Animus Ex Nihilo - A God Quest

It had been a while since you moved this far away from the Sea Peoples villages, and you almost forgot how uncomfortable it was to do so. Had you rationed your power to ease the strain, it would have been no problem, but the Devourer was nothing if not skilled at striking when it was the most vexing for you. So, you bore the strain, drawing heavily on the power of the far away reef to dull the pain of being separated from both the sea and your people. Two things helped though. For one, it seemed that the Travelling Peoples paths were easier to follow for you than to move across just any land. While insufficient in number to fully accommodate your presence, their prayers had been growing more consistent in recent lifetimes and apparently that was at least enough to open their paths to your travels. The other thing was the death you could feel beneath you. Regardless if it was man, beast, or plant, you could feel their remnants slowly decaying in the forests beneath you and while it was only a trickle of familiarity compared to the all-encompassing embrace of the waves, it was something at least.

The Sky Child was leading the way, they too favouring the routes of the Travelling people though you could not tell if for the same reason. The other spirit had not been quite certain that your meeting with the Harsh Mountain would turn out well, and neither were you, but letting the Devourer act with impunity was just courting disaster. Reaching the mountains took longer than you had anticipated and at first you barely noticed as the forest slowly gave way to the foothills. Between them, just a hill away from the first stony mountain, you saw the Mountain Village for the first time. Much like how the Bay Village and the River Village had grown around their name-giving waters, so was the Mountain Village following the shores of a long lake and the brooks that fed it. It was small at first glance, but around it were so many homesteads on the hills that it was hard to judge where village proper ended, though its most defining feature had to be a strange structure made from giant stones on one of the hilltops. But you were not here to learn about the village and the mere idea of lingering to see more of this place was redoubling the aching for your home.

On you flew, towards the tallest mountain near the village, perhaps even in the whole mountains. Its top was crowned with snow and ice, even though it was the midst of summer and while you could make out small homesteads and herds of goats and oxen on its lower slopes, it soon turned into sheer rock rising almost vertically. It was easy to see why the mountain spirit had decided to make this place its home. You carefully stretched your senses, trying to notice the Harsh Mountain without giving unnecessary offense, but the only thing you felt was the mountain itself. For a while you thought it was a place like the coral reef you had claimed, as there was no denying that great potential resided within the stones, yet it did not radiate its power into the world, instead drawing it all inward as if it was a spirit itself. When you reached your destination though, a lifeless slope full of lose stone and debris near the summit of the mountain, it all made sense.

With a mighty rumbling and grinding the stones began to move, first shaking in place and then beginning to flow as if they were aping water. A small mound formed on the slope and once all the moving stones had found their place, it opened its eyes. The mound gazed at you with great purple crystals and when it opened its mouth to speak, it was full of jagged black stone shards arrayed like crooked teeth. "You have finally returned. Your dallying is unacceptable, Child," a voice like an avalanche spoke to the two of you. Unlike the Sky Child though, it spoke not in a voice that was as much felt as heard, but with sounds as a mortal would.

"But I have brought help, as I had promised, have I not?" The Sky Child slowly began to float around you and finally began to drift away to slink back from the Mountains gaze. "The Proud Waters, here to help with Skerhogis the Devourer."

"Yes, I see," the voice boomed from the stones. "Their service will be useful against the defiler."

After all that the Sky Child had said about the mountain spirit, its manners were not entirely unexpected, though they were still rather vexing coming from someone you wished to offer aid. "I have come as an ally," you carefully corrected. "The Devourer is my enemy as much as it is yours and there is strength in numbers."

The Mountain certainly noted your defiance, and you were surprised by how easy it was to read its moods on the stones it had for a face. In the end, they begrudgingly swallowed some no doubt unfriendly words. Instead, they just changed the topic. "My servitor is already on the hunt for, but it is elusive and without the Child, the Wandering Mountain cannot pin it."

Under the other spirits glare, the Sky Child briefly stopped its aimless wanderings. Then it just briefly spoke. "Don't forget the dead who walk," it said and returned to its wanderings.

The stones rumbled dangerously again and this time the voice was even louder, each syllable like thunder, and the amethyst eyes began to glow with a baleful light. "It stole my servants. Took their corpses and has them walk as if they were still living. It made a mockery of my mortals and dared to use them against my will. I will have the creature broken for this." Snow tumbled from the upper parts of the mountain and below you could hear stones smashing down its flanks. "Its bones will be shattered and left to bleach on my slopes until nothing but dust will remain of it."

For once, you could emphasise with the other spirits moods. It was bad enough when the Devourer feasted on the corpses of your people. You gave them a brief moment for their rage to quieten again, idly noting that the Sky Child had yet again wandered around as if it had nothing to do with this talk. "You say it used them against you. What does the Devourer have them do?"

"They roam the mountains and passes, preying on travellers to add to their number. My servitor crushes them wherever it finds them, but they too are elusive, sticking too rarely travelled places and the high mountain slopes whenever they are not hunting." The stones ground and rumbled again, eyes darting around for the Sky Child. "The Child suspects they are searching something as they seem to have spread out instead of gathering to attack my other villages. Which is why they suggested to speak to you. They said you have taken the essence of death and can find these things more easily."

"We are far from the sea though," you noted, while feeling the parched and saltless air of the mountains around you, yet it was the Sky Child you were actually searching. It still hovered near the slope, though it might as well have wandered off completely for how far away it already was. "The Sky Child and the Wandering Mountain will have to do the search, but I can direct them where to look. It would be unwise to spend my strength solely on the search and leaving me drained when the Devourer returns."

You expected a challenge or at least annoyance from the Mountain. Instead, it just looked calculating for a brief moment before speaking calmly. "Acceptable. My servitor will be instructed to take orders from you, within reason." Only then came a slight edge to its voice. "You will ensure its safety," the mountain spirit said in a grim tone.

It was not an unreasonable request though, all things considered. "Acceptable," you said in return and thus the deal was sealed.

---

Moving into the mountains indeed proved hard. When journeying with a clear goal and along the paths of the Travelling people, it had been manageable, but when flying over mostly empty mountains without a clear goal, it quickly became torturous. Even more so whenever you flared your power to try and find the walking dead and the Devourer, as each time it diminished your reserves ever further. You drew heavily on the might gathered in the reef to sustain your efforts, yet you knew it was only a matter of time until you would have to stop, lest you damage the delicate balance of its ebbs and flows. And success was hard to come by.

The Walking Mountain, a great being made from roughly hewn stone, carved with intricate patterns, was certainly mighty, yet it was also slow and ponderous. It was no wonder that the Devourer could easily evade it. It was also of rather limited intelligence. Obedient, both to the wordless orders of its far-away master and to the gentle nudges you gave it, yet also very dependant on them. Without instructions, it would likely just have stayed wherever it was and waited. Perhaps forever. At least it was an able and fast climber, scaling near vertical slopes as fast as it walked on even ground, though it could still do little more than scare the dead out of its path and destroy the few stragglers left behind.

With the Sky Child, you were less certain how well it took your orders. The wind spirit was prone to wandering off or taking detours wherever it pleased instead of going straight to the places you pointed out them to investigate. The Harsh Mountain was apparently used to this, calling the wind spirit useful but unreliable. At least it seemed not to be malice, as the wind spirit was clearly keen on no longer having to watch out for the Devourer in the skies. None the less, it made the search difficult, as the Sky Child could investigate things much easier than the Walking Mountain, yet its moods meant you were never quite sure how carefully they had looked.

After a few seasons, you were nearly ready to give up on the hunt. You had briefly found gatherings of the living dead time and time again, but even when the Sky Child or the Walking Mountain managed to reach them before they dispersed, their destruction hardly made a difference. There always seemed to be more of them and by now, you had seen not only human dead, but also goats, reindeer, bears, wolves, crows and whatever else might have once been living in the mountains. Nothing you did seemed able to stem the tide and yet the one behind it all, the Devourer, stayed away from its work all this time. A few times you were certain to have senses it, hovering just at the edge of your senses for a brief time and then immediately leaving, but by now you were no longer certain if it was real or just an illusion born from your strained essence.

Until one night, when the full moon turned first blood red and then black as pitch.

---

AN: I'm not sure if I can finish this today, as there is quite a bit of rolling coming up, and I didn't want to let another day pass without an update, so have a cliffhanger instead.

Before the moon had darkened, you had felt something, though you could not adequately describe it. Most likely it was merely exhaustion, you had thought. But then the fish became skittish, clams slamming shut for no reason and crabs scurrying to the nearest hiding place. Then you had taken note and drawn as much potential from the reef surrounding you to dull the ache of overexerting yourself. The feeling did not disappear and with the haze lifting from your senses, it became ever more oppressive. Up you went and soon after you were near the Bay Village to see if the mortals felt it too. Only when you saw them in uproar and pointing at the sky did you notice. The moon was turning the colour of blood.

Without a conscious thought, you flew towards the mountains as fast as you could, drawing on every scrap of power that you could. The stench of death hung in the air, and it was not your doing. Beneath you, the forests slipped past unnoticed, the paths of the Travelling People forgotten in your rush. It did not matter. Nothing mattered except getting to the source of this before it was too late. You thrusted your senses out, feeling through the haze to find it. It took only moments. On a mountain that you must have passed a dozen times during your searches. Had you missed something? Had the Devourer hidden its efforts yet again? But those were questions for later.

You barely even noticed when the Sky Child joined you silently. Even the other spirits presence felt grim. With a heave of its power it summoned a gale fit for the greatest of storms to carry the two of you forward even faster. The snowy caps of the mountains before you shone in the red light of the moon, dripping over nigh black stone towards the valleys. And then even they dimmed. You were nearly there. In the fading light you saw the mountain from which it all sprung. It looked like a carcass on which the flies feasted, as uncountable birds swarmed its summit. Their cries pierced the silence of the night as a cacophonic wail without start or end. In and out they swarmed, the cloud of dead birds heaving like a beating heart, and ever closer, ever tighter did they move. As the last light died, you saw the bones and parched skins draped on the mountains flanks and you saw the dead, both man and beast alike, tear themselves apart to join the grizzly display. And then there was only the faint light of the stars and the wailing of the damned.

Just before the peak, you let go of the gale you were riding while the Sky Child guided the small storm through the swarms of birds to disperse them. But its winds were not unchallenged. Up the flanks of the mountain blew other storms, carrying bones, skin and feathers to the peak. Into the storm you dove, trying to use the brief opening to reach the heart of the ritual. In one spot it all gathered, all the remnants of the living dead. A mound of feathers and tattered skin draped over broken bones. You reached for it with your power, taking all you had to stop this. To somehow drive apart the might of death gathering in this place. Far away, the Sea People prayed beneath a lightless sky. They prayed for you to end this. To banish the darkness and to restore the moon. To take away the terror gripping their hearts. You took all of it. Each scrap of potential you could wring from their pleas. Into the mound you forced it, tearing apart the threads holding it together fast than they could be woven. The shrieking of the birds grew more frantic as with each new push, you widened the gaps and wounds within the thing beneath you. It would work. You were taking it apart. Already the wind was no longer gathering its grizzly load, but tearing it from the mound and spreading it across the sky.

Then you felt pain. You felt loss. A small part of you was gone in an instant as something great and terrible gazed at you and brushed you aside. You could only watch numbly as a gale of the Sky Child carried you out of the way as the birds dove one final time, ramming themselves into the mound. For one single moment, all was still. Two great misshapen wings rose from the mound and with a single beat they propelled it into the air. There it hung, almost weightless, only the gnarled wings visible against the faint shine of the stars. A tangle of thin and twisted necks rose from the body as it hung in the air, each tipped with a barbed beak. As one they opened and with a deafening, tortured cry, the silence was broken once more.


The creature dove, far too fast and nimbly for something so huge. From its bulk rose smaller birds again, joining the monsters beaks in snapping for the Sky Child. The wind spirit tried to drive them away, but this was no longer a mortal thing. This mockery of a bird, wrought from carrion, was a second Devourer and its acts were more than physical. But it was also a thing of death. Briefly the pain returned as you drew upon that part of you that too was of death, but it faded just as quickly again. You tore on the creature's power, taking from it what you had just lost. The beast did not even seem to notice your attack, but it gave the Sky Child just enough of a distraction to slip away. In that brief moment of respite, it summoned another gale, trying to drive the bird down the flank of the mountain. There, beneath the veil of darkness, you could faintly feel the Walking Mountain climbing the slopes as fast its ponderous bulk allowed.


With thunderous wing beats did the flying hill of carrion gain altitude again, just to dive for the Sky Child another time. You tore at one of its wings, trying to divert it, but it was not enough. One of the beaks closed on the shapeless Sky Child and you could feel its pain radiate out like a silent wail of anguish. You gathered your power of death again, but then hesitated. It's mastery was greater than yours, said a treacherous part of your mind. You would fail again, it said. In that moment of hesitation, the winds picked up to a storm, pressing down on the birds shape and in a snap decision, you poured your might into the winds instead. One of the creatures wings clipped the mountain and sent it thumbling, just as the winds intensified once more and pushed it down the slope. Somehow the Sky Child had slipped from its grasp in the tangle, though you paid that no mind, instead rushing after the monster to see it grappling with the Walking Mountain.


With thunderous thumps did the beaks close around the Mountains servant and the beast greedily began to draw upon the power animating the stone. Yet you were fast enough, to interrupt its efforts, just as the Sky Child sent winds to pry the beaks off your ally. Granite fists slammed into the unliving things form, sending splinters and feathers flying, ye the beast seemed to barely pay it any mind.


Two of its necks darted forwards, one wrapping around the stone mans arm, the other around the boulder that was its head. You tried your best, but you could not stop it this time. The Wandering Mountains arm went slack as the creature greedily drank every dredge of power from it, boulders falling to the ground lifeless once more. In a rushed choice, you poured your power into one of them and yanked it upwards against the other neck pinning your ally. You only made a small wound, but emboldened by this, the Sky Child raked even more from the mountains flanks and guided them against your foe. It shrieked in pain as bones broke and the thin neck began to fray, right until the Wandering Mountain grabbed it with its remaining arm and snapped it clean off. The severed head twisted and coiled like a serpent for a brief moment before falling apart, its remnants carried of by the storm surrounding the battle.


The bird shrieked and at first it sounded like pain, but it was hatred. As one, each of its beak plunged itself into the Walking Mountains torso, prying into every gap or seam they could find as if searching for something. Once more you tried to protect it, but it was hopeless. You could only watch as the stone mans legs fell apart, its head lolling to the side and barely holding on. Without a word, the Sky Child and you knew what to do and as one you wrestled the storm into another attack, slamming the monster away from your dying ally.


Frantically you rushed to the side of the fallen servant, searching for anything left of it and finding only a faint few sparks left. A flurry of small, twisted birds surrounded you, swarming around the fallen body and looking for an opening. You would not give them one. With one great push you drove them upwards into the maelstrom of wind where they were torn apart. Once more you poured your might into the winds, the Sky Child directing them to the struggling bird and tearing skin and feathers from its form. It was getting weaker. You could feel its shape beginning to waver. But it was not over.


Its wings beat once more, launching its bulk straight at the Walking Mountain, beaks poised to tear apart the last remaining stones. Far away, you could still hear the Sea Peoples prayers. Just nearby, you could feel the Sky Childs determination. You would not let it. It was of death and so were you. It did not matter if it was stronger than you. It was alone, and you were not. You could feel the Sky Childs power and that of your people flooding you, just as the beaks were about to reach you. And you willed them to stop. And so, they did, screaming in impotent fury just a hairs breadth from you. One last time, the storm slammed into its body, and this time, it was enough. Crashing into the flank of the mountain again, the birds wings snapped and so did many of its necks. It did not screech in pain this time. There was only a faint whimper, carried away by the raging winds.


The Carrion Bird is defenceless. What will you do with it?

[] Take its power over Death for yourself.

[] Let the Sky Child take its power over the Wind.

[] Kill it and bring its body to the Harsh Mountain.

---

AN: Well. That happened.