Knocking on Heaven's Door [MtG/Multicross/SI]

[shadenight123]

Chapter Sixty-Six point Five (Zendikar)

"I told you it was foolish, sugarcube," Applejack said, resting her back on a chair, her armor still on as she clutched a sword in-between her legs, her human-like chin resting atop the handle of the blade. "But did ya listen? Nah, of course ya didn't."

"It worked," Nissa retorted, her body laid to rest on a bed made of hay, a thick wool sheet covering her as her head rested in rustling green leafs and amidst the roots of a caring tree. "Even that human brat was useful for something."

"Oh? Is that a sense of pride in your voice for a human, sugarcube?" Applejack raised both brows, a smile on her face clearly showing off her teeth.

"He's my apprentice," Nissa huffed. "That makes him slightly an elf. If only he kept his ears pointy at all times, it would be better."

Applejack chuckled, and grabbed hold of a stalk of grain to chew thoughtfully as she looked out of the window, the bright midday sun casting its warm rays over the land. "Ya know, it's been centuries. The borders...they've been pretty stable for a while."

Nissa clenched her hands into fists.

"I'm saying...we could get a vacation, go somewhere nice," Applejack said. "You could use the break."

"Use...the break..." Nissa mumbled, "Use the break?" she glared at Applejack. "My world is dying, and I should sip a frilly drink with a paper umbrella on a beach of a foreign world while it dies? Is that it?" she tried to stand, only to wince and bring her body to rest back down. "I will rest once they are defeated. I will rest once they all pay for what they did to my forest, to my people, to my world." Her eyes began to glow as she growled, clutching onto the sides of the bed only for Applejack to push her gently back down.

"Oi, oi, oi! Ye'r gonna help no one by hurting yerself!" Applejack placed both of her hands on Nissa's shoulders, holding her sword steady between her armored legs as she pushed the elf back down. "Don't get cray-cray until ye heard me till the end!" she pointed a finger at her, "Ya know that bastard doesn't care for the lives of anyone else. I know that better than you. Ya still have a world!" she said hotly, "but overtaxing yourself like this is killing ya. You can't protect your world if you're dead."

"Then I'll rest, but I'll do it here," Nissa hissed.

"Yeah? Then stop summoning your elementals each morning," Applejack said. "There's only so much land ye can lift up at a time, sugarcube. And what ye did...yeah, it was a pretty massive thing, but we ain't ready yet. Ye got yerself a scolding from Gideon. Do you want another?"

"It has been centuries," Nissa roared. "For centuries Zendikar has been eaten by the Eldrazi! For centuries have the Phyrexian held the land! There are generations who have known only of war since the day of their birth!" she clenched her fists. "And it will never end! As long as it stays open, the portals to parallel worlds will always bring in new forces!" Nissa gasped, clutching her chest as her breathing grew erratic. "Why can't we just end this, once and for all? Why must this pain drag itself on?"

"I dunno," Applejack mumbled, "But...ya ever think-"

"Make way!" a voice yelled from outside, and soon the guards that were stationed to protect the infirmary opened the doors to allow the healers to step through, carrying a wounded and bruised woman inside. "Make way!"

"Isn't that Serenity?" Applejack muttered, turning her head to take a better look, and finally deciding to stand up and near the healers fussing over her body, healing spells leaving their fingertips as they did their best to treat the bruises. "Oi, what happened?" she asked. "Serenity, can ya hear me!?"

"Please let us work," a healer said gruffly. The others close by nodded too, their eyes narrow as they concentrated.

Applejack took a couple of steps back, and then stormed out just in time to bounce against Gideon's form. The man was just about to enter, but came to an abrupt halt to avoid striking right against Applejack's breastplate.

"It was the Tyrant," Gideon said hotly. "She went ahead alone," he growled. "We think someone told her where he could be found in a weakened state."

"I can't rest then," Nissa groaned from the bed. "Without her guarding the South border, then...I have to..."

"We found substitutes," Gideon said quickly, pushing his way inside the infirmary, "A couple of new Planeswalkers whom the Tyrant didn't meet. He won't be able to exert any influence on them if he doesn't know which Plane they came from."

"Oh? Then I've got to meet them," she grinned as she rushed outside, only to stop mid-rush and bring her face back inside, "You stay there and rest!" she hollered towards Nissa, before returning to her dashing through the firm ground of the infirmary camp. In the middle of the courtyard, two new Sparks burned brightly. Just feeling them brush against her mind was enough to excite her.

Perhaps with these two added to the roster, they might just stand a stronger chance of rebuffing the enemy.

A silly and tiny whisper in the back of her head told her that no, it wouldn't make a difference.

It didn't matter how many Planeswalkers gathered.

It didn't matter how hard they fought.

Until the Portals of Parallels closed, they would face infinite enemies, and bring forth infinite allies.

She shook her head, and left the thought to die.

"I'm Negi," the hazel-haired young man said, "Negi Springfield," he grinned.

"I...I am Lelouch...only Lelouch," the other young man said.

"Nice to meet ya both," Applejack said, "Name's Applejack, and I'll show you the ropes. We ain't got much time to waste, but...first off, if ya want to run, feel free to do so. I mean...I know I shouldn't be the one saying this, but we could use your help. No, we really do need your help, but if you want to leave...then it's the best chance you've got right now."

She grinned even brighter when they both shook their heads.

Things were changing for the better.

She just knew it.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Sixty-Seven (????)

In a world of monsters, the one who revels in his humanity is feared, and thus hunted down. Once, the act of ripping apart the leylines of a world would have had me think twice about it. Once, the hunger of my Hive would have been sated by hunting animals, or at least creatures without intelligence. Slowly though, the hunger had grown. Mana and food were needed for the countless hungry creatures, and while I would provide them with it, it never was enough. Most of the Hive thus hibernated for long periods, and awoke like a cycle at just the right time, ready to do just the right thing.

I yawned as I watched the molten core of the world I was eating slowly turn cool, and then break. Ripples spread across the surface, slaughtering whatever life it might have sustained. The stars kept on shining, but they would not do so for much longer. Calmly, I spread my conscience across space, and towards another star. The suns died one by one, an obscure sense of satisfaction spreading through the back of my consciousness as I let the auto-pilot of my biologic imperative take over.

I could hear the countless screams of the alien races that died one after the other, but my morality had already long since abandoned me. They were nothing but shadows, not even real enough to warrant more than the batting of an eyelid as they were snuffed. In the cold silence of space, a rift opened as a lonely glowing eye emerged.

"What are you doing?" the voice of my teacher came through dark and crackling like a whip. "Gorging yourself like usual," he continued with distaste as I turned my attention to him, hungry tendrils engulfing a sun and others breaking apart the cores of black holes. "I have found the Plane where your friend," he spat out the last world as if both poisonous and utterly amusing, "brought some survivors."

The portal around his eye changed shape, disappearing as another spread open to reveal a lush, alien world with large reddish trees and bizarre plants. A small outpost numbering in the hundreds of buildings had been built and surrounded by a wooden palisade. Rough-looking citizens seemed to be going about their daily lives doing the best of their situation. Some forges were already lit, and lines of weapons stood in wait outside them.

Nervous-looking men looked beyond the palisade, and the visual of Bolas' eyes turned towards the direction of strange and alien entities standing in wait a short distance away from the wooden fort. My countless eyes blinked as I began to gather my tendrils back within my form, the sun beneath me already a cooling piece of rock.

The aliens looked humanoid, but taller than normal humans and blue.

Ah, Nadia, out of all the worlds you could have brought them, you had to pick Pandora? Did no one tell you what happens when you open up Pandora's vase? Even if I weren't to intervene, they'd still die eventually, or perhaps manage to coexist peacefully until a certain breaking point.

"They'll die whether I intervene or not," I spoke through the void. "That planet is lethal to their kind in more than one way."

"If there is one thing we both know is true, it is that the tenacity of living beings to survive is never to be underestimated," Nicol Bolas replied darkly. "Destroy them and reinforce your rule."

I nodded, and crafted open a portal to that Plane with ease, jumping through with practiced reflexes and landing upon the soft grass of Pandora. As if suddenly realizing the danger, the grass itself began to tremble, and disappeared inside the soil. Like a tidal wave, the trees nearby shuddered and trembled, splitting their barks apart as they shifted as far back as their roots could allow them to.

The primal energy of this world suited my needs as I crafted into existence a singularly powerful flame. This wouldn't take me more than a few seconds. I devoured whole universes when I was hungry, so what was a pitiful wooden palisade to my strength? Nothing. It was nothing but child's play. The flaming sphere departed my hand, and as it impacted against a shimmering shield of Green and White mana, it exploded outwardly up in the air, destroying the clouds in a mile-wide radius and burning the top of the trees into ashes.

I belatedly stared at the protective dome of Mana.

"There is a Planeswalker aiding them," Nicol Bolas spoke smoothly through a whisper in the wind. "Kill him too, Tyrant."

"Yes, teacher," I drawled as I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. There was no need to grumble about receiving a warning beforehand, because this was not how Nicol Bolas operated. No, to be more precise, it was already a great boon that he had bothered telling me the dome was the product of a Planeswalker. I felt the Spark of the Planeswalker in question pulse and ignite, arriving from the rustling treetops like a ghost amidst countless verdant branches.

"Oh," I said, my mouth slowly drying. "Nothing eludes you, does it, teacher?"

"Nothing does, student," Nicol Bolas replied curtly. "Nothing."

The lion-like humanoid stood powerfully upon a thick tree branch, a staff that ended with twin axes, one white and one black, clutched in his powerful paws. He wore a ceremonial armor of sorts made of brass or still a metal golden in color. It contrasted with his white fur, and his pale, crystal clear blue eyes. His presence emitted a sense of calm to everyone around him, and the very forest of Pandora seemed to shift back, as if no longer afraid.

"You are the one they call the Tyrant," Ajani spoke with a deep voice. He hoisted his twin-headed ax in front of him, as behind him gathered the creatures of Pandora, most of them with far more teeth than strictly needed. "You have come to your doom."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I guess so," I rolled my eyes, "Though I will point out that if I do defeat you, then my strength will become so great, not even my teacher will ever compare to it. I'm happy you're here," I grinned. "I was looking for you, Ajani."

"I was not," Ajani replied. "Your very sight is abhorrent to my eyes, your presence scares the land, the creatures, and the people. You are a coward content to watch, while true heroes act to save their land."

I shrugged. "I guess so," I remarked. "But I am still glad I found you. After all, you are the only one capable of defeating my teacher," I brought both hands up in the air. "Had I known you and Nadia were in contact, I would have asked for a meeting between us a long, long time ago."

"What are you doing?" Ajani asked, his eyes narrowing.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I replied with a smile. "I'm surrendering. If I had known you had joined with the rebels, I would have surrendered even before. I was waiting for you, don't you understand? You're the linchpin I need to destroy my teacher once and for all."

Ajani's legs bent as he growled, baring his teeth. "You would claim you had no knowledge of my presence? I did not hide, not once."

"You know how it is," I replied as I kept my arms up. "I'm a Tyrant of a Multiverse. I do have countless eyes, but if they're blinded, then I can't see. Zendikar hates Slivers with a passion, so I have no way of finding out what's going on there."

He gruffly snorted. "What do you wish to earn from your surrender? Sympathy?"

"No," I shook my head. "I will earn no sympathy from anyone. I am a cruel, vicious, horrible and nightmarish monster. I accept that as my role, and will take the punishment that is ultimate death for it. But before I go, I must make right what I made wrong. If you will listen to me, I will tell you how it all began...and how it must end." I kept my arms up. "I can do it by standing like this, if you wish," I continued.

Ajani calmly hooked his twin-headed ax on a leather strap behind him, and then flexed his paws. He roared, and the roar quaked the ground. By his side, a pair of Planeswalkers abruptly appeared.

Chandra had already lit her hands aflame when Ajani's paw grabbed her wrist, the Nacahtl Planeswalker shaking his mane-surrounded head at her.

"He wishes to speak," Ajani said roughly.

"That he does, doesn't he?" Jace said from the opposite side, his figure mostly cloaked. "We aren't delivering Serenity to you, if that's what you want to talk about."

"He wishes aid in defeating his teacher," Ajani said. "He claims my presence necessary for the task."

Jace and Chandra shared a look, and then they both remained on the defensive as they looked at me. I shrugged, and crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"Gather round, children," I said with a sigh, "For this is a long...very long...story."

It all began as it always does.

With pain, despair and fire. Lots of fire.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Sixty-Eight (The Past)

The crumbling building crushed all hopes of survival. The rubble fell, and it fell as the air itself burned to a crisp. The lungs shriveled, and all was pain. The war to end all wars, so to speak, had come, and had thus gone too.

My eyes bleakly opened to a scenery of carnage, bullets ricocheting off armored hides, large claws and sharp tails slamming into dirty, rag-covered people who cried out for salvation. I did what I could. I did what I felt I could do by drawing power from a ravaged land, torn apart by the folly of man. The blast of electricity took the eyes of a Deathclaw, sending it to scamper off as the remaining creatures turned their viciousness upon my trembling frame.

I screamed, and then all was blood and death.

Only, it wasn't.

When I awoke, the sun had left the place to the stars, the moon remained bright and untouched by man up in the sky, and beneath it I laid in a pool of my blood. My innards had been devoured, and yet ever so slowly they were regenerating. I could feel the energy burn something within me, as if my gastric juices weren't simply laying in a pool at the bottom of my throat, but were consuming my very soul.

It hurt, but it also was what kept me alive.

I had no limbs, and as the cold of the night left the place to the heat of the desert, I realized that shriveled skin was spreading throughout my broken body. I hadn't lost the sense of pain. Honestly, nothing was more excruciating than having to regrow one's nervous system a piece at a time, letting it rest under the cold or hot air before bringing to life the flesh around it. By the time I had closed most of the wounds on my chest, and was starting to work on my limbs, rabid and mutated dogs neared and began to eat my limbs.

I admit, in that moment I wasn't really thinking clearly, and so I simply transformed with what of my body I still had until I became a dog, and from there proceeded to grab hold of my limbs and engulf them messily within my canine stomach.

The rest of the pack didn't take kindly to it, but they died the moment I managed to gain a humanoid enough form, turning thick claws against their soft necks.

That was my first day as a Planeswalker.

The second day involved managing a more humanoid form, and making my way to the closest city.

I lost myself in the desert for six weeks. I once went in circle for five days straight, and twice I walked by the same bleached twin-headed cow skull. By the time I found what amounted to a village, it had been abandoned due to a Deathclaw incursion. My brain was bubbling inside my skull, the heat unbearable, and there wasn't any trace of water, or any scrap of food. The only thing I could do was find the direction for another village, and keep walking.

The heat burned deeply within my chest, inside a core I didn't know I had, as if a muscle never used suddenly sprung into existence.

Then, one fine morning, I ended up crossing paths with a patrol of raiders.

They didn't shoot me. Yes. They were mad. Yes, they were drug addicts. Yes, they were the worst of junkies. At the same time, they didn't shoot me because they didn't see the point. They allowed me to join and prove myself somehow. If I did, good. If I didn't, I'd be eaten since they also had no qualms in eating human flesh.

I killed one of them during a night where they were all particularly gone to the far end with their addictions, using a sharp rock for the first, and then a stolen gun to terminate the others. Sure, their bodies had far more drugs than water on them, but what they did have was good enough for someone who had nothing.

Have you ever drank water after months of parched nothingness? Your throat cracks and breaks. The skin flushes and breaks as if it were made of clay, and your stomach refuses to keep the liquid down unless you hold your mouth shut to avoid dry-heaving it out.

That was how I managed to get myself started on the path to an actual human settlement.

Bottlecaps, the currency of the place, I could earn by selling off the drugs.

The first hot brahmin steak made me cry tears of joy. The second and the third went down just as easily, but my hunger didn't abate.

No, no matter how many I ate, my hunger did not abate.

"It was then that I finally had the time to actually think about what was going on," I spoke to the trio. "Up till that point, I reckoned I had simply gone mad. I mean, months in the desert without a drop of water should have killed anyone, but then again maybe I was dead, and that was a sort of hell for the likes of me. It wasn't the case though, and with time I managed to feel certain things...certain types of energy, and once I did find one buried in the desert, I devoured it. That filled me up better than a steak, admittedly," I scratched the side of my cheek. "But the hunger didn't go away."

"Are you trying to garner our sympathies? It's not working," Jace said.

"Please, I'm merely stating how things were, and how they became," I replied. "You see, I feel the need to point out that the hunger came first. It wasn't a product of merging with the Slivers. I had simply forgotten what feeling full and satisfied was like, and so I couldn't feel anything but hunger. I traveled the world, went from the wonders of New Vegas to the frozen prohibited corners of the torn lands of Russia. I had forgotten about my usage of magic, and about my home. I simply...I simply wanted the hunger to stop, you see? And in the end, I tapped deep enough into the energy of the world that I managed the feat of Planeswalking."

I grimaced. "That made a few things click, and at the same time thrust me in a really, really bad spot."

I shook my head. "My next stop on my trip was into a pleasant, half-sleepy and half-foggy city by the name of Innsmouth." I grinned. "That took my sanity away in less than two hours. Unfortunately for the Elder Gods, they turned mad the wrong individual. My mind didn't unravel, as much as explosively decompress. They never took a nuke to the chest. So once I went mad, I nuked them into bits and pieces."

I giggled. "They didn't lie...they kind of broke into tiny pieces here and there, ah...nice memories," my smile grew tenfold. "So...after that abrupt descent into madness, I actually woke up fully, and regained much of my broken sanity. I thus used Planeswalking to reach a Plane where I could learn things, where I could be educated, and where my hunger could be sated fully."

I sighed. "The first creature I summoned...the very first...was a Sliver." I clenched my right hand. "I knew thus that destiny was at hand, and as it called to me to free its brethren, I answer his call for a leader. The Riptide project treated the Slivers brought back from death as...as monsters, as beasts to be examined, cut and examined while they still lived. Their pain...ah...well, it was excruciating, but it taught me a very important lesson," I inclined my head to the side. "I was a Planeswalker, I could do things mere mortals could never, ever aspire to do, and so...so I did them."

I freed the Slivers and proclaimed myself their liege, before summoning forth from the Aether a substitute Queen to better control them. I merged with the Slivers the Riptide laboratory had brought back to life in what could only be described as a moment of absolute genius and clarity, and through their adaptive abilities and swift reproduction, I began to explore the Rifts.

"The rifts?" Chandra muttered. "Dominaria's rifts?"

"Yes, the Riptide Project was located on Otaria, and after the whole laboratory was consumed, well...Dominaria would come next given time, but only if the folly of the Planeswalkers could be stopped. You see, in my madness, I reckoned that I could be a great hero if only I stopped the Rifts from ever forming in the first place by using one of them and travel back in time to prevent their spreading. It was such a brilliant plan that it actually succeeded...so, twenty thousand years ago, I appeared out of the Madaran Rift formed by the battle between Nicol Bolas and a demonic leviathan, intervening in the battle without a second thought."

I thumped my chest. "My moment of pride, and you know how the saying goes? Pride goeth before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."

Jace shared a glance with Chandra, while Ajani remained silent, keenly listening on.

"What you're saying, if it's true...it's a lot to take in," Jace said.

"Unless it's all a bull of crap," Chandra said, "Meant to gather time because who knows what sick plan or betrayal he's preparing right now."

"Oi, oi," I raised both of my arms once more, "Chill Chandra. Let's not end up doing the same thing you did to the Sanctum of Stars, shall we? My hands are drenched in blood, but yours aren't clean either," I lowered my arms and crossed them over my chest. "Once you leave your high horse, then you'll be free to condemn me as much as you want...but I'm not finished with my beautiful tale, so...let me finish." I coughed.

It was twenty thousand years in the past, and I stood face to face with Nicol Bolas. He had been weakened, but I hadn't emerged from the Time Rift unscathed, and needed time to recover my strengths too. We agreed to meet at a later date, and while he returned to Madara, I Planeswalked somewhere to rest and recover my strength.

When we met two years later, we battled, and he soundly defeated me before claiming his price from my mind.

I grimaced, "From that moment onward, he knew I was telling the truth, just as much as I knew there was no way I could defeat him. All I could do was hopefully gather-"

"Wait a moment," Jace said. "How did you know the Rifts would become a problem? You acted as if you always knew."

"Dimensional Rifts," I retorted. "In one world, light is dark and dark is light, one is the future of another...and another is the past of the current present. I knew what was to happen, so I took it upon me to change such events from happening."

Thus, since I knew what was going to happen and Nicol Bolas was the one dragon I knew would benefit and at the same time aid me the most, we struck a deal.

A deal that condemned Dominaria, but guaranteed an eternity of power through eternal war and strife for him, a near unlimited increase in power for the hungering Sliver Hives who would be able to feast across dimensions, and not just Planes, and in the end...in the end the plan worked, and Zendikar suffered a fate similar to that of Dominaria, if with a lot more pain and suffering.

And then I kept on talking. I revealed every tiny detail. Every universe I devoured or killed. Time slowed as I didn't stop talking until I was done, every single act that wearily stood upon my soul thrown out to the winds.

As the last of my acts left my mouth, I clutched my chest and exhaled. "Feels good," I muttered, "Now, Ajani's soul magic is perhaps the only thing that can work, when used in conjunction with a great source of power, it can potentially craft a polar opposite of Nicol Bolas, one made of the parts he doesn't use...the good parts," a chuckle leaving my lips. "With that, he can be defeated. Though I must admit, it feels real good to have a clean soul. After all, that's part of the reason I told you everything...to have a clean soul."

Chandra's eyes widened. They widened because she understood, but it was too late by then.

I laughed.

"Your purifying braziers are meaningless now, young ones," I said, widening my arms. "So, what says you? Shall we ally to defeat my master, or shall we battle until only one stands victorious in the end?"

Chandra's hands ignited as a blast of white fire burst through my chest, leaving me to gawk at my melting flesh before it swiftly regenerated back to the way it was before.

"That was uncalled for," I said dryly.

Jace's eyes narrowed. "We make the plans. You provide the information we need."

"And after everything is done," Ajani said, "If you try to escape, I will hunt you down."

"Oh, I won't run," I said. "Just so we're clear...he knows we're coming. He knows everything I've just told you, and he knows everything that you will do to prepare yourself." I shifted the scales and the skin on my left arm, revealing a brilliant symbol that burned with the strength of a raging inferno. "And he will be angry to discover that his brand of slavery never worked on me," and as I said that, the brand burst apart in meaningless ashes. "We Slivers are free," I said. "The death of one of us...does not equate to the death of the Hive." I chuckled and brought my wrists together in front of myself.

"Now...bring me to Zendikar, and I shall grant you victory, after centuries of war and carnage."

"Stop with the theatrics before Chandra melts you down to a puddle," Jace said flatly, "You are not a fun spectacle to watch, Tyrant."

I sighed.

Nobody understood true art.

Nobody, but the likes of me.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Sixty-Nine (Zendikar)

As Sorin Markov taught the world of Innstrad once, never create an intelligent construct you cannot turn off at will. By the same token, never engineer a situation of eternal conflict without a mean to shut it down with ease. Colorless Mana was the one thing that could hurt the Eldrazi, and with enough of it, they could burn to death. Ugin's colorless breath was a miracle of arcane arts.

The Slivers' own fire left nothing to desire.

I appeared atop a hill, overlooking the main lines of the Eldrazi. Giant behemoths of flesh and bizarre bone structures cruised with a slow and sedated pace, being destroyed by blasts as the skittering drones engaged in never-ending war against the lines of soldiers and skirmish fighters. The ground was thick with corpses, which formed walls behind which both allies and enemies hid.

The purifying fire of one of the braziers nearby burned through my frame, and then slowly died out, the heat devoured by my body without leaving a single trace behind. The looks of displeasure upon Chandra and Jace's face were second only to those of Gideon, and the rest of the gathered Planeswalkers. Nissa's own face was a mixture of anger and scorn, but the one that was truly furious belonged to the most honest of them all.

"No way," Applejack whispered. "No way, no way, no way!" she yelled. "How can you even trust him for a second!? He's the one responsible for everything!" countless other Planeswalkers murmured their approval, rallying behind Applejack as they appeared one after the other, either coming of their own accord since they felt my Spark, or following Jace's call.

"Be quiet while I concentrate," I said. "Go have your discussions elsewhere while I work on setting things right." I snorted as I extended my arms in front of me. The portals pouring Eldrazi and Phyrexia through parallel dimensions and Planes into this one abruptly sealed shut. "Children always complain, they do nothing but complain and cry. Adults grit their teeth and push through, because that's what being an adult means!" The ground trembled as if it was made of water. A rift spread open in front of me, allowing passage for a massive crystal so bright it could eclipse the light of the sun, which touched the water-like ground and embedded itself half-way through. I placed a hand atop it, and then took a deep breath.

The next second, the stored colorless Mana acquired the lethal might of Ugin's invisible breath and broke free, lashing out across the leylines directly below the ground and all the way towards the first of the many Eldrazi that were following said Leylines. The drones sparked up in flames and became ashes. It didn't matter how much their tentacles twitched, or how their forms had bony masks or the number of their eyes. When the Leylines pulsed beneath their feet, they ate liquid fire, and they died.

The crystal pulsed, and as it did it spread its poisonous Mana through the land. Yet, it was poison for the Eldrazi, but it revitalized the land that had been devoured. Another crystal materialized from thin air, and as I slammed it down next to the first one, I repeated the procedure. My eyes shone as I began to sing, my humming reaching a pitch of harmony which merged with the primal Mana of Zendikar to spread the breath past the mere confines of the planet, past the weakness of the land, and into the very bellies of the Titans that tried to feast upon this world.

"We are the Hive," I snarled. "And our hunger is second to no other!" as I bellowed that, a third and fourth Crystal of colorless Mana slammed down on the ground, and with it, the ground shook as fissures began to spread. The land slowly began to beat of an unsteady rhythm, a symphony of hearts that spread across the Leylines all the way to the far off horizon of orange and red, where the Titans stirred...and all too late died.

They exploded.

The very air went from breathable to toxic, the very ground lost its barely regained lusciousness, and then flames of purification spread across the skies as the Leylines ruptured where the Titans had been feeding until then.

The four crystals were now empty of energies, and stood as nothing more than empty, shiny baubles.

"There," I said as I turned to stare at the gathered Planeswalkers. "The Eldrazi are no more."

"I can't believe it," Nissa whispered. Rito was holding her up, his ears somewhat pointy. "All those...centuries..." her face deformed in a mixture of grief and happiness, "All those centuries of destruction...for...five minutes...five minutes..." she shook her head, tears loftily falling down her face, tears of rage, and anger. "Five minutes!"

"Two minutes and thirty-two seconds," I said quite calmly. "It will take a bit more with Phyrexia, but I'll deal with them too," I raised my head up in the sky, and then turned it towards the right, "In that direction, if I'm not wrong."

"You...who do you think you are...to just come here after so long and wipe everything away like that!?" Nissa roared. "Do you not know the countless lives we lost!? Do you not know the pain this world suffered through!?"

"Uh? Nissa, since when do you care about other people's lives?" I raised an eyebrow. "If they're not elves they can rot to death, wasn't that your shtick? Did you change? Oh my, you changed. Perhaps there's still hope for you. Still, don't think it came cheap. It took a lot of preparation, see?" I pointed at the four crystals. "Those crystals are gathered from four distinctive Planar collapses. I first reaped all life from a Plane, and then made the Plane collapse to further gather energy. There are...trillions of living beings that died just so I could finish this in two minutes and thirty-two seconds."

I smiled. "A thank you would not be remiss. You can do it if you try, Nissa. Thank you, my kind Tyrant, for granting this beautiful wish of mine and bringing peace on Zendikar." I said quite calmly. "Come on! Am I not the genie in the bottle you sincerely prayed for?" I asked, but received no reply as Nissa bit down hard on her tongue, refusing to say anything else. "No? Well, that's fine. Let's go to the Phyrexian front lines, Ajani. I know when my hypocrite public doesn't appreciate me."

Ajani growled, but then roughly grabbed hold of my shoulder and we transferred with quite the practiced ease right in front of Phyrexia's main front of war.

This was going to be trickier.

Phyrexia wasn't composed of dumb Titans that ate everything put under their noses. On the other hand, Yawgmoth's death would mean instant victory, because the fanaticism of his troops meant that with his death, so too would the rest fall.

"Sins are crawling on my back," I said offhandedly to Ajani, who remained quiet perhaps because he knew not what to say. "And yet, I can't help but feel happy this will soon end," I grinned. "It's funny...I wasted twenty thousand years to get to this point." I passed a hand through my hair. "And all along, I thought this part would be the most difficult."

Ajani said nothing at first, but finally broke the silence. "How will you go about dealing with Phyrexia?"

"The old way," I replied as I cracked my neck right and left. "I'll fight them...talon and claw."

"Alone?" Ajani said. "Or will you call your Slivers?"

"Nah," I said. "If I called my Slivers, then they'd end up eating filth. I'll call my fire-team instead."

I brought both of my hands together to form a cup in front of my mouth. "Genryusai! Lina!"

Thus, the world of Zendikar knew true fire and destruction.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy (Zendikar)

Lina Inverse appeared like the kind of toddler who didn't really want to go to the doctor, but had no choice but to comply due to the promise of sweets. Genryusai appeared with a sigh, a cup of green tea in his left hand.

Ajani's body shifted slightly backwards as Genryusai's eyes glanced over him, his own presence more than enough to make all hair on the Nacahtl's body rise. It was a different kind of presence, one that expected judgment and righteousness rather than safety and calm. Lina, on the other hand, had the power of absolute destruction.

"Woo-hoo," Lina said as she cracked her neck brightly, letting the crimson Mana flicker through her frame, "This is the day isn't it? We're gonna burn it all down!" she rubbed her hands together, "Everything shiny is mine old man!"

"Youngster," Genryusai said firmly, his right hand slightly opening with a click his sword. "Keep up."

Like twin spirals of fire and flames they shot out from my sides, turning into molten slag the ground beneath them as they impacted with the strength of a thousand suns each against the sides of the Phyrexian's main line. Sickly black rays bounced off the shields made of sizzling white fire, and as one side blasted everything, ground and Phyrexians included into ashes, the other side sliced them in half as they proceeded further into the ranks.

"You know, Ajani...everything that begins must one day end, and that's just sad," I said offhandedly to the albino Nacahtl, "but without an end, there can't be a new beginning."

I took a single step, and the second one saw me vault over the charred ground as the Pennon Blade burst into existence, twirling around me as I worked it deep into the chests of incoming hordes of skittering metallic creatures, driven mad by pain, and then back into the realm of insanity by a faith so wrong, it couldn't be anything else but perfect for their brains. I thrust and spun, dragging dozens of Phyrexian grunts through the ground as I trudged on the toxic and poisonous ground.

Genryusai's blade burned with flames as it coiled and swished like a whip mixed with a snake, hungrily incinerating the countless, fearless creatures that opened fire, or tried to draw near to rip his body with their vicious claws. Eastern and Western paladins, which comprised the bulk of Yawgmoth's elite forces shattered against the bulwark of fire as we advanced. The further deep into the corrupted territory we went, the thicker the poisons became, and the darker the sky turned.

Yet with each blast of fire, with each burning swipe of a sword, or with each explosion that incinerated every single thing existing on a molecular level, we advanced.

A Gargantua blocked Genryusai's path, a creature of large claws and brutish strength, the size easily three to four times that of a human, its body mainly composed of mechanical gears and twirling mechanisms covered in dark oils and pulsing flesh-like metal. It disappeared into molten slag within seconds, a mere glance all that it took to destroy a ravager of men who had known no equal until then, and most definitely had never felt himself inferior to any other creature, barring those higher in hierarchy in Phyrexia.

"Oi, Shade!" Lina bellowed as her entire body was covered in pulsing flames. "How does this stick work!?" she said as she raised up Raising Heart. "I want to try it!"

"Throw it over and I'll program it for you!" I yelled back, twisting in mid-air to avoid a stab of a Sanguine paladin, before neatly beheading him with one of my seven swords, six arms having sprouted from my back. Nanoha's staff hit my tail as I twirled it around and began to work on it. I thrust the Pennon Blade into the chest of an incoming Demon, before glancing upwards, "Nina! Use the staff and wipe them out of the air! The chant is Divine Buster!" I threw the staff back, which Nina nimbly caught as she spun in the air as a towering column of flames.

"Uh? Very well," she spun her staff, aiming up at the sky dotted with dark engines meant to spread plague and illnesses, and as the demons flying close to hit us. "Darker than darkness! Deeper than night! Divine Buster, Giga Slave Edition!" as she said that, I actually acutely howled and threw myself down against the ground as Genryusai did the pretty much the same.

The blast that echoed destroyed the Raising Staff as the backlash cracked the ground and created fissures that aimed directly at the planet's core, while the skies disappeared as the blast vaporized pretty much everything and anything that it passed even remotely close to.

My ears rang as I stood back up from the sandy desert that had formed around us. "Lina!" I snarled, "You were to say only Divine Buster!"

Lina sheepishly laughed, and then summoned forth a second Raising Heart from the Aether. "Oh, come on Shade, you knew I was gonna do that anyway!"

Genryusai, most aptly, sighed as he stood up and dusted his shinigami's clothes. "I knew she would do that," he said. "You should have known she would do that."

"I did," I exhaled, "I did and yet I hoped she wouldn't."

Lina simply laughed, summoning a second Raising Heart, "Divine Buster!" she roared as both Raising Hearts opened fire in tandem, crafting energy beams that rushed past the lines of Phyrexians. Explosions dotted the landscape as we advanced, myself taking point as Genryusai and Lina ran behind me.

The ground trembled as massive constructs of bronze-like metal rushed forth from the depths of Yawgmoth's reign, the Phyrexian Dreadnoughts tearing through the land as mountains burst apart and lakes drained into the depths of the earth. Their quakes broke the roots of ancient forests, and the skies themselves seemed to lose the vibrancy that Lina had returned to them with her own massive attacks.

I sang joyously as I merged the seven blades together, before rushing forth to slice through the first of the Dreadnoughts with ease, bursting it into countless molten bits as I finished beyond it. Genryusai's sword shone with the plasma of supernovas, as the heat around us grew tenfold. Lina Inverse's Raising Hearts began to crackle with dark energies, twin Ragna Blades forming as she began to spin the twin-headed swords.

"Show off," Genryusai said as he sliced through a Dreadnought with ease, glancing at Lina who was instead dealing with two of the behemoths by herself, and with practiced ease breaking them apart. "Youngsters these days."

"Let's sip green tea while we wait for her," I drawled as I sliced a shrieking demon that had descended from the skies. "You going to play with them for much longer, Lina!?" I yelled at the young woman, who in turn grumbled and slammed a Raising Heart through the head of the first Dreadnought, detonating it, jumped off with a back-flip, and tore off the head of the second one with a neat swing.

Both constructs stopped moving, and as she neared with a huff, she flicked her head backwards to let her hair move away from her face. "Did you really need us for this?"

"No, I needed you for that," I said as I gestured further ahead, where the land of Zendikar itself seemed to merge with a darker, and deader land. "That is the artificial plane of Rath, which joins together Zendikar to Phyrexia. Even I would find it daunting to invade a Plane like Phyrexia alone."

"Uh, shouldn't we call little miss Nadia for this too?" Lina asked.

"She is indisposed, forever," I replied.

"Ah..." Lina clicked her tongue. "Broke the law?"

"Yes," I said. "She wiped her own brain out of the last...give or take decades," I glanced from Lina to Genryusai. "But she's been dealt with, so let's concentrate on dealing with Phyrexia."

I took a step forward and then reeled as I clutched my chest. "Gah," I grunted, feeling as if somebody had just burned a hole through my stomach. I closed my eyes, and took deep breaths. "Very well," I snarled. "Let's hurry."

"What happened?" Genryusai asked.

"Some of the Planes where I gather my Mana from have been destroyed," I answered. "It doesn't matter. I have enough energy stored that I can go at a loss for...ten minutes, give or take." I tried to smile, but the burning in my guts didn't ebb away. "Let's move it. One minute to cross Rath, one minute per layer of Phyrexia...it's still doable."

"Then allow me to open the way," Genryusai said as he took point, burning brightly in his entire being as he swung his sword in front of him. "Bankai," and in answer to that single word, a Sun was born upon the land of Zendikar. A travelling star that shot forth, crafting upon its path a lake of lava as it pushed through the border between Zendikar and Rath, and through it into the lands of Phyrexia.

Lina grabbed hold of me, "You hold on," she said. "Conserve your energies, and we'll get a few minutes added to the count," she grinned as she crouched to throw me on her back like a bag of potatoes.

"The Tyrant of Planeswalkers, hoisted as a bag of potatoes," I muttered. "The shame, the shame."

Lina simply laughed, and then rushed forth like a rocket into Rath, following the path of molten stone and the whirlwinds of ashes that Genryusai was leaving in front of him.

Rath was a new Phyrexia given form, an outpost beyond which laid the surface of a Plane that harbored death and pain beyond imagination.

Yet no matter how sturdy the walls, how thick and poisonous the air, how devastating the toxins...against the might of a newly born sun, they could do nothing.

Praise the Sun, Genryusai.

Praise it...and weaponize it.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-One (Rath)

Genryusai's path through Rath was unhindered. Mana flowed richly through the Planes, and as the rushing Star was followed by a rocket, we covered more ground than if we had taken a supersonic jet. Genryusai's sun burned like a shining beacon of hope through the torn landscape, the death and the metal. Even the darkest of nights must leave the place to a shining day after all, and as the Stronghold of Rath came into view, my mind shattered open to the cries of countless beings.

Slivers stood within the depths of the fortress, sores and bruises burned within their minds as they knew nothing but pain, and sought nothing but their own self-harm. They knew no other life but that of slavery, and as their thoughts burst through into my own, my own shifted into theirs.

Painful sores spread across my skin, my bones turned brittle and my sight grew void. I saw nothing, nor felt nothing. "Lina..." I whispered. "Make the ten minutes...two. Keep going for the Stronghold...it's close by...I'll...I'll join you later there."

I had been expected. Then again, I knew this would be the result from the moment I set myself here. For while the Queen that stood guard to my Plane wasn't the original one, the one of Rath still remained a jealously well-kept secret from all. And it suffered for countless thousands of years. It suffered until suffering itself became her purpose and her cause, until her love for her children was twisted into hatred for those despicable things that dared to clutch near her.

A lifetime of whipping and excruciating pain was nothing compared to what it meant for the beloved mother to hate you. All knew shame at their inferiority, all knew that their status was due to their weakness, to their unworthiness and to their existence.

I hissed as tears fell from my eyes, the deepest wells of sadness pouring out together with the most heartfelt of sympathies. The Slivers that constituted most of my body had human emotions bound to them by virtue of my very soul.

It hurts.

"I'll make it hurt no more," I hissed as I burst free from Lina's grasp and rushed forth upon Sliver-like coils as I roared, passing right by the side of Genryusai's sun aiming for the closest vent into the depths of Rath's cavern networks. Deformed spindly Slivers emerged like swarms of bats, shrieking in pain as I engulfed them all, bursting through the tunnels like a singular mass of gelatin, rushing to devour them all.

The Hive shares both greatness and weakness. It is the duty of the strong to withstand the weak, and hoist them up. Thus as I rushed past them, I engulfed them in arms made of gelatin and darkness. Crystals burned their light as I reached with my fingertips the final chamber, where a deformed and maddened Queen stood shrieking wildly, shaking her long head as thoughts shifted from my own memories into hers.

"Make it hurt no more!" the Queen shrieked, "Make it stop!" her long, deformed talons broke through the walls, threatening to cause a cave-in. No, desiring to cause a cave-in, for self-harm was all that was left to her. I rushed up till I came face to face with her, my own head twisting and deforming as I slammed it against hers, engulfing the talons, the chitin, the sharp quills and the spikes into an embrace made of oily tar and poisonous toxins.

"Hush-a-bye," I whispered gently, hugging her gently and rocking her right and left like a crying child seeking rest. "Lull-a-bye. I'm here now. Sorry it took so long."

The Queen screamed louder. The wails became broken sobs, the sobs turned into meager vocalizations, and in the end she closed her mind, letting soothing music rush through her. I burst the oily tar, burning it away as the rot and the filth were fixed in minutes. What thousand of years had caused, minutes rendered meaningless. To stop the feeling of loneliness, a hug from a millennia-old being is sometimes more than enough.

The Queen's body molded itself around mine, disappearing within the Hive that formed my body as she closed herself off into hibernation, preferring to rest until I woke her up in the promised land of the Slivers. I smiled as I realized she had probably merged together bits and pieces of my memories to craft herself a purpose for her suffering, a sort of sacrifice meant to ensure a future of everlasting happiness.

For when we suffer, we seek to give purpose to our suffering, do we not?

"Let's go now," I whispered to the children, the countless children who screeched as they dug themselves free from the pits of black tar, from the depths of the mountains, from the darkness of the abyss to cling on to the feeble light of hope. "We are the Hive...and we will never be broken."

They widened their wings made of leather scraps and misshapen bones, and as I widened mine in turn, pristine and clear, soon theirs too changed in shape.

My body reformed back, and each of them learned anew what they needed to know. Their sick hearts became clean. Their rotten lungs breathed in air correctly as they healed. Their muscles bound themselves properly to their bones, now stronger than before. Their talons sharpened and their eyes burned with purpose that was different from that of self-harm or slavery.

Fight.

They rushed out from the vents below the fortress of Rath, they rushed out from the corners of the hallways, from the very rock that would have taken miners decades to mine out. They crafted tunnels out of dark, deadly tar as they made their way upwards, back into a sky that had for far too long been but a dream to their eyes.

Kill.

All those who stood in their way, all the Phyrexians that dared to bring metal and pain to their Hive, that dared to trudge upon them and enslave them, they faced an army of teeth and talons that crushed through them, breaking their claws against their chitin, shattering their chests with their talons, lancing across their ranks with acidic spit or heated gases.

Evolve.

Harmonious songs rang in the air as metal began to quake and break, White and Green Mana suffusing the the creatures that until then had known nothing but Black and Red, burning through the mightiest of constructs or binding the weaker ones to a will higher than theirs. Concepts like forests, islands, plains rushed forth and mixed with those of mountains made not to dig into, but to explore from high above, or of swamps meant to for proliferation, and not for damnation.

With each memory that was shared, the conviction and the belief of freedom and paradise became stronger into the others. Perhaps Yawgmoth's influence of being venerated as a divine being had managed to worm its way into the biological imperative of the Slivers, or perhaps they had deemed whoever was their savior as their God. Whatever the reason, the Slivers of Rath had learned one thing, one very important thing, from their time spent in eternal suffering.

Hope.

For Hope is the hardest thing to kill.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Two (Rath)

The Sun entered the Stronghold, and the few lines of defenses that still remained broke into shambles. With the destruction of the Flowstone generator, the Rathi Overlay would come to an end, and Zendikar would be freed forever from the influence of Phyrexia.

"Shade, those your new friends?" Lina asked as she rushed over to where I stood, right over the bridge and pillar supporting the fortress over the city of traitors. I was surrounded by Slivers who crooned and sang, many of which doing their hardest to take a spot on my back or on my Sliver tail.

"Yes," I answered as I squinted my eyes, the bright sun of Genryusai coming less as the old man came to a halt by our sides, heat leaving his body surrounded in haze of vaporizing air. He snapped his blade to a close, and turned to look at the devastation wrought.

"Should we destroy the city?" he asked.

"I'll open a portal for Phyrexia right here, and I need you to go through to plant these as far deep into the Plane as you possibly can," I said in answer, summoning forth two bombs that ticked and whirred, a Spark sizzling within. "Then return here." The ground shook as Slivers emerged as a horde from the countless tunnels that lead into the Stronghold. "The flowstone production will need to be reversed, so that as Rath loses mass, so too will the boundaries with Zendikar come less."

"Can't I just destroy the Plane myself?" Lina asked.

"No," I replied. "Right now Rath is tied to Zendikar. Destroy one, and you destroy the other. Also, Phyrexia's walls and spheres are made of far stronger stuff, don't worry about Yawgmoth though...he'll come through first to save himself." I smiled. "After all...he can't Planeswalk."

As soon as I said that, a loud chuckle echoed behind us.

"He couldn't," a voice spoke darkly, filled with mirth and rich amusement. "Yawgmoth could not Planeswalk." An old man with white wavy hair and eyes pitch-black stood calmly with a staff that ended in bronze-like metal held in his right hand. He wore red and black clothes, which soon shifted into metallic armor of dark blue and bronze colors. "But we can."

I looked at the creature in front of me.

"Should I call you Urza Yawgmoth, or Yawgmoth Urza?" I asked in a murmur as the Slivers began to rise behind me, their forms shifting abruptly into Primes.

The Planeswalker laughed, his staff darkening in color. "You may call me your new Master. I will take back what is mine." He extended a hand, and as he did, something tried to break free from within my chest. "You stole it from our Evincar at the cusp of our might during the invasion. Now you will no longer run away, but will gladly serve us until your dying breath."

As he snarled that, the Hivestone broke free from within the center of my rib-cage, sailing in the air and landing neatly into the palm of Yawgmoth's palm. He hoisted it up in the air, "Now the Slivers will once more obey. To think I had to come down here all the way to reclaim what you stole..." He smiled, his feeling of victory suddenly turning into a sense of puzzlement as he realized that neither Genryusai nor Lina had tried to stop him.

I stared at Urza's body, and then I smiled as the two forms by my side shifted in appearance, becoming mist-like Slivers that drew closer to me. "I sent them ahead while you were busy speaking and acting all evil-like," I said nonchalantly. "Admittedly, the Psionic net around this place isn't all that strong, but it should slow you down considerably."

I hoisted my sword right in front of me. "Shall we dance now, pathetic excuse of a fart?"

Urza's black eyes glowed with Black Mana as he snarled. "You come into my realm to challenge me, a God?" he brought the Hivestone forth, Mana gathering into it. "You will be devoured by the same creatures you cherish." As he said that, and nothing happened, his black eyes widened as tendrils shot out to dig deep into his skin, making him roar in anger as he broke his limb off with his other hand, throwing it away as a new one grew in place. "I'll make you pay for this."

"I eat Gods," I snarled right back at him, "I don't let food talk to me like that," I continued nonchalantly, "And you are nothing but a pitiful heart-broken fool. I guess Rebecc's final choice hurt you in more ways than one didn't it?" In answer to my taunting, Urza merely pulsed with energies that sent me to fly backwards in the air, my flesh burning itself away as ashes scattered in the air.

"All of your bravado is meaningless," Urza said as he walked closer, his left hand covering itself in a metallic gauntlet that thrust forth a ray of Black Mana. "You are draining yourself to sustain something that isn't meant to be sustained. Hunger is all the Slivers should feel. They are weak, and you are weak, because you choose to embrace your weakness."

"Your body would say something like...you can build a perfect machine out of imperfect parts," I quipped back as I spun back on my feet, a crystal intercepting the ray and claiming it for itself. "Then again...those who know only one path to victory will never achieve it," I grinned and clenched the crystal in my right hand. The Black Mana shot out like a whip, brimming with Red and slamming down on Urza's gauntlet.

He scoffed, freeing his hand with ease before rushing forth, magic rays burning up against shields conjured from the Aether. We circled each other as we threw our might into a battle of spells, even as the Slivers that tried to draw close were vaporized by tendrils of dark fog that came from within Urza's body. Yet, as the first creatures died horribly, the third wave managed to reach closer than those before.

"You are foolish to oppose me," Urza hissed, as he easily snapped the neck of a Prime that had drawn near with an invisible force, before throwing him off the bridge and down in the streets below, "What makes you think you can defeat me? Greater beings than you tried, and failed."

"You seem to be misunderstanding something, Yawgmoth," I pointed out smoothly. "I do not seek to defeat you," I grabbed another crystal, clutching it to my chest as the energies within seeped out to reinforce my own body. "I do not even seek to win over you." I smiled. "I seek to annihilate everything you stand for." I threw the Crystal in Yawgmoth's direction, watching as it suddenly burned with bright white fire. It was abruptly deflected by Urza's staff, the pitch-black eyes of Yawgmoth bleeding with dark oil as his face was deformed into a cruel scowl.

The ground's trembling increased. Yawgmoth's pitch-black angry eyes turned away from me and to the sides, where the walls of the inner caverns of the Stronghold seemed to break further under an invisible strain. "This Plane is close to falling," I said. "And if we both die due to its collapse, then so be it."

"What? But how?" Yawgmoth muttered. "I saw my victory through Urza's eyes if I stalled for time." His eyes narrowed. "What have you done? What have you done!"

"I did nothing," I answered in turn. "I simply reversed the Flowstone generator into a Flowstone destroyer. Though if you had connected the dots earlier rather than skulk the shadows, you would have realized that the only possible way for me to do so...would be to be there in person."

I grinned as the assembled Slivers that composed my body began to shift back into their singular forms. "I joined with the Hivemind, Yawgmoth...not with the Hive. If it can console you...you won the battle. I simply won the war."

As the last of the Slivers split apart, it was with a heavy heart that I set off the final Planeswalker bomb within the Rath stronghold, seconds after the Plane of Rath separated from that of Zendikar.

Death happened in an instant.

And as soon as it did, Phyrexia died from within as the pacts binding the countless demons came less, and that in turn signaled the defeat of their God, the failure of their dreams, and the inevitable destruction of everything they cherished. For without power, Phyrexia would inevitably die.

The twin bombs exploded at different levels of Phyrexia, setting forth the final ripples that tore apart the Plane.

Witnessing it from a vantage point in the Blind Eternities, I hummed nonchalantly.

"So...Lina's bomb was planted deeper than yours, Genryusai," I said as my body was held aloft by both Planeswalkers.

"I could not swing my sword properly in those narrow confines," Genryusai replied.

"That sounded lewd," I said with the most stoic face I could ever manage.

"Don't make me drop you," Genryusai said sternly.

Lina simply chuckled.

"We don't have much time left," I muttered as I felt worlds I was tied to die one after the other, "He's on a rampage. He's trying to force me to hibernate in order to keep Dominaria confined."

"So, should we head over to where he is and battle him?" Genryusai asked, only for me to shake my head.

"Not yet. First, Lina, I'm going to give you the images of some Planes you need to travel to. Once you're there, destroy them," I took a couple of deep breaths. "Genryusai, you go back and gather the other Planeswalkers. Lead them to my location." I took a deep breath. "I do not know what my teacher can truly do when he sets himself up for the task, so I'll be holding him back by talking. He'll take the bait because without me to aid you, he'll have bigger chances of victory. Don't worry about me. Nicol will never strike me down, not unless he wishes to see Dominaria freed...and if that happens, then everything dies."

"You planned for how the confrontation would go, did you not?" Genryusai asked.

"That...that I did," I said as I felt my eyes start to close. "I might need a bit of energy, so..." I extended a hand, and the Plane of Rath that was collapsing suddenly entered my hungry stomach, making me grin and groan as I slowly stood on my own two feet upon the Blind Eternities themselves. "I better go," I smiled.

"Do you truly intend to let yourself die at the end?" Genryusai asked, only for me to chuckle in turn.

"Who knows, my friend. Who knows." I clasped his hand and shook it firmly. "Thank you, for all the tea we drank."

"Don't thank me for something like that," Genryusai replied stiffly. "Thank me for tolerating your presence until now...and for the centuries to come."

"Oi, I'm here too, you know!" Lina said hotly. "Anyway, I don't like sad stuff, so get going, then come back and let's go test a new modified version of Giga Slave using the funny sticks."

I laughed wholeheartedly as I disappeared across the Blind Eternities, my course like that of a falling meteor, aimed for the Plane where Nicol Bolas' presence rang the strongest.

The Plane where it all started.

The Plane where it all would end.

California here I come, right back where we started from.

Fallout California.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Three (Fallout)

The dragon's wingspan obscured the land. The vast desert of the Mojave barely held its claws as its head stood taller than the sky itself. Thousands of years spent gorging had given him a body that could rival that of the tallest of titans. His tail did not swish, for if it did, it easily would have tore apart the moon and cleaved in half the stars. His heartbeat made the ground quake, and his presence alone brought down to their knees every single living creature around him.

"Student," Nicol Bolas spoke from beyond the skies, his head lowering down as with each of his breaths, the dunes of the desert were blasted away in sandstorms. "You knew this would happen when you decided to defy me."

"Yeah," I said. "And you knew this would happen when you decided to send me to kill Ajani."

"Yes," Bolas spoke, "I knew what you would do and how, and I knew how long it would take for you to get here. I waited for you," he added. "For all of our differences, and for the weakness you still harbor, you are still a student. I can allow you this one mistake. You will pay for it by slaughtering all of the Planeswalkers that will oppose my might once I claim the title that you will hand over, and with you at my right claw, we will rule over them all." He extended his right claw, clenching it as the mere act created hurricanes. "With time, you might regain your strength and challenge me again, but that will take you far more time than you have at your disposal. I am your elder, your better, and I will now be your everything." He snarled, and with his snarl the sand turned to glass. "Swear you will serve me, and I will let you keep your consciousness."

"I've lived long enough," I said with a sigh. "Holding back Dominaria...I don't want to do that any longer," I shook my head. "If we both have to die, then so be it. Well...we'll all probably die. Everywhere in the Multiverse. If one doesn't solve his mistakes, then they just grow bigger with time."

Bolas huffed, and his huff blasted me in mid-air only for an invisible force to pull me right in front of his eye. "You will never sacrifice everyone else," Bolas spoke. "It is not in your nature to do so. I know your thoughts," his tongue clicked against his teeth, and with that sound, eardrums burst in a kilometer radius. "I know your desires. I have watched over you every step of the way. You have touched with dirty hands the clay of life and of existence, and molded it into shapes that were crude and disgusting to behold."

"Anthrax is the most beautiful creature in the whole world," I said flatly. "His beauty is second to none, and you will take back what you just said," I huffed as he suddenly shook me right and left with enough strength that if I had had mere human bones, they would have turned to dust after piercing through the entirety of my skin. But I wasn't human, and so he simply shook me right and left.

"Your species has always been weak," Bolas snorted. "Whether because one alone could not hunt down anything bigger than a mouse, or because you had no choice in your pathetic evolution, this feelings of sociability are a sickening and crude demonstration of the inherent weakness of your species."

"You were born an Elder Dragon," I retorted. "You didn't earn your strength."

"No, I did not earn the strength of my claws, or the toughness of my hide," Bolas spoke. "But I did earn the prowess of my magic through study and discovery."

"Wide-eyed kid Bolas discovering magic while making an awed face," I said with a chuckle, "That I would have loved to see."

The dragon huffed, and then he lifted his head above the clouds, dragging me up with his magic to still be at his eye level. "I was no wide-eyed kid," he spoke darkly. "And because knowledge and magic was what I toiled for, to see it slip away because of childish actions...your arrival was warranted, and rewarded. You did my a service, and I returned it. Now you try to claim more than what you are due, and you see now how we are in conflict?" he brought symbols of ethereal energy up in the air by his side, forming countless worlds all linked together. "Standing against me is folly itself."

"Standing against me was supposed to be the same thing, but kids will be kids," I said. "Speaking of that, you were the one who tipped everyone off on my location, weren't you? No, honestly I was wondering why they kept coming for me as if they knew where I was, but it was all due to that slavery mark you placed on my skin, wasn't it? You just kept sending them over to me. It must have been fun."

"Those who do not keep their claws sharp should not cry when others' claws dig deep into their necks," Bolas said crisply. "That should be obvious."

"Why bother?" I replied.

"It is typical of the nearsightedness of your species that you would think growing weak and lax after a short period of time to be nothing to think much of," Bolas said curtly. "There is no limit to the knowledge that one might gleam from the countless Planes that now dot the Multiverse. Yet, rather than bother exploring them in their entirety, you have found your curiosity die because you did what every pathetic mortal does time and time again." He rolled his eyes, and with that roll, the oceans began to boil. "You grew lazy. You grew apathetic. You sought out nothing but your continued existence. The way you crafted things that had no purpose other than amuse you..."

"All of the Apex are my cherished children," I said flatly. "And you will not harm them."

"I will not," Bolas said. "But do not think I did not know from the principle that it was your plan to hold your own Plane as the highest yield of Mana. If I were to destroy it, no, if anyone were to destroy it, then Dominaria would break free."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I know. My Hive will be safe, and I with it."

"But you will sleep forever," Bolas acquiesced. "And I would rather not waste a powerful tool if it can be put to good use." He narrowed his eye. "Do you remember when you first came to my aid? The battle against the demon took us two weeks to defeat it. You lied, claiming that my brother had sent for you to aid me. Whether you thought that would stay my claw, our first meeting was with a lie of yours."

"Why the trip down memory lane, Bolas?" I asked.

"I pushed you away with my claw," Bolas said. "On the third day of battle, the demon's many eyes seared through in patterns quite difficult for the human mind to deflect or dodge. Thus, I threw you against a mountain range."

"Ah, yes, I remember that," I said. "You threw me against a mountain, not a mountain range."

"Two days earlier it was a mountain range. Still, you stood back up as if nothing had happened, and kept fighting," Nicol Bolas slowly drew one of his claws closer, and tapped gently upon my chest.

Nothing happened.

"It was on that account that I realized that there was more to the likes of you, and so my interest was piqued. And when Bolas' interest is piqued, then things must go the way Nicol Bolas wishes them to be," he said with a sly grin. Well, sly was perhaps an exaggeration. The show of teeth did bring forth a series of deaths in the local Death Claw population as their hearts burst from sheer fear.

"Only Nicol Bolas is allowed to speak like that, because if he wishes to be pompous, he'll do it himself," I quipped, receiving a slow nod from Bolas in turn.

"Indeed," he said. Then, he grew quiet. "I can, and will, defeat them." He glanced at me. "I will give you time until I am done with all of them, and once that happens I will come back and ask you one last time what your choice will be. Perhaps after seeing the defeat of all of your hopes, you will change your mind."

"You do understand that my answer won't change," I said in a whisper. "No matter what happens next."

"We both know that to be a lie," Nicol Bolas said smugly. "Your answers always change to fit the one asking you questions, student. It is how I taught you, but you knew that even before you met me. There is great potential in you...but you squander it around," his voice grew heated, and the sky turned red, "with things like morality, with shackles like caring for the weak...how do you expect to grow strong enough to challenge my rule?" my body kept rising up, and in the end I was brought down, not too kindly, on the moon's surface.

Then, I felt the portals open up, and the battle begin.

I dropped down on the moon's surface, my eyes gazing up at the dark sky, and at the satellites orbiting good old Earth ravaged by nuclear war.

I extended a hand, and closed it.

A figure knelt down by my side, a gauntlet hand resting on my shoulder.

I closed my eyes.

"Proceed with the plan," I spoke as I fell into the depths of hibernation.

It was true.

The Hive consumed energies to walk, and it consumed energies to stave off the hunger, and it consumed energies to keep Dominaria in check.

At the same time, however, the Hive main's devourer of energy was also its most powerful creature.

Me.

"You have heard Father's command!" Superbia bellowed as he lifted his spear up, Hive Fleets popping into existence one after the other from across the galaxy, rather than through the Planes. "You have heard his desire! You-"

Discordia placed a delicate hand over her face, and turned towards Anthrax. "Does he know we cannot hear him, because there is no air in space?"

Anthrax, in answer, simply sparkled with orange and red lights, the powerful psionic signal bouncing off the Hive Fleets and across the Planes, thrusting itself through countless Slivers and using them as beacons to bounce further away, into the depths of places that only the Slivers would ever dare to trudge.

It was enough.

Trillions answered the call.

Trillions more would arrive.

 

[shadenight123]

Omake - The Real Reason Nicol Bolas did it all.

"Standing against me was supposed to be the same thing, but kids will be kids," I said. "Speaking of that, you were the one who tipped everyone off on my location, weren't you? No, honestly I was wondering why they kept coming for me as if they knew where I was, but it was all due to that slavery mark you placed on my skin, wasn't it? You just kept sending them over to me. It must have been fun."

"Those who do not keep their claws sharp should not cry when others' claws dig deep into their necks," Bolas said crisply. "That should be obvious."

"Why bother?" I replied.

"Because it wouldn't be appropriate for my life partner to grow lax," Bolas said. "After all, you are the only one able to touch me without growing mad. That clearly is a sign that we are destined to be together. Your long term courtship has a lot to be desired, but you did start things properly by granting me foresight of the future thousand or so years to come, so I have been patiently waiting for another gift worthy of me."

My brain screeched to a halt.

"You...are a male Elder Dragon," I said. "And I...am a male human."

"We are both Planeswalkers," Nicol Bolas said, "Freely altering our bodies is no problem. Since you are the weaker party, you will now change your gender if it bothers you so much. I do not care either way. A Life Partner is something more than mere rutting for the prosecution of the species. I do enjoy being the last surviving member of my species, because it marks me as the strongest."

My brain thoughts went left and then right, before finally trying to find a bit of rope to hang themselves with.

"But I married other people," I said.

"And they all died didn't they?" Nicol Bolas said quite calmly. "That Fuuka was definitely going to become a new addition, which is why I reckoned I had to deal with her sooner than later. Now, however, I understand that you wish to gift me with the Sparks of all these rebellious Planeswalkers and I admit, it is quite the fitting gift."

"This is a rebellion, you understand?" I hazarded.

"Oh, of course, if that is how you wish to play it by feigning ignorance and catching me by surprise," he smiled and the smile itself was both smug and utterly freezing to my soul. "We both know that to be a lie," he added. "Perhaps I might be compelled to alter my own appearance to a more pleasant female-like one. You mammals are always on about breasts, while we Dragons do not care, nor have them to begin with. The clear superiority of egg-based lifeforms over human nature."

As he said that, his pectoral began to take on a far more pleasant shape with two large ovals of...no, no, don't look at that.

Don't look at that!

Stop looking! Stop thinking!

"Here we go," a slightly taller woman dressed in bronze and blue armor stood now in front of me, her hair having horns holding aloft a gem between them. Her wings were bronze, and soft silk seemed to cover her indecencies. She made a smile that was all teeth as she patted my cheek with the gentleness of a Titan trying to caress a bunny. "I'll show you how happy for your surprise gift I am later," she added as she made a small rawr sound.

It was the rawr sound of what could only be described as the mother of all Cougars.

I eeped as I embraced my body.

Nicol Bolas couldn't be this Milf-Y!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Seventy-Four (Fallout)

The fleet ships disassembled as they broke through orbit, tendrils and tentacles shifting as they merged together, forming a humanoid frame that lashed in a downward spiral splitting in half the atmosphere as the impact against Nicol Bolas' scales fractured the planet's crust. The scales remained unblemished, and unhurt. Planeswalkers of different species, forms and kinds answered the rallying banner of freedom from Tyranny, and yet at the same time they flickered out, afraid or scared, once the true hurdle presented itself.

Nicol Bolas wasn't just a simple big scaly lizard. He was something more. He was a concept. He was a powerful and inescapable reality. He was power, harnessed and dangerous. He was might, cruelly refined into vicious claws. He was cunning and genius, brought to the service of domination above all other principles.

Even as the bulwark of Bolas' summoned forces, which he had called forth with but the batting of an eyelid, fought off with his mad whispers and their minds cracked and broken, the Slivers closed the gaps with their own bulky numbers.

The thirst for blood rampaged across the countless numbers that saw talon strike wings, shields bash against headcrests, teeth sink deep into outstretched limbs and tails whip themselves around necks or limbs. The scourge of the Multiverse split open the world as the humanoid mass of trillions of Slivers clutched on to one of Bolas' wings and pinned it down, only for the Planeswalker to release burning crimson Mana from the gem floating between his horns, incinerating most of the Slivers' mass within instants.

Those who survived roared as one creature, and held on even tighter to the wing. Eyes shone brightly in empty sockets, the gathered Mana bursting out as a powerful heated ray not too dissimilar to the one Bolas had thrown in turn.

A blast of cold air clashed against the heat, freezing mist covering in ice the sands of the Mojave Desert, or what little remained of it. Domes of White Mana rose to protect the Planeswalkers as Ajani amidst them seemed busy concentrating on his spell.

Whether it worked or not, it was inconsequential.

A lot of things stop mattering when ahead of you there is only eternal sleep.

The moon began to shake as it lost orbit around Earth, and as it started to move away hurled into the nothingness of space, I felt my consciousness slip further into the depths of hibernation.

A single thought remained in the back of my head, a question that would perhaps stay unanswered.

Why wasn't the world shattered already?

Was he really caring so much about my final answer to him that he'd also weaken himself enough so as to not destroy it?

Could it really be that?

Nicol Bolas was a self-serving creature.

For all of his lies, and all of his plans, everything he did was meant only for his benefit and his gain.

The hunger gnawed at the back of my stomach, the burning sensation of the Shard trying to break free, and yet being held back shifted across my chest. Perhaps he had miscalculated the amount of energy I'd need to stay hibernated while keeping the shard in check? Did he know or not that some Slivers laid about all day doing nothing but converting the heat of countless suns into energy for my hunger?

He knew that, so with each swipe of his claws, he tore to shreds millions of gatherers of Mana.

Ripples spread across space as more fleets came into existence. Beams of gathered White and Black Mana spiraled into deathly helixes as they struck from high above, the broadsides splitting open with the sound of rupturing flesh as swarms descended down below, their frames shifting as they came down stronger than they had departed. The peculiarity of the Slivers that had survived Bolas' thrashing until then transferring over, rendering them capable of taking over without breaking a sweat.

Green Mana burst into the world as the Mojave desert knew trees for the first time in centuries, a thick canopy coming to life as a Planeswalker altered the ground, arrows and creatures of the forest rampaging through to strike at Bolas' underbelly, as if expecting it to be softer than the rest of his body.

It wasn't.

Proud Nacahtl warriors rushed through the canopy, strong-armed soldiers clad in steel and with armors woven out of magic answered the call of their leaders, Sailor Guardians and Witches broke and shattered against spells weaved effortlessly by the countless servants and slaves of Nicol Bolas, but they too died by unseen blades, or were smashed to paste by angry giants.

Yet the carnage hidden from the sight of the dragon was merely a trifling annoyance. Nicol Bolas did not, and could not, feel concern. Yet even he understood that one could not face a rising tide, but should rather direct it. Even though he knew that, and though he still kept a dozen or so grander plans at the ready, there was only that much he could use against an infestation that didn't seem keen on letting go of his wings.

The trillions that had survived now thrived, pushing the dragon down against the ground as each of them became a singular cell of a much bigger organism, one bathed in holy furor and anger, in righteous vengeance and determination.

It was an organism that had known plagues and had survived them, that had known madness and had transcended it.

Yet the firm fingers made of countless talons and tentacles broke apart as they became nothing more than ashes, the magic dismembering the Slivers proceeding through the entire being's existence until it reached halfway into its chest. There, it stopped.

A pulse of energy broke the chest composed of hardened Slivers, and as the air began to vibrate to a chorus of noise and rhythm, Nicol Bolas winced as he adjusted his eardrums to the cacophony, and then roared. His roar shifted the continents. The stars died as their energies drained into his gaping maws. Within the blink of an eye, a powerful blast of energy neatly destroyed the trillions, reducing them to mere millions.

More rifts opened up.

This time, Nicol Bolas' eyes widened briefly.

He flapped his now freed wings and slammed his tail against the planet's crust, setting the few oceans that remained ablaze as he lifted off into space, the air pressure crushing the trees and forming diamonds out of carbon where his claws had lifted off.

The planet spun out of orbit in the meantime, headed straight for the sun as its core cracked apart and began to fragment.

More Slivers joined the fray of their surviving brothers, and as links in the Hive Mind were set they grew and multiplied, their bodies altering to take on the strongest aspects of those who came before. There was no way of defeating the Slivers without taking out the Hive. There was no way of taking out the Hive without taking out the Multiverse. Nicol Bolas couldn't be defeated, but he could be forced into a corner.

He understood. He understood and he laughed as the entire Plane shook.

He came to a halt right over me, his claws digging deep into the lunar soil as his face came down towards my sleeping body, the only reason I could see it happen was because I sensed it, because Slivers were rushing forth and their eyes were mine, and their bodies were mine, and their existence was mine.

"We will never meet again," Nicol Bolas said darkly. "You have done well...my colleague, in seeing things further than most of my pupils."

Behind him, a creature crafted out of spirit magic and Mana rose to challenge him as his equal, and yet it faltered and tore itself to shreds as Ajani clutched on to his heart that stopped beating, the brand of Nicol Bolas burning beneath his mane. "I had foreseen this a long, long time ago," he acquiesced. "In a world made of infinity...why should we fight one another over things that have no limits?"

He widened his wings, and readied himself to fly away just as the world that had seen my arrival hit the Sun and burned to death, the Planeswalkers having already moved to the closest asteroids they could find that weren't set on a course for death and destruction.

As the planet died, and Nicol Bolas lifted off, he roared one last time.

His next powerful thrust of wings made him suddenly yelp as he did not move an inch from his spot, a powerful hand gripping on to his tail and with a bestial roar proceeding to throw him against Jupiter's atmosphere. Standing composed of countless Slivers, the humanoid form still had eyes shining with bright fervor. Nicol Bolas hit Jupiter, and as flames devoured the planet into a giant ball of fire, the Elder Dragon stood back up and this time roared in amusement.

A spear formed in the knight-like construct of Slivers' right hand, and slowly it began to spin as the Sliver-Knight brought it to bare.

"A draw won't satisfy you," Nicol Bolas said with a dark, amused grin as Blue Mana shifted across the Aether, chunks of the knight-like figure disappearing back where they came from, Time itself unraveling and then rearranging back with a snap-like motion. Nicol Bolas' eyes narrowed. Nothing had changed. "Then you leave me no choice but to absorb you," he spoke. "We will see if I cannot hold back Dominaria by myself."

He rushed forth, his body slithering in the void as he swooped beneath the Knight's frame, his tail gripping the wrist of the knight and sending him to tumble downwards. Within seconds wings had formed, even as the two titans fought one another surrounded by Planeswalkers who were like flies to a battle between elephants.

"Eventually, I will kill them faster than you can breed them," the Elder dragon spoke as the spear shattered against his chest, causing no damage but resulting in dead Slivers with cracked spines dying amidst agonizing throes. Flames hotter than the core of stars left the dragon's maws, but some still survived. And those that did were soon joined by others, who in turn reformed the Knight-Sliver stronger than before.

Minutes became days.

Days became weeks.

Weeks became months.

The invisible clock kept ticking as Slivers kept dying, and yet surviving at the same time. The Planeswalkers that had participated by being nothing more than nuisances had already fled, understanding dawning that whoever remained would, in the end, suffer the grievous consequences of being in the presence of a newly minted Tyrant, or of a great hungry Elder Dragon.

"To think I taught you everything you are now using against me," Nicol Bolas snarled, his eyes ablaze as amusement had left the place to bitter anger in the weeks that had gone by. "And yet you do not even speak. Would I have convinced you somehow to let me leave? To ignore everything that your limbs do so as to not be guilty of the blood on your claws...such a naive and foolish way of thinking!" as he roared, he bit down on the spear-like weapon, and his teeth held on tightly to it even though they didn't push through like the countless times before.

The Slivers' hides had grown strong enough to withstand the pressure of his maws.

Only the combined might of his breath, his magic and his jaws managed to make him rip apart the torn limb. Yet it wasn't enough to kill the Slivers, who swiftly rejoined with the rest of the Hive that formed the knight.

Anger finally made him snap past the point of caring. A challenger approached, and a challenger had to be sent back in pieces. If one could not be humbled, then one could most definitely be destroyed. With a resounding blast of Psionic energies, the Hive-Mind of the Slivers shattered abruptly.

Every single Sliver twitched once, and then they all died as they reverted back to what their lonely selves had achieved. They died, they died and new ones did not come for they had no knowledge of the death of those that came before.

With triumph in his heart and a mad glee, the trillions became millions, and finally hundreds. A last swipe of his claws tore to shreds the remaining creatures, leaving none that he could sense or see.

He laughed as he relished the challenge offered, and yet laughed even deeper at the thought that all along, he had been the one to let it happen so as to stretch his wings a bit.

He laughed, and his laughter suddenly became a wheeze and a cough.

He gurgled and snorted, thick grime leaving his nostrils as tiny creatures swam within the filth of stellar matter.

His blood washed in flames, and his brain burst in energy as he ripped the infestation out from inside him, destroying the vermin inhabiting his body to the last miserable and wretched Sliver.

"It is my victory," Nicol Bolas whispered to the emptiness of space. "And your loss..."

A spear slammed downwards against one of Nicol Bolas' eyes, the attack actually bursting through and making him roar in pain as the figure of a broad shoulder knight in armor stood small and yet graceful in front of him.

"It is not over yet, Bolas!" the humanoid creature snarled. "Father knew this day would come! I am unique among my brethren, for I am the only Sliver who has no hive mind to guide him!"

With a swish of the tail, the humanoid Sliver was sent flying beyond the boundaries of the galaxy, perhaps even in a neighboring Plane.

The eye easily healed as Nicol Bolas shook his scaly head once, trying to remember where he had last seen the moon that held his unconscious student aboard. A few months had passed, which meant it couldn't have gone that far.

So then, why couldn't he find it?

...

Did someone...did someone steal the Tyrant?

Did someone steal Dominaria and the Tyrant right from under his nose!?

This time, Nicol Bolas' roar shattered the Plane and those neighboring it in a blast of energy and wrath the likes of which had no equals, nor could they have equals.

He had plans for his student! He had glorious plans that would see him rise as the ruler of all of eternity and infinity, him, Nicol Bolas, would have been the undisputed and undoubted leader of everything and everyone across every single dimension and Plane.

And now he was missing the one linchpin of his plan.

...

Someone was going to die.

...

After he was satisfied with the way their minds melted and suffered, of course.