14. (The) Severed
- Location
- Earth
[] Alvarez seems to be troubled
[] Where is Miquella, anyway?
[] Is that a sleeping dragon?
[] Where is Miquella, anyway?
[] Is that a sleeping dragon?
Your attention shifts into the distance, far away from Fiore for the moment.
Alvarez is a powerful empire in this world, spanning nearly the entire continent it is based on. They remain somewhat isolationist and rever their seemingly immortal emperor Spriggan, though trade slowly picked up over the past decade. Now however, you find nary a ship making the journey between continents. No pirates are to blame, no sudden breakdown of relations.
No, it is naked fear.
You faintly recall dragging the nestling along, but lost track of him when anchouring yourself into Malenia. He was never a suitable anchour, his nature anathema to yours. So you placed him somewhere in Ishgar, mainly to see what he would do.
He is no nestling anymore, you soon notice. He has grown tremendously and somehow made his way across the ocean. There were ample wizards and beasts to feed on, of which he clearly partook.
At this very moment, the still growing serpent finishes swallowing a minor village. Houses lie broken and collapsed, the screams of the dying suspiciously absent. Some escaped his attack, calculated though the act is; in leaving witnesses, more will come to him. And so more will come to be fed upon.
His tongue flickers out a few times, tasting the air. Then his head raises to find you, maw snapping a few times to no avail. You are too fleeting for teeth to tear into.
Then his head lowers as an ethereal form appears at the treeline. Power rolls off the blonde woman in waves, ruffling her crimson cape as if a breeze blew. A spark of divinity rests within her bosom, more than enough to earn the serpent's full attention.
"How demeaning," she complains at no one in particular, "to be sent out for a common beast. You made enough of a mess to earn our full attention, and now we found you. Time to die."
Her name is Dimaria and she has no idea what she truly faces. The serpent rises higher, towering over her even in his juvenile state.
Then the flow of time stutters and she is gone from his sight. Dimaria reappears behind his dozens of metres long body, knife in hand; a thin line runs along its side and begins to bleed, barely a trickle. The serpent turns and lunges, only to miss as she vanishes again.
Dimaria begins to smirk, content in her superiority; it annoys her a great deal that she must make use of the time god's power for a 'mere' serpent, but caution wins out at the sight of her mark. A single graze of those venomous fangs could be her end, just like she will not risk being buried under or within its coils.
The serpent continues to snap at her, unable to determine her means of evasion through mere animal intelligence. But as he fights the first futile battle in this world, his true self slowly wakes. Lessons half-remembered resurface and another grasps the ether around them. All of Alvarez quakes, the motion so miniscule none but you notice.
Dimaria is well aware that something happened, though. Her grasp on time grows slack as crimson stars form atop the heavens to rain upon them. She tests it with narrowed eyes, no longer able to stop time; only a thousandfold acceleration is in her powers anymore. Easily enough to evade the comets so similar to skulls in shape, but a challenge she will not let stand.
"You're no beast, are you? At least, not 'just' a beast," she reasons.
The serpent hisses back in challenge, only to have a piece of his snout gouged out. He can barely spot the blur moving around him, much less follow it. The demigod's power slowly grows as he becomes aware of his surroundings, forcing Dimari to slow down further.
At first she was incredulous, but by now her instincts tell her more. She smirks, an ugly expression of delight. Her own power is unleashed in full, batting back the serpent's influence upon the world. The heat pooling where his scales touch the ground recedes and time becomes her plaything once more.
"Could it be?" she muses. "Such power can not belong to a mere mortal being. Fifty townships in two months, six platoons of soldiers and dozens of wizards on top. You...."
She reappears on the serpent's snout and stabs it in the eye, causing it to rear back and scream at the world. The roar only underlines her mighty grin. Ethernano resonates between them, a final confirmation to Dimaria; her other magical ability tells it true.
"You're a god," she declares. "Perhaps not a mighty one, but you will do nicely in my collection."
Yet Dimaria is prudent. She knows not to underestimate her opponents. Rather than rush ahead, she continues to tear at the serpent. Scales slowly tear open and away, opening ten thousand wounds to leak a trickle of blood each. The serpent keeps fighting her with great ferocity throughout, unwilling to give until the final breath is taken.
But in the end she is too much for him, lessened as he is. The serpent's many muscles fall slack and he comes to lie in pain, slowly bleeding out. Their battle took half an hour and his death throes will take equally as long; or rather they would, if Dimaria did not appear before the weakly darting tongue.
Her expression has turned serene, even as she slices off his tongue for good measure. The serpent lacks the power to do more than buck in pain. The ground shakes under his mass, a crimson creak draining into the earth.
"Now you are mine," Dimaria says, placing one hand upon the mighty beast's snout. "God Soul!"
Now that the other is weakened so far, her Take Over magic is to do its work. It reaches out to make another god hers.
Dimaria understands too late that she made a fatal mistake after all.
She thought she would devour a god today. Only in melding with his essence does she realise this serpent is no god, no. He is like her, a devourer of gods. And deep within rests a being older, wiser, and of a greater will than herself. A being not weakened by the exhaustion of his host.
Praetor Rykard awakens in full, all but face to face with Dimaria within the space of her mind.
He smiles.
She screams.
And just as her body finishes absorbing the god-devouring serpent, it begins to deform. Arms and legs meld into her torso, the head changes form with audible cracks. Her tongue splits as she elongates and grows to twenty times her previous size, rapidly growing scales.
Dimaria fights desperately as Rykard devours her piece by piece, but even the power of Chronos is of no aid. He is within her now, and thus unaffected by the stopping of time.
After her body long since fell, Dimaria's conciousness fades. That, too, is devoured. And although her previously taken powers degrade within the serpent's stomach, it retains them in part.
Reborn at half his previous size, now a mere thirty metres long, the god-devouring serpent turns into a blur of sped up time. He feasted greatly today, and will now seek a place to nap as his new body settles.
You could do something about him, perhaps spare Earthland another potential calamity. But this is Ranni's brother, so she may deal with him on her own time. Once she notices him, that is.
Decision made, you move on, caressing one person or another on Alvarez along the way but finding no purchase. Human or adjacent, one and all; none of them possesses the power to survive being your anchour.
The question Malenia frequently asked herself is also bothering you now; where is Miquella? You know you carried him along, but did not pay further attention to where he arrived.
A quick skim of Earthland lets you locate the demigods. Malenia and Morgott are in Fiore as expected, Rykard in Alvarez was also known. Ranni's physical body remains in Seven, although her machinations continue elsewhere. There are two more, though; Mohg, who seems to thrive beneath the island nation of Dongxia, south of Ka-Elm and Fiore. He is seeking still, but rather sends his newly converted agents while building his power base.
And his mark, you ultimately find in Ka-Elm. Miquella settled in Fiore's direct neighbour, though his position is close to the northern shore; he is as far away from Mohg as he can be without leaving the country, but also far enough that Malenia can not sense his presence. Neither of the other two seems aware of his position.
Miquella himself meditates at the center of a small but growing settlement. People are busy working everywhere and new settlers arrive every day. The land has grown fertile under his influence, offering bountiful harvest to those who first arrived with him. Small of stature though he is, his high cheekbones stand out even under the slightly pudgy cheeks. Pale blond hair so unlike Malenia's crimson runs down his back.
"Hello," he greets you after a moment. His eyes slide open, revealing glittering pupils and curiousity. "I was warned of your coming."
You attempt to slip into him and anchour yourself, but something bars your access. Ranni's hand in this is unmistakable, even though she is not present. Miquella notices as well, though he does not seem perturbed.
"Please do not bother," Miquella soothes you. Somehow, he manages to grasp some of your tendrils and strokes them comfortingly. "Sister Ranni was quite thorough. She seemed assured that you meant us harm as well, though I am uncertain. I can not blame you for ensnaring my dear sister Malenia, at the very least. Whatever your true purpose was, holding sway over the most powerful of us is simply prudent. Although this does not mean I am not upset to hear of it."
His tone remains friendly throughout, his comforting motions never stop. Your tendrils relax in his grasp, multiplying until he can phyiscally feel them.
A soft breeze ruffles Miquella's tunic and hair. You try to speak words he can fathom, but all your countless voices achieve is to make his head ache.
"It seems we can not understand each other," he reasons with a trace of genuine sadness. "I would have loved to hear the perspective of a being so far my greater, even if your influence on this world is waning. Ranni was not wrong in being suspicious, but she, too, is a crafty woman. I do not think you are malicious, if nothing else. At worst it was an innocent malice, born of a lack of understanding rather than a desire to harm."
His musings are underlined by a strong sense of agreement you send through the physical connection between you. Miquella pauses, delightfully surprised, and smiles.
"So you can understand me at least. Oh, if only we could have met under better circumstances."
He slowly shakes his head, becoming aware of his surroundings once more. People pay his murmurs little mind, though some occasionally stop by to pay their respects with deep bows.
Seeing another family of settlers do so, his expression grows softer. "Whatever the case, I am making good use of the chance you gave me. Gave us. Within my deep, fitful slumber, I felt your presence. You took us away before the flame could consume us, and for that I am grateful. So I will build here and raise a new Haligtree."
It is a promise, as much to you as it is to himself and the people surrounding him. Miquella's conviction shines brightly from his every pore to your ethereal senses.
"If ever you return, do please visit again."
Another smile is given to you, then Miquella releases your tendrils. They flatten back up after giving a little wave and you move along.
It seems that Ranni lied about not having found Miquella yet, or that she located him rather swiftly since that time. Whether she will keep him and Malenia separated now is anyone's guess. You can do nothing to affect it anymore.
As your attention drifts aimlessly across the world, you slowly feel yourself drawn to a particular mountain. An almost palpable darkness shrouds it, full of malice and contempt for all the lesser beings in the world. The dragon that sleeps beneath emanates this aura without concious effort.
You study the scales, a blue so dark it may as well be black. They can ward off any magic in this world, for their owner is able to devour Ethernano itself. The lost souls of a hundred thousand dragons still cry in anguish at their slayer, the last dragon on Earthland. The last king.
Acnologia. The Black Dragon of Apocalypse.
You can tell that he waits. His nostrils flare as they gather a whiff of your scent, but he does not so much as twitch. Deities were not his to kill, it is dragons he awaits. Be it instinct, conjecture, or merely the certainty that more would emerge in time, he will sleep until a trace of the Dragonslayers reaches him.
Were it not for the demigods you brought, Acnologia would be the sole apex predator on the planet. His might is great and the insanity brought by his genocide has not wiped away his cunning. You can not end him here, not even your full attention would suffice. You can not anchour yourself in him either, for the same reason as with Rykard; if he ever realises your presence, he will certainly devour the part of you that reaches in this world, too.
But where the god-devouring serpent was left to his own devices, you begin to reach into Acnologia here. Each of them is an apocalyptic event waiting to happen, both of them being active at once is liable to end this world.
And at the end of the day, you want the demigods to succeed.
So you dig deep into Acnologia's brain and body, manipulating what you can with the little leverage you have left. The dragon king twitches as synapses shift, but it is too late for him to wake. His sleep deepens into a coma, which will last at least a decade no matter what.
Then you ward off the area he slumbers in. None who would disturb Acnologia can reach anymore, his baleful aura filtered through an ethereal net of fibres you weave. See no evil, feel no evil, and find no evil.
You barely finish your work before the last of your hold breaks away. A quick flick sends you back to Malenia, who sips wine in the academy's garden. If she notices your presence, she does not react to it.
Your vision of Earthland fades ever quicker now. It is only fitting to end where it began, or rather with whom.
Out of them all, you chose Malenia. And so you remain with her until the crimson of her hair is all you can see. Then even this final splotch of colour fades from view.
Left on her table is a blooming aenoia, not so much a gift as a sign. You will continue to exist, but she is now forever free of you.
And so the tale comes to a close, even if her story is yet to conclude.
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