Chapter Sixty-Two (????)
We stand at the verge of change with every breath we take. It is the matter of taking the plunge, and then change happens. The twitching becomes a stream, the stream becomes a wave, and the wave turns into a tsunami. The courage to take that first step though, it is something that we all must face and do. Just like the wisdom of having rope tied around one's waist, for the path ahead is treacherous, and those who take the plunge might just fall down a pit all the way to hell without a rope to hold them back.
The Mana gathered in bright sizzling spheres as I witnessed it merge and coalesce into a form of my choosing, into an entity of my design. The suns burned and whimpered out of existence as I allowed the songs of the Hive's countless thoughts to wash over it, and I sang in turn together with them, tendrils of flesh and chitin merging and spreading out evenly across the creation that was being born.
The energy coalesced in a hard, glossy surface, a perfect oval-shaped egg landing softly in my hands as I felt the warmth emanate from it.
The egg's surface began to crack as a tiny beak soon emerged, soon followed by the rest of the warm, soft body covered in wet sticky fur. I softly blew hot air over the newly born's head crest, and the fur soon sprung to life as the softest and fluffiest thing I had ever touched. I then gently let the Sliver rest on one of my shoulders, and moved on to the next egg in the line. Behind me, an Apex stood watch as surrounding me were countless furry Slivers, each of them emitting soft cooing sounds that would have melted the hearts of a thousand grim men, and made young girls die of heart attack from sheer moe factor. And if they didn't, then they didn't deserve to breathe. My Slivers were cute. This was a statement.
"Dad, shouldn't you be prepping the Hive Fleets for war rather than waste energy birthing the Fluffies?" the voice came harmoniously, whip-like appendages similar to those of a squid, if with sharp talons at their extremities, held up a humanoid torso, giving the Apex the appearance of a gown-wearing female. Its large head-crest served to hide the enhanced and lengthened brain.
"Discordia, call them by their names...the last three are Wuffle, Truffle and Fluffles," I quipped quite calmly, as I pointed in turn to a different soft-furred Sliver, each of them with a different but still vibrant, color. "The one in verdant green is Wuffle. He likes warm baths. Truffle's a glutton for chocolate. Fluffles instead..." I inclined my head to the side, "Fluffles likes to be scratched under the chin. And here," I said as I quietly took the newly born Sliver from my shoulder, plopping it into the arms of Discordia. "You take care of him and decide on a name."
Discordia did not look pleased. Her eyes glanced at the squirming tiny Sliver and then her fingers gripped delicately onto its sides before plopping it to rest atop her head-crest. "Father, be it as it may that it is within your privileges to do as you please whenever you wish, you do not normally waste such resources without a proper explanation. Superbia's mind is beyond our ken to breach, and yours is kindly left open to our musings more often than not, but is there a reason for this...amount?" as she said that, a few more furry Slivers had meanwhile begun to hop on her countless leg-tentacles, some even burrowing amidst them with a pleased purring noise.
"I'm thinking of leaving them as cute companions for children in need throughout various dimensions," I said quite nonchalantly. "This one, for example...Mimi! Would you like to visit a pink-haired banshee with a penchant for explosions?"
"Nine thousand, three hundred ninety-two," Carl piped from my shoulder, making me sigh.
"Brother Carl most certainly would rather count the number of corpses you leave behind as we expand the Hive," Discordia said, shifting her tentacles to free herself of all the tiny furry Slivers, and nearing me to grab my left hand's wrist with her fingers. "Dear father," her eyes widened to near comical degrees, the cat-like irises shifting into human-like eyes as long curls of hair fell down all the way to her shoulders. "Pretty please," she whispered. "Pretty please with sugar on top and everything nice sprinkled above...can we go on a murder spree?"
"Discordia," I said flatly, before exhaling loudly in quiet surrender. "Let's hear it."
"There's nothing better than a murder spree," Discordia sang, stepping away from me and twirling on the spot, "And I'll say it with glee. Father dearest, grab on to your swords," she extended a hand, crafting a tentacle and talon sword with her own limbs, "and let us conquer some worlds!" she continued as she swished the blade right and left. "Don't you want to go on a murder spree? Come on, let it be!" She clicked her tongue against her teeth and snapped her fingers to a rhythm known only to her. She widened her arms, letting the sword disappear. "Let it be! Let murder be! Yeah let's go on a murder spree! We'll take all the absentee, and go on a killing spree!"
"Discordia...it's a very nice song," I said in the end with an awkward smile, "Now, how about you go cheer up Superbia? Or sing along while he does weight-lifting."
Discordia's tentacle-legs flopped down as she sighed, lowering her head-crest deeply and scuttling away in silence. On her head, she still had Fluffles happily perched and asleep. I shook my head with a smile on my face as I walked back to the sleeping Fluffy Slivers. With a click of my tongue, I woke them up and as they formed neat lines, I began to send them through dimensions. "Be nice, and write home lots, all right?" I said to each of them with tears in my eyes as I watched them leave.
The portal shifted and blurred as each time it revealed a different Dimension.
"So Carl," I said offhandedly, "How are we set on the karmic balance scale? Do the acts of kindness tally up with the acts of murder?"
"Counting," Carl said. It was the only question that required him to actually count something. "Counting...Done. No."
"Oh?" I passed a hand through my hair, "Well...anything coming to mind to even the score? Like, I don't know, creating a real Santa?"
Carl shook his head, and returned to sleep deep within my shoulder. I let him go, and turned towards the spawning pits of the Fluffies only to stop mid-step.
"I should probably check on my apprentice," I acquiesced.
Thus, I stepped out of a dimension and into another.
Everything was burning.
I blinked as I belatedly realized that no, I hadn't made a mistake and ended up in Japan at the dawn of the atomic bombings and no, I hadn't ended up somewhere strange and off the map. I should have been right where I was supposed to be.
Though the facts were that there was no Fuuka, but giant armored tanks eerily reminiscing of the dawn of the fortieth millennium, and they were tearing the city up even though it was already nothing more than a pile of burning rubble. This could only mean one of two things. Either this particular Fuuka that turned Planeswalker had sparked in a Plane where such a thing was possible, or someone had come by, kidnapped or killed her, and then left while forgetting behind some of their creatures.
"Well," I said as I stared at the Baneblade's cannons pointed my way. "The Emperor protects."
"Silence you filthy heretic!" the saber-wielding man atop it yelled, "Die in the name of the Emperor of Mankind, the Lord of all Destruction, He-Who-Wields-The-Dark-Fire! Die in the name of-"
I nodded absentmindedly, and then a giant scythe-like limb ripped in half the Baneblade and tentacles ripped out of the man's brain the face and the appearance of the man in question, as well as the last events that had happened to bring about this world's sorrowful state.
"I won't even need a Hive Fleet for this," I sighed as I disappeared from the world of Fuuka without a second glance at it.
Leave it to the edgy kids to set themselves up on the throne of Holy Terra while screaming about blood and gore, and yet get a harem of Eldar Elf-like hot girls to chain to it.
Even at the worst stage of my descent into madness, I never did something like that.
I had style after all.
