The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into A Dark Side

 The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into A Dark Side

     Iriisii stands stunned, as does everyone else who sees what that vision truly means. Only Freya is unaffected, but at least she is wise enough to say nothing and wait to see if there is something there she can later leverage to her advantage. Iriisii continues to watch as the vision fades, and the 'eye' returns.

     She keeps staring into it, as deeply as she can. Then it finally responds to her.

     "This information is of value to you?"

     "Why show this to me now, when I am so close to finding her even without this?"

     "Because there is much more that you need to know before you have even a fair chance of defeating him and recovering your daughter. He did not get to where he is by not considering all of his options. Each of his actions is carefully planned and executed to produce exactly the reaction he wishes. It is by this means he has survived and grown more powerful.

     Not in the same manner you have. But there are many who owe him and who do not wish what he has to be released, so they do as he asks, and they, collectively, are of greater weight than you. Thus you must attack him from his strength, not his weakness."

     "What is his strength?"

     "Wamphyrie!"

     "I see."

     Iriisii turns to Dettleff, "With me?"

     "All the way to the end, no turning back."

     "I love you."

     "And I love you."

     "You know what we must do?"

     "Yes."

     "I am going with you."

     "No, you are staying here."

     "No! I am going with you!"

     "You do not know how to fight them, you do not know how to defend yourself against them. But most of all, I cannot lose you!"

     "You will not..."

     "If you go with us, you will not fall, that is not my concern."

     "Then what is?"

     "You would be turned, and I would then have to kill you."

     Aleytys stands stunned by her mother's words.

     "She speaks the truth, she has already had to kill a 'brother' because of them, do not force her to have to kill you."

     "To lose any of you, I would throw away, all of what I have done to save you. Even if it meant the destruction of Creation. That is why you must stay so that I am not faced with that choice. With Dettlaff at my side, there is no horde, no army, no legion down there that can stand in our way. But you do not have what it takes to fight through what is there as we do."

     Aleytys with tears running down her face, 'don't leave me here.'

     "You know I have to. Better we deal with them there, rather than after they have been unleashed. Billions upon billions of innocent lives will be spared by what we do there."

     "But why do you have to fight, call 'Starfire' like you did with the Tsaesci!"

     "Enough Starfire to do what needs to be done would destroy the Fortress and Kathea along with it. Could you live with yourself if that is what is done?"

     "No, I could not."

     "And so I would lose two children, better I cut my own throat now than endure that kind of pain."

     "Besides I must go to Sky's Divide first and retrieve the toxin along with the books on how it was made. Then I can change it for my purposes."

     She steps over to Dettlaff, "I will have something new for you to fight the Wamphyrie in."

     "Tell me."

     "I will tell you this much right now, you will be the first of Iriisii's Dragon Riders, and they will be feared beyond those of Goreius and Belharza, combined. My trek through Coldharbour gave me many ideas that I could adapt. I think you will like what I have prepared for you. And I have new War Gauntlets forged in the Forge of Stars. I am anxious to see what I can do with them."

     "How are you going to get to Sky's Divide?"

     "Have to use a Temporal Portal. I will need to go back to just before I sabotaged the cooling generators and port that stuff out before the explosion. Also need the journals of the alchemists that worked on it, that would make it easier to modify for what I want it to do."

     Then something occurs to her and she turns to the 'table' with its 'eye' looking at her.

     "Just what are you? I saw you interested in both myself and Freya?"

     "I am called the 'Seat of Judgment, those who so desire place themselves upon me and allow me to look at who they are in truth. I then search through all of the different Realities to find the one that most closely matches them and transport them to that place, for them to find their Destiny."

     "You were looking intently at Freya, I could see her being drawn to you."

     "She is an interesting subject, should she avail herself of me, I know of where I would send her. No other who has placed themselves in my care has ever been sent to where her destination calls to her from. That is why she felt drawn, for the place of her Destiny is calling to her, and its call is strong."

     "What did you see as I drew close to you?"

     "You are already on the path to your Destiny. But when you reach it, do all that you are called to do, you will begin to ask yourself if there is nothing more for you, then return here, and I will help you find the place you desire above all others to be."

     "You tempt me greatly, 'Seat of Judgment', I will remember your offer, for who knows for certain what the future will bring for me, or what actions will haunt me that I would wish escape from when that time comes."

     "As I have always been here, so I will continue to be here. Ready to serve those whose desire is great enough to find me and willing to face the 'Seat of Judgment'."

     "How will you get the toxin out of Sky's Divide, there must be who knows how many storage containers there."

     "If I do not miss my guess, they are already within the devices they intended to use for the delivery of the toxin. I will mark each device and use the magic of the portal to lock on and transport them. But I do not think it proper to bring them here until I have changed the formula. In fact, I see no reason why I cannot just transport them directly to the surface once I am done with them."

     Iriisii has become a lot more efficient and knowledgeable in ferreting out and using the secrets locked within portals. She has found they are greatly more versatile than when she first started using them. Since she already knows what the location she wishes to visit looks like, she pictures it in her mind with such detail that she feels she is already there. Taking a step forward, anyone already there would exclaim she just walked out of thin air.

     Rather than leave traces of entrance for her earlier self to notice she does not bother with picking the lock on the doors but rather slides herself into the spaces between the smallest parts that make up the structure of the doors. Appearing on the other side like a ghost, she solidifies her body and goes about the work of applying the marks to the mechanisms. There are so many more than expected she slows time within the vault to get it done and be gone before her earlier self sabotages the generator.

     With all marks applied to the mechanisms and the journals in hand, she reenters the portal after changing its destination to her storage facilities and activates the transfer when on the other side. Just before the portal closes she hears the generator ramping up to an overload explosion.

     She then sits down to read the journals and try to understand what the alchemists of Project Purity did to isolate the specific toxicity level of the strain they used, what the specific structure is, and how to make the change to bring about the activity she wants it to perform. She engages the help of any of the ancestral memories with alchemy experience and they rise to her call. Knowing what is at stake and why she needs to change this toxin. Separating the lethality structure is not difficult, the journals were quite detailed about how it was developed.

     The difficult part is developing a structure to create an effect that was never present, to begin with. Thankfully, the memories of the ancestral Gods of Eld found the answer for that. They utilized remembered information from other plants found on far-flung worlds that developed traits similar to what Iriisii needed. Isolating these traits, and adjusting the Hist structure to mimic them, giving them the start to what she needed.

     It took many accelerated generations to reach viability, but reach it she did. Even after all tests and simulations said this would work, there is always that one slim chance something unforeseen can happen. And so it was with the new Hist toxin, for as effective as it should be against the Wamphyrie, there are differences involving the host, that can not be so easily quantified.

     The memories tell her that there is a small chance that some of the Wamphyrie could be changed into something else entirely. What? Not one of them could say. With more time and testing, maybe it could be isolated and removed, maybe not. Iriisii is not so sure she would wait anyway. In all of this, her dive into the inner structure of the toxin gave her a look into the parent Hist as well. And what she saw there, was both amazing and frightening.

     Amazing in that here was a true plant-based intelligent life form, one that communicated through dreams induced by the consumption of its sap and its fruit with those who accepted its terms. Most were benign, happy to live with their followers tending the tree while the tree helped its followers with health, happiness, long life. Frightening because of the aberrant ones, like the one the original sap came from. They are the proverbial bad apples in every barrel, and they are rotten to their core. Project Purity and even Salaquine did not stop to think if maybe the Hist had a root or two in the direction Project Purity took the toxin. And what possible agenda could such a being have for doing so? All she can do is go with what she has and hope she can deal with what comes afterward.

     She sends the canisters to the surface of the target world, placed at predetermined points for maximum dispersion. Thinking to herself, 'I destroyed Project Purity, and Serenity's Sirens because they wanted to do to my world what I am about to do to this one. Is there truly any difference between us then?'

     'You know there is one critical difference, Nirn was filled with innocent people and guilty people in equal measure. But they were just collateral damage to what Salaquine and Purity wanted to do. They were no threat to anyone as they were. These on this world are Wamphyrie and not just any Wamphyrie. They have been weeding out the lesser ones for generations, only the strongest, most ruthless, and powerful have survived. If they are allowed to live, to be unleashed upon Creation, what will the result be?'

     'Will those who profess to be Gods, stand up and fight? Some will, as you know well, but many more will not. They will turn away and hide until the fog of war clears and hope someone else has won the day, someone like you. What will you do then? Accept them back into the role of Gods? Could you exile them to the outer darkness, then find anyone else worthy to take their place? Out of those left scarred from the battles, you may find some willing to step up.'

     'But in the end, is it not the better solution to deal with it before it reaches that level? Even if the people never know the sacrifice you made to save them from what could have been. You will do what you have to do, this is who you are, who you were made, fashioned, forged, and tempered to be. You see before you, what you are truly needed for, many throughout history are called heroes, most are nothing but poor imitations. For the real ones, do not do what they do, for the name, the acclaim, the glory, the gold. They do it because it needs to be done, and there is no one else around willing to do it.'

     'True Heroes never stay after they do what they must because they are forever a reminder to the people of what they would rather forget, what might have been had a hero not been there. They move on to the next fight, the next evil to be put down until it is their turn, or if they manage to hang on to life, they fade from memory until the memory fades from them and then life follows. But you are not like other heroes, you inspire those around you to become more than they thought they could be. You teach them that you do not need to be a hero to do what needs to be done, you just have to be willing.'

     'That is where you are different from all the others. Why you will do what you feel needs to be done here. And why all who come to you and swear their lives to you and your cause, will follow you wherever you lead them. That is why they will never doubt you, question you, they may wonder about what it is that you want, but they believe in you. And the power of that simple belief is all that you need to do what you must.'

     'Thank you all for that rousing speech, but how long did it take you to rehearse that? And more to the point, how did you manage to keep it from me? It is not like we are miles apart in here?'

     'You have been very busy and preoccupied lately, and we all have seen this or something like this coming. We know you better than anyone else, those others out there can play their games with your mind. But they have to deal with all of us, together. And together we are far more than they will ever be.'

     'Thank you,...when the time comes to fight, 'Beast' this will be your time. You and I will merge once more, and the Wamphyrie will run in fear of what we will become. The apex predator will turn and run before the 'Ultimaxis'. Now let us return and prepare for battle.'

     Iriisii walks back into the area where the 'Seat of Judgment' rests upon the dias. Dettlaff and Aleytys resting on some cushioned divans brought in by servants when they are needed. Iriisii lays a bundle by Dettlaff's feet.

    "Here is your new armor, oh, and the blade is new as well, very heavily enchanted. I had to work hard to get the enchantments I thought would complement your fighting style on that thing."

     "What did you put on it?"

     "Force wave conversion, several shadow magic spells, I even added a special morph spell on it, should really make a few Wamphyrie soil their breeches as they run."

     "All right, tell me about the morph spell."

     "Call it a gift from Shai-Hulu'ud himself."

     "You mean..."

     "Yes."

     "This is going to be fun!"

     "What does all of that mean?"

     "She added a spell to allow me to morph into a Sandwyrm, a big one I hope?"

     "I don't do things like that any other way."

     "Awesome, let me change into this and see what it will do."

     "Dettlaff grabs the bundle and walks off toward a more private area to change."

     "I still think you should let me go with you."

     Iriisii thinks about how best to dissuade Aleytys from going with her and Dettlaff. Perhaps a little demonstration might do it.

     "I want you to watch this, I am going to be using these down there." And pulls out a newly forged pair of battle gauntlets, slips them over her hands, and proceeds to go through the kata forms she developed just for their use.

     She only needs the smallest movements of fingers and wrists to control the capabilities of these weapons. Twisting them in mid-strike to move in opposing directions, opening up series after series of differing blades, designed for maximum pain and bodily destruction. Soon it is like the chained balls surround her in an impenetrable ring of steel, in the case of these specific ones, voidsteel.

     Aleytys stands awed at the display of what these things can do. And as badly as Freya wants to comment, she stays silent since it was only recently she regained the use of her mouth, and she was not ready to give that up again just yet.

     Dettlaff whistles his appreciation of the display, having seen her use a captured set she took from a Wamphyrie sergeant she cut in half, this set was better by far. As Iriisii pulls them back into her hands and removes them, she looks at her mate in the Dragon Riders armor she has made for him. Black does not do the color justice, it is the black of the deep spaces between the stars, and it seems to radiate the cold that exists there as well.

     The armor is made of thick voidsteel plates, connected to each other by a voidsteel chain, to make it flexible and still protect the joints. He asks her, "did you use...?

     "Yes, I alloyed the voidsteel with uru metal. And it has been treated with 'Catalyst' as well."

     "I thought I recognized a faint smell about it."

     "What is this 'Catalyst'?"

     "You may one day need to know, you might not. Until that time comes though, this will have to remain the secret of those who have taken it. Of mine, Byrsael is the only one yet to take it, her time comes soon, Rigmor, Illyria, and Dettlaff have taken it, and I was first, no others have taken it. There are a few more possibilities in the future, but only a few. Whether they do or not will depend on them and their decisions."

     Freya listens carefully and files the information away to investigate later.

     Iriisii turns to Dettlaff, "are you ready?"

     "Let us do this, what are your battleplans?"

     "We are going into this merged with our beasts, from the start. I want you on my back as we go down. I will circle to get them agitated and coming out onto the plain in front of that city. Maybe burn a few buildings to get their attention. Then leap down from my back into the midst of them, with the sword drawn. Once the force wave hits, I will land on the next largest group and crush as many as I can. I will start using shouts, while you morph into a Sandwyrm and crush as many more as you can. Once we make a large clear area around us, we morph back into humans, go side to side, until we draw a crowd, go back to back and tear them into pieces, letting our beasts go into them at full sprint. Hopefully by them, the toxin will be ready to trigger."

     "My beast likes your plan, he says it has been too long since he hunted at your side, but these many adversaries make up for his disappointment."

     "Well then, it is time he had some fun, don't you think?"

     Iriisii opens a portal large enough for her dragon form to go through, Dettlaff leaps up and off of a leg and up onto her back, settles down behind her head. Iriisii walks to the portal, "hang on, we drop from here". And leaps into the portal as it closes behind her. The 'Judgment Seat' opens to show what is happening on the surface.

     They watch as Iriisii dive bombs the city, sending wave after wave of Dragonfire across large swaths, igniting anything flammable. Quickly the Wamphyrie stop fighting themselves, exit the city, and attempt to gather in some kind of formation. Aerial units appear from a nearby holding facility. Iriisii, with Dettlaff aboard, drives straight through their ranks scattering them. Raking them with Dragonfire, Dettlaff slicing with his sword at any within striking distance. 

     Like the ones on fire, exploding when the Dragonfire reaches their gasbags, the riders on those still burning, jump, preferring to take their chances being splat across the ground than burning in midair. Once the skies are clear, Iriisii rises to a dizzying height and tells Dettlaff to leap.

     Aleytys and Freya both think he is crazy to do this, and Iriisii is insane to tell him to. But he unsheathes his sword, gathers his legs under himself, and leaps straight up as Iriisii glides from underneath him. He then catches the winds going down, guiding himself toward a large group huddled just outside the city gates. Thinking they are an easy target if he can catch the outer edge and drive the mass against the city walls.

     Iriisii takes notice of his target, and she looks for the next largest concentration, spotting them about a thousand feet away, and dives toward her target. It is hard to say who hit their target first, but the edge went to Dettlaff. When he hit the ground, a ring of force, so powerful it could be seen moving through the air as it impacted the Wamphyrie. Crushing most of them into a paste between the force wave and the city walls. The city walls themselves shook and cracked, with the edges crumbling, as Dettlaff went to work finishing the few survivors. The bodies ignited from the flame spell Iriisii cast on the blade during its forging.

     When Iriisii hit, she packed her forearms and legs tightly underneath her and furled her wings. The land blasted upward where she hit, nothing of the Wamphyrie there at the impact site was left. She then stood, raised her head, and let loose with barrage after barrage of Dragonfire, ice, soultear, until the ground around her was a smoking waste. Then she morphs back to human, with her beast still in the fore, she summons all nearby shadows, merges with them, and she is gone from sight.

     Freya and Aleytys look at each other in awe of what her mother and Dettlaff accomplish in such short order.

     "Now I see why she would not allow me to go. I would only have slowed them down."

     In a very rare moment for Freya, "do not sell yourself short. She is much more powerful than when I knew her last and has learned more about battle tactics than the Siren's battlemasters knew then. She was strong then, taking on missions alone and coming back alive when more than half of a Siren team would be left behind broken and dead. But now...now what she was then, pales to what she is now. I think even the dreaded Abyssal Juggernauts would run from her now, and they have never been known to run or lose a battle."

     "Who are the 'Abyssal Juggernauts'?"

     "A demon mercenary company, every last one of them, veterans of the 'Blood Wars'. A demon war fought in the Abyss that lasted for over five hundred years."

     "Who won?"

     "They did. They got tired of the constant fighting with no end in sight. They banded together, took on both sides, and annihilated them. They were the only ones to walk away from that war, and no one gets in their way now. Only a very few have ever stood up to them and survived, the 'Lost Legion' was the last. And only one fought them to a draw, the 'Knights of Silence'. No one has seen or heard from them in thousands of years, whether they are still alive or not, no one knows. But I will bet your mother knows."

     "Why is that?"

     "She found the 'Lost Legion', out on the very fringe of existence, on a world called 'Yuggoth on the Rim'. She recruited them, changed their name, gave them a new battle standard, their leader is on her Council of Elders."

     "What are they called now?"

     "The 'Dragon Legion of the Celestial Army'. And if she asked, each and every one of them would follow her into the Abyss itself."

     "How do we know the toxin is being disbursed?"

     "It is starting to show as an orange tint in the air. The original was a green color. Anyway, it will not be long before it is fully spread. When it is and the power of those being killed reaches the critical limit, it will activate and...I do not know the words, but all those remaining will die at once. The Aspect of Death will siphon their souls through the Final Gate and into the Great Beyond, once there 'he' cannot touch them for any reason. His power over them stops at the Final Gate, and he will weaken over time.

     Your mother and her army will have to kill those remaining in our Reality in order to keep 'him' from recovering his power. They cannot wait until 'he' is powerless, it would take too long, but weakened enough, she, Dettlaff, and Elric can take him."

     "I hope you are right, for all of our sakes."

     "You see what she can do, the proof is there before your very eyes. And she is not yet finished climbing the Celestial Ladder. For whatever reason, she keeps finding higher and higher rungs to climb. She has already gone beyond the ones I was previously aware of, and at least two more have been added to the list. And with Elric as well, Dettlaff is powerful, no doubt of that, but Elric is in a completely different class. Do you know anything of the 'Aspects of the Eternal Champion'?"

     "No, I do not."

     "Even I do not know how many there are, but each is powerful in their own right. It is said they congregate, when not on a mission, at a place called 'Tanelorn'. Your mother has the power to merge the separate parts within her and can merge with those others who have been gifted by 'She Who Watches All' with one of her leaves. Those can also merge themselves together. I would expect that only your mother's mates have these leaves, so that means only the five of them can merge together.

     With the 'Aspects', however many of them are together in one place, all can merge, increasing their power and abilities accordingly. Two of them can double their power, three and it goes to nine times, four is two hundred fifty-six times. You see where this is going?"

     "Yes, I think I do."

     Back on the surface, Iriisii and Dettlaff are running side by side, totally fused with their beasts. Their predatory instincts are at full height as they plow through group after group of Wamphyrie, leaving broken, bleeding, burning bodies behind them. Then in a moment of supreme blissful epiphany, her merged self lets loose with an undulating call, her voice reaching a range that brings fear and tremors in the Wamphyrie that hear that eerie voice. And then an answer to that call is heard.

     From some far distant place, a place where the physical laws they know do not hold sway. The entity, known only as, the 'Mount of War' comes at the calling of his mistress. He moves up next to her as she mounts. He looks over the battlefield, impressed with the carnage already on display. And sees even more victims massing ahead eager to take down this pair that has dared to kill so many. He is ready, willing, eager, and hungry for 'War'. As he leaps forward, Iriisii's war gauntlets sweeping side to side, over and back, blades on the balls sinking into flesh, tearing and ripping it from bone, the chains sawing limbs off, and the poisons forged into the very metal itself racing through veins and arteries, burning through hearts and brains. Death after death mounts one after another and still they keep going. Absorbing strength from each one, healing wounds as fast as they can be struck.

     Back behind the main masses, the Wamphyrie Elders wait for the two to reach them. Wondering who and what they are, for the beings that can produce this kind of carnage, absorb this much damage, and still come for more, are very few and are known to the Elders. But these two are new, something not seen before, and the Elders are eager to test themselves against these newcomers.

     Aleytys and Freya are watching as Iriisii and Dettlaff get closer and closer to the Elders.

     "When will they have killed enough to trigger the toxin?"

     "Hard to say, I heard Iriisii say it is dependent on the total amount to be affected. The more that is to be affected the more must be killed to fuel the effect. But I would say if they can kill these Elders, that would do it."

     "Why shouldn't they be able to?"

     "These did not become Elders by acclaim, they fought for it and left a trail of bodies behind them as proof. They are the best in this area. The most dangerous, ruthless, conniving, and likely have developed some powers of their own. I think she and Dettlaff can do it, it just will not be as easy as it has been so far."

     As the last before the Elders fall, Iriisii and Dettlaff look them over as they in turn are looked over. Each evaluates the skills, determination, strengths of the other.

     "What do you think? How are we going to deal with these?"

     "They did not get to where they are by being predictable, we need to surprise and overwhelm them before they can adapt."

     "You have something in mind?"

     "Yes, something I have not tried before under these circumstances, but nothing ventured, nothing gained."

     "What are you going to do?"

     "Not me, we. The three of us are going to merge and see what happens. This is not going to be easy for you, you are going to have to call for your racial memories to come out. You, your beast, and your memories will merge first. As mine will merge with me, then you, me, and the 'War Mount' will merge and we will see what we will become."

     "Do you have an idea of just what it will be?"

     "Yes, something thought to be extinct within Creation for the last billion years or so. Something so nasty and dangerous, when the last was killed all of Creation breathed a sigh of relief."

     "Sounds like fun!"

     "Oh, it will be, I promise, it will be like nothing else you have experienced to date."

     She takes his hands in hers and begins merging herself into one. The catalyst in his veins reacts to what Iriisii is doing and begins the same process in him. His ancestral memories come rushing up from the depths of his soul and mind. The effort is one of unendurable agony and also indescribable pleasure, the combination balancing themselves on the razor's edge of his mind, with his mate showing him the way to progress safely.

     Once everything inside him has merged, he asks himself why did he wait so long for this. And the memory of his mother says, 'because you needed Iriisii to forge the path for you to follow. The others failed because they went too soon and they lost themselves to the others within. Her love for you will guide you the rest of the way, for you are about to embark on a journey none of our people have ever attempted before and perhaps never will again. That remains to be seen though, for that future remains shrouded in impenetrable fog.

     What you are about to become is driven by the deepest racial memories, from a time before we knew rational thought, when supreme monsters came from the outermost expanses of unknown realities and the battles for survival was the only thing that consumed our minds, if the power of luck rode with us.'

     "Look at them, watching us, evaluating us."

     "No, they are doing far more than that. Can you not feel the power gathering around them. I do not know what is happening, but as terrible as I feel it will be, there is something about it that calls to me."

     "You are the oldest of us, one of the first to take the leech, what is it that you feel?"

     "Plainly? Our ending, but an ending that under other circumstances, in another time, would cause songs and stories of us to be told for millennia."

     "Our ending? You jest, we outnumber them three to one, and we are the oldest, most powerful of Wamphyrie!"

     "Listen to your leech! Can you not feel what it feels like? It knows what we will face. It knows its doom is there on that field of battle. And it knows there is no escape, it is to fight and die in the forlorn hope that maybe one might survive to go on and begin again, for the leech is tenacious in its existence. It wants to live, grow to be supreme. And out there is its nemesis, its bane, its doom. Wamphyrie warriors! To your mounts! Our death awaits us there, and a glorious one it will be!"