Misery…most of humankind as I know it, blames –me- for their troubles. They aren't wholly wrong, for their hubris and ignorance has earned my hatred, and their suffering at my hand is well deserved. I watch, through eternity, as they mistake my gifts for generosity, and slowly destroy themselves with my power.
The waves lashed angrily at the steel sides of the frigate, rebellious as it tended to be on dark, stormy nights. Admirals barked orders, while fleeting footmen hurried to their harpoons and nets. A whale had been spotted…and it wasn't just –any- whale. This creature was three times the size of any they'd ever seen, her body aglow beneath the tumultuous water with the very same power they used in their everyday lives. The oil…the –magic-.
Two ships lined up on each side of the great beast, one, a naval frigate who's only purpose was to corral the creature and prevent an escape; the other, a state of the art whaling ship, on its virgin journey, readying to capture its first whale.
The dark waters of the ocean seemed to be fighting back against them, their ships unable to remain stable enough to get a good shot at the glowing behemoth.
She sang beneath the waters, audible even from several dozen feet below the water's surface. Some of the crewman listened…and for a moment, deep in their hearts, they felt what they were doing was –wrong-. One man abandoned his post and ran for his commanding officer in a maddened hurry.
"Stop! By the Outsider, we can't take her!" he yelped.
The Admiral glared, eyeing the soaking wet, shaking sailor. "You're spouting nonsense! What's wrong with you?"
The man shook his head, grabbing his commander's arms. "We can't take this one…o-or anymore! It's wrong, their magic isn't for us to take!"
The Admiral cared nothing for insanity, and ordered the crazed man be taken below decks. He would deal with the fool later.
The enormous whale's song continued, more of his men going mad; abandoning their posts, attacking crewman that were manning the harpoons, even jumping into the roiling waters themselves to die beneath.
The Admiral had had enough. He pulled the microphone from the wall, glaring at the glowing beast that lay between his ship and the naval frigate.
"Pull yourselves together men! The creature bewitches you! Now drag this beast out of the water, or I'll see to it you're all hanged!" he roared.
The cold words seemed to snap the remaining men on board into shape, all of them returning to their posts and awaiting further orders. It wasn't long before the glowing whale was in line of the first row of harpoons.
"FIRE!"
The air pressure in the harpoon guns released, sending tree-sized barbed spears into the water. Some missed their mark, but two of the harpoon's ropes went taut, the whale beneath the water turning sharply away at the impact.
"Hold steady!" the Admiral shouted, holding his hand up in the air and waiting. The whale's screams couldn't be heard yet…but as soon as she surfaced, the screaming and thrashing would start. "FIRE!"
The second round of harpoons all found their marks, the giant whale surfacing as expected, a sharp keening screech escaping into the stormy air, adding even more chaos to the cacophony of sound. Her blood and the glowing substance both drained into the ocean as the whaling ship's crewman started reeling her in, firing more and more harpoons into the creature's body till there were two rows of them from head to fluke.
The metal arms of the whaling ship, meant solely for pulling whales out of the water were groaning with the strain of the thrashing whale. She shrieked, manic with want for escape from the pain, as the edge of her head was secured in place, the crewman getting the first third of her body onto the enormous ship.
'Secure the binds!' 'Tie 'er down!'
Shouts erupted from the crew as men scrambled to bind this beast and hoist her out of the water. The ship was powerful, but even it was struggling with the whale's immense girth, metal groaning and cables snapping, causing sailors to panic and quickly set to replace them before the whale was dropped.
Her screaming grew louder, as the second half of her body was successfully pulled onto the ship, leaving only her pounding tail in the water. By this point, half her blood was already gone, the liquid magic flowing in her veins leaking out onto the metal deck of the ship as the beast was hoisted into the airborn bindings in the ship's rafters.
Crewmen scurried with buckets to collect what they could. Until the beast was fully out of the water, none of the liquid magic that lay within her body could be properly harvested.
One final hoist, and she was completely out of the water, crewman and even the Admiral marveling at her immense size. The beast swiveled her head and tail back and forth in a meager attempt to escape her binds, the weight of her own body now the enemy.
She tired swiftly, and in just under a hour of observation, she simply hung, making the occasional sound as a harpoon was removed, or she was cut into. It was time for the scholars to step in, cutting the body to ribbons while the beast was still alive for anatomical study.
The butchery passed quickly, until the beast could barely even remain conscious. She did not feel like she was a great whale of the deep, a being a magic and power…now she was simply a being of pain and anger. She hoped…she prayed…she would not die as so many of her children had at the hands of these puny, breakable primates.
The stab of another knife was little more than a pinch to her now, as she felt her life fading. Through it…a comforting darkness began to envelope her. The shelter in which she was very familiar…the black of the abyss. The Void.
"Admiral! Something is coming at us through the water! It's colossal!" a startled sailor called.
The Admiral didn't have to ask, as he boggled at the tidal wave of water racing toward his ship. Crewmen exclaimed in horror as it drew nearer.
"A Leviathan!" they screamed. "The Outsider himself! We're all going to die!"
There was no time to evacuate, as the wall of water struck the boat like a giant fist, causing the city block sized ship to lean dangerously close to the water's surface. The weight of the whale on board snapped the bindings like twigs, her body slamming down onto the side railings of the whaling ship, drawing it fully into the water.
The Admiral clung for dear life to an intact piece of the rail, his legs dangling as the hungry mouth of the ocean churned beneath him. He felt his blood go cold, as an armor-plated claw nearly the size of his own ship rose out of the ocean and slammed down, rending the whaling ship in two. The man fell helplessly, only catching a glimpse of the creature's Void black eyes before water filled his lungs and ripped his life away.
The naval ship meant to assist fired uselessly into the water, the Leviathan turning to face it. The creature's gargantuan head broke the surface of the ocean, letting out a deafening mighty roar that struck the ship like a hurricane. The ship groaned in protest as it threatened to capsize, the brave navy soldiers still firing despite their impending doom. The leviathan wasted no time, using its tail to launch it forward into the ship, horned head smashing into the ship's side, and cracking it in two. Both pieces of the ship were swallowed by the ocean in a matter of seconds, leaving only shattered remnants and broken bodies from what was once a great human force.
The leviathan sank back into the water, swimming down into the dark abyss to gaze upon the tattered body of the great whale, trails of her magic infused blood still leaking out into the ocean. The Leviathan caught her body in two mighty claws, dark eyes taking in her ravaged form. She watched him, no longer bothering to breathe, for she knew her death was immiment.
His voice rang like bells within her mind.
"Sanguine…" the Leviathan muttered.
His voice drew her away from the physical realm and all its pains, back into the paradise that was the Void. In this place of timeless eternity, she was not a great whale. She wore the form of a human woman, with long black tresses and eyes as black as her beloved Outsider.
Just as she, he stood in front of her, in the guise of a young man. She hurried forward into his arms, before her own fatigue forced her to fall.
"M-my…consort…I've failed you." She gasped.
The Outsider held back his own emotions, holding her up, a hand stroking the dying whale's cheek.
"But you haven't, my dear Sanguine…your children are safe."
Sanguine shivered with the effort of speaking. "They were greedy…those wretched curs…they chased me, and my sacrifice worked…b-but how long will that last? How long until they send another armada of steel monsters to rip my sons and daughters from their rightful home? To steal their magic away?!" she sobbed.
The Outsider pulled his beloved close, cradling the back of her neck with a hand, leaning his head against her own.
"I will protect them." He muttered.
Sanguine's tears spilled down her cheeks, and she clung to her consort for dear life.
"It is impossible…to s-save them all…my love. Even I know this…but please, promise me…promise me you will make them suffer for what they did to me…to –us-." She begged.
The Outsider closed his eyes, fighting down his own grief. "Do not fret, my dear. Humankind will know a suffering like none other."
Sanguine swallowed sharply, leaning away to see her beloved's eyes one last time. "Good. Then I will rest easy."
The womanly shell that housed her soul turned black, and disintegrated into the Void like burnt paper carried away on a gust of wind.
In the physical realm, all light left the great whale's body, the Leviathan watching helplessly as she died. He drew his massive head back, and opened his maw, letting out a mournful wail as his Matriarch withered away.