God and The Sepulcher God diverged on how to help Man and the Cosmos. As you know, the gods of the Cosmos are duty bound to help those who are weaker, but two amongst them had differing views on how to go about it. The Sepulcher God insisted on control while The Tyrant God demanded freedom. Their debates over the subject distracted them from their duties, leading to The Sepulcher God defying God and descending from the stars into the Cosmos, with multiple other gods following after him, paramount among them being The Tyrant God. And this led to a further domino effect where other gods also descended into the Cosmos, becoming known as what you would define as rogue gods. I imagine you can put the rest together given all that you’ve gone through.”

    “Wait, so those two were once friends?” Blood-Wraith took a second to mull that over as it seemed so petty, yet made a vast amount of sense. Of course it would be two friends arguing over how to get things done. “Well I know some things about The Tyrant God. How did he end up in the state he is now though?”

    “Ah yes, that…” The God of Death did not sound happy about what he was about to discuss. “Karnage, or The Behemoth God as he was known as during the Epoch, took things above and beyond in regards to his ally’s desires for the Cosmos. Amongst their many irreverent machinations, the scheme that led to the shattering of The Tyrant God was him being framed for the murder of Lord Anti, prior to the latter becoming the ar’ton lord of positrons. This led to a great battle between The Tyrant God and The Madman of Old, in which The Tyrant God had grown weary of being slandered as a scoundrel and declared that those who opposed him were fools. He fought to the death, refusing to relent on his stance of ensuring freedom for Man and swore revenge against The Sepulcher God and The Behemoth God, but primarily the latter in this case.”

    “Wait a second, there’s a detail missing here… I’ve talked to Scream about this kind of stuff and he said there was another god involved in that conflict, a bizarre god known as…”

    “The Dead God?” The God of Death shuddered. “Ah yes, that petulant boy… Be weary around him, Blood-Wraith, as he is a god unlike others, from a realm even twelfth dimensional gods such as myself fail to understand, and thirteenth dimensionals are just starting to comprehend. To answer your question, he helped Karnage execute his plan, only to turn around and stab him in the back by helping Lord Anti rebuild himself.” He then laughed. “Woe on Karnage for being so arrogant and deficient as to trust an entity such as that, as one who exists in a plane even above the old gods is not one to be trusted at all.”

    Blood-Wraith put his hands together and exhaled. It was one revelation after the other, and he could feel his brain grow overworked from what he was learning. “By the Source, that is terrifying…”

    The God of Death took a second to let Blood-Wraith process his thoughts, looked out the window once more, then gave a subtle sigh. “I suppose it is time to see you off to The Ennead, where you are expected…”

    The boy froze as he felt a wave of fear run down his ghostly spine. “The-the Ennead? There? Are… are you sure about that?”

    “Well of course, lad. You are dead after all.”

    He gave several nervous chuckles. “Well, I mean, you’re a god after all… surely you can just snap your fingers and fix me right up, right?”

    The God of Death recalled the warnings he was given about Blood-Wraith’s fears and shook his head. “What is the matter, Blood-Wraith? You know it is natural for the soul to return to The Ennead before descending back into the Cosmos.”

    “Look, I get that, but…” Damien could sense the unease and put his hand on Blood-Wraith’s shoulder to try and comfort him. Blood-Wraith was still nervous, however. “I mean, what if I end up somewhere else with no memory of The Unlight? That’s what happened to Ethor when he became Desislav, and Will had next to no memories of his time as Zasiel…”

    “Blood-Wraith, my boy, you are destined to finish the fight with Karnage, so any notion of you ending up somewhere else is ridiculous. The examples you gave? They all ended up where they were supposed to be at the end of the day. And if you still cling to the notion of your old life, you surrendered what was left of your old power to Aureolus and Morrigan. You need to reincarnate if you are to resume the good fight.”

    “Are you sure about that?” Blood-Wraith was still stunned by his anxiety, but a part of him was starting to relent…

    “I insist, as there are several individuals who are eager to meet you, including God himself, believe it or not. And besides, don’t you want to see Leif again?”

    That caught Blood-Wraith’s attention, causing him to immediately stand up. “Hold up, Leif’s there?!”

    “Well in a sense, as it is a bit complicated and it would be better if Lord Anti and The Vermillion God explained it to you. Come, follow me to the gateway. I promise this will be an easy and painless process…” The God of Death as he moved to the doorway and indicated for the two to follow him.


Next: Chapter 21

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

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