(Untitled)

[howarewefortime]

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-02 HRS

[howarewefortime]

The opening of the Darkgate has cast a false night over Milliways, the once-crimson sky now a seething cloud the colour of old, dried blood. But the darkness is not total.

Even now, there is light.

The fiery column by the lake reaches up towards the sky from the silvery sphere on the ground, consuming the gloom like the very air feeding the unnatural flames.

It's been growing brighter.

The air is thick, sick, heavy with the smell of Free Magic, harsher and more cruel than even the scent of death that hangs over the field.

And then everything goes:WHITE

- stark and bleached in a blinding flash of light, and the ground judders even more violently than before. And when the light is gone...

The light is gone.

And so is the sphere.

Until it CRASHES back to the earth with another jarring impact, knocking all those nearby off their feet.

And then

everything

goes:WHITE
The shields around the sphere have protected Milliways from the worst of the devastation. Inside, however - within the area contained by those working against

Re: -02 HRS

[yucca_isnt_porn]

The first to come is a man in his mid forties, started to look wane and ragged, winds whipping up to circle around him and his homemade weapon in a personal thunderstorm. He's giggling the entire time as the purple creeps into his skin.

"Who needs an education in why YOU DoN'T fUck with EaRTh?"

Re: -02 HRS

[wordofa_sayre]

Black currents pulse over the surface of the glowing, liquid fire sphere, and tendrils of flame reach out toward the Wallmaker and the strange new creature that has joined him.

"And do you suggest that you will deliver such an education to the last and greatest of the Nine?"

Thundering silence, for three full seconds.

"I think not."

The power behind the words whips out at them with the force of a thunderbolt.

Re: -02 HRS

[yucca_isnt_porn]

And...the signs of it hitting are certain enough as Mother's whole body jerks and bolts even tighter than before.

"No oNe GivEs a sHiT abOUt whaT yOu thINk, SpaRKle ASS."

In the words of a great book Mother read years ago...Maxims 14 "Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?" and 37 There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'time to reload.'

The purple gem in the gun is all that kept him on his feet from that blast...and now it's letting loose double it's payback.

"I am a lord that is sometimes bored
Have some urges and need to fulfill them
After my mayhem I simply don't...what's the word?
Care!"

Heeelllloooo purple waves of lightning!

Re: -02 HRS

[theunsmiling]

The purple light dances over the planes of Michael's face as she approaches, though after sparing Mother one quick glance, most of her attention focuses on the sphere of liquid flame.

"Brothers," she says upon her arrival, arms crossed over her chest. "I see."

Her sword is nowhere to be found.

"They are most troublesome, are they not?"

The question is, does Yrael deal with his errant sibling(s) in the same way that Michael deals with hers?

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

"Especially younger brothers," Yrael says, though perhaps more as a light jibe at Sameth than at Orannis. Who knows whether the Bright Shiners were ever really a family, in the Beginning? Who now remembers?

"To the Dark Gate, beyond there," the Eighth Bright Shiner nods, gazing without any sign of remorse or regret for the Ninth of his kind and (perhaps) kin.

"Quickly."

Re: -02 HRS

[makesthings]

Yrael's jibe barely registers as he's having trouble holding more thoughts than the Charter in his mind, "I can create a wind as I hold him. It won't be strong but I can,"

His knuckles are white around his sword which is buried in the ground as he uses it anchor the shielding he can manage as his Charter Mark glows.

Slowly he begins to sing, sending another spell into the air to push forward.

Re: -02 HRS

[wordofa_sayre]

The purple lightning strikes the sphere, which shudders -- and goes jet-black, the thousand-plus tongues of dancing flame wreathing it freezing into a shuddering stillness as the Destroyer absorbs both the blow and the intent of those arrayed before him.

Silence, for an instant, and then one single word.

"Fools."

The sphere bulges toward them as the air around them thickens with the stench of Free Magic fully unleashed, becoming acrid and chokingly corrosive as black-fire whips lash out once more, seeking to eradicate them all into ash, wiping them from existence itself.

Re: -02 HRS

[yucca_isnt_porn]

...Mother is just going to fire more lightning into the black fire-whip and duck with the reflexes of every geek action hero (mostly Gordon Freeman).

"All tHAt yoOu tOUch, anD all THat you see, ALl that you taSTe."
THOOM
"All you fEEl,and ALLl that yOU love, and all that you hate."
THOOM
"All You dIStrUst,All you SAve, aNd alLL thAT YOu gIvE,"
THOOM
"aND all tHat you dEAl, and all that you buy," THOOM"BEg,"THOOM "bORROw or STeal..."
THOOM!

Mother is not going to stop firing shockwave after shcokwave at that fucking ball of nasty...each one inching it closer to the Dark Gate.

Re: -02 HRS

[theunsmiling]

Michael's nostrils flare at the smell of Free Magic, mouth curling in what is surely a sneer, wings flaring up and out in challenge.

Her hands, which until a moment ago had been entirely empty, now hold between them a bar of white-green light, blazing with the power of primal entropy.

She braces herself as the black-fire flashes outward, the fire in her blade glowing ever more brightly as she pours her own power into it.

It is no shield, but still the blade cleaves through those vicious, corrosive flames, leaving nothing behind in its wake.

And the bar of flame in Michael's hand glows ever brighter.

There's a saying about fighting fire with fire.

Apparently fighting annihilation with annihilation works equally as well, as with each incremental increase in the blade's brightness, Orannis' terrible sphere moves ever closer to the Darkgate.

Re: -02 HRS

[makesthings]

The wind spell is small but enough to start to shift the mass as Sam weaves the Charter into a spell of movement and protection.

He's aware of those fighting against Orannis but not enough to aid them more than doing what he can.

He will manipulate the Charter to send Orannis to where he can never hurt another.

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

Yrael doesn't know the song that Mother sings in his strange, power-ridden voice - he doesn't know the sword that Michael uses to cleave the Destroyers flames.

Right now, all that matters is that it is working.

Yrael joins his voice to the tumult of battle and destruction around them. He sings with great power, even alone, to help force the last and greatest of the Bright Shiners towards the Darkgate with increasing speed.

This is not a re-imprisonment of his brother, where he will be let lie under layers of lasting spells, to await the day in some far-flung time when the bonds of his imprisonment will have weakened enough that some idiot will help to free him again.

This is the removal of the threat, so that it will not awake many millenia on, to find the bloodlines even farther diminished, the Charter even easier to destroy. Orannis will not be there to threaten the Old Kingdom or the rest of that world, nor to threaten Milliways, ever again.

Yrael understands that. And he is willing.

Re: -02 HRS

[visible_sariel]

"Yrael?"

Sariel - ruffled, a black eye blooming (falling debris hurts, say true), a crude rapier clearly salvaged from where some demon dropped it held clumsily at her side - knows that voice. She's blinking in the aftermath of that unwholesomely burning light as she turns toward the Bright Shiner, barely dodging the claws of something multilegged and scarlet that whizzes by. "Yrael!"

She's trying - that salvaged blade comes up awkwardly, but its wielder's lack of skill doesn't blunt its edge as it meets the body of a hyperenlarged, slimy fly diving in with an onimous buzzzzz! - to get close enough to talk. Grimacing in sadness and disgust, slipping on the half-frozen ground, but she's moving.

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

"Sariel!" Yrael turns, hearing her call his name, and then seeing the shape she's in.

He's moving quickly towards her - his brother must wait. "Are you all right?"

Re: -02 HRS

[visible_sariel]

His brother can't wait. Not that she knows this.

"Yes," Sariel says. It's true, at least in context - she's lightyears better than quite a few out here. "Are you? What happened, just now? What was that?"

She means--well. It's fairly plain what she means. Her first question is habit. Still real, though.

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

"My brother," he answers, urgent. "You should not be here, my friend."

Call him worried, and he.... wouldn't be believable when he denied it.