Land of the Stars
True Name: Rakhtakh
True Form: Zombie!Dragon
Providence: Gatekeeper
Title: OMEHA
Ancient Name: The Leviathan
Symbol: Oroborus
Occult Order: Blue Dawn
Mythology:
this is in the original version
I'll have to adjust it for a single story
because there's also a war between light and shadow
and Cyrus is in the act of teleporting himself to the Mirage Mountains when his tower is toppled
he escapes, of course, but now he can't get to the Mirage Mountains to protect the Leviathan from the Illuminati force brought with advanced weaponry by their contemporaries from the future
They kill the Leviathan because he is the glue that holds the devas and asuras in balance with reality
so killing him causes the deities to lose their connection to the world.
Description: Once a sentient dragon, the Leviathan Rokhtekh lives in unhalls as a judge before souls on the way to eternal paradise.
Behavior: Rokhtekh the Zombie!Dragon is not sure whether he evil or good. The whole purpose of his being is confined to a dungeon crawl outside the ordinary bounds of timespace. His heel is working together with the enlightened members of the Blue Dawn Society to correct the time flow of the mountain so it is outside our bounds and never escape its made prison. Not.
Quotes: "The Universe and its Gods are One. We are all a part of the Supreme Cosmic Organism."
Common Name: Syrous Magistous
True Name: RA
True Form: Solar Phoenix
Providence: Sky God, Asterea Civilization, Ages New Order
Title: Anasazi
Ancient Name: Father of Light
Symbol: The Sword of Revealing
Occult Order: Dreamtime Luminari
Capitol City: Delure
Sacred Beast: Golden Eagle
Mythology: Syrus Anasazi was the Overworld Soul Administrator for the Nation of Astr Ea.
Description:
Behavior:
Quotes: "You are the Thunder and I AM the Lightning!"
Common Name: Mayu Ishtara
True Name: EA
True Form: The World Sprite
Providence: The World Tree
Title: Young Mother
Ancient Name: Lyra Myo
Symbol: The Tree of Life
Occult Order: SysAdmins of ElementTown
Capital City: MURIA
Sacred Beast: Any kind of Nymph, but particularly the Selebi.
Mythology:
Description:
Behavior:
Quotes: "Love is mysterious."
Common Name: Wessesh Chronoson
True Name: EL
True Form: Black Dragon
Providence: Night
Title: Father of Time
Ancient Name: Lucitar
Symbol: Black Triangle
Occult Order: Black Dragon Society
Capitol City: Chiaroscuro
Sacred Beast: Black Dragon
Mythology: Goodness must prevail, underground. Raijin's pet brother Raijuu wants to steal the emeralds and build a throne! Prince among the thieves! Hologram like a holodeck! Got a mystery won't-faced. Gotta fight for you alone. I can show you the truth, if you'd only let me loose. I gotta fight for you alone…
Description: Wears a silver mask that conceals the most of his face. The left eye is visible as a glowing point of white light. He is tall, with pale skin and long black hair. He is a master of alchemy and fighting, like Kaosu, but with less emphasis on the breeding of giant beasts and more religion of the shadows. He is called the God of Homunculus Shinobi, and a very adept study.
Behavior: …
Quotes: …
Common Name: Natuya Kaosu
True Name: Andromeda
True Form: Giant Winged Serpent, Rainbow Hue
Providence: Primordial Chaos
Title: Woman of Serpent
Ancient Name: Kama
Symbol: The Emerald Flame
Occult Order: The Black Sun
Capitol City: Chairoscuro
Sacred Beast: Hydra
Mythology: Natuya Kaosu's rise to Cardinal Elder God status began with a medium named Andromeda channeling the Underworld or Daut aspect of Myo Ishtara from within the dark world aspect of her planet. Her homeland is circular and surrounded by tall, jagged mountains and terrain is what you would consider a swamp or a bog. This jungled territory is inhabited by poisonous insects and savage beasts, and the fractal of black light pouring out of the Miasma Sky. The creatures Kaosu has the most affinity for are reptilian breed. They hold the place of Overworld monsters like lions or bears.
Description: Kaosu is dark and willowy, of great beauty and supernatural power. She's wise and deadly, perfect poise and daring. Her mauve clothing is made from special materials better suited for war. Around her waist is tied a giant vermillion silk ribbon, like senshi. She wears jade bracers from before the Fall, and these are the only sure example of High Technology in her arsenal. They clasp fully her forearms, so as to resemble genie manacles, and are not easily removed from her person by anyone. As with all relics of its class, the Jade bracers interface with her planet's quarantine protocol and can do a considerable amount. They are arguably her means of generating Frost-Flare, which is her main style of fighting at any range. The signature green flame crackles with grit that sucks all the warmth out of the air and into its final state of awakening.
Behavior: Lyra Andromeda of the Emerald Flame is a Fire-witch in the Forme of God! Like Syros, She is a solar being and achieves her sen through the Unity of the Sun Soul, which combines Sparks with Savants.
Quotes: " Come, look into my eyes!"
Common Name: Aurora Ip'smith
Title: Lady of Tears
True Name: Aurora Ipsissimus
True Form: Pyre Dove
Providence: Lady Creation
Ancient Name: Auria
Symbol: the Dove
Occult Order: N/A
Sacred Beast: The Dove
Mythology: Aurora is the goddess of creation. She's also the Lyra of unending tears since her father, the god of light, blinded her she sees with her third eye but she experiences the world like a dream landscape. Before that, she was married to Apophis and sired Indra, also called Opheon or Orpheon by the Blue Dawn and its protagonists/antagonists. Before that still, she was a kind muse who delivered inspiration to creators and thespians in the living art soul. She met the God of Destruction in the course of her migrating through the fabric of reality and was struck by the other God's creative impulse and drive to do better.
Description: Aurora wears a white dress with a pink silk waist ribbon behind her. She has golden-blond hair, and violet eyes. She carries a gilded scepter which she wields like a magician's wand to work her magic and she bleeds from her eyes because of a wound that won't heal. She uses her powers of creation and cosmic order to generate destruction and chaos.
Behavior: Aurora moves like a corpse, but she can fly so it doesn't make much difference. The movements are like a lifeless body animated by raw electrical impulses. she moves like the tiniest twitch becomes a jolt because she's paralyzed from within and it's agonizing, but her body is trying to heal itself constantly, a result of the twin lighting Syrus used to subdue her.
Quotes:
Common Name: Sanada Malkuth
True Name: Sanadafon Malkoot
Providence: Key Master
Title: Traveller
True Form: Wanderer
Ancient Name: Malkuüt Mayu
Symbol: Bone Dagger
Occult Order: Myo Sanada
Sacred Beast:
Mythology:
Description:
Behavior:
Quotes:
Common Name: Sarahfel Athenia
True Name: Sarah Athenia
Providence: Messenger/Psychopomp
Title: Lyra of the Living
True Form: Ophelia
Ancient Name: Kaguren
Symbol: Thyrsus
Occult Order: Yamlita Teá
Sacred Beast: The Raven or the Crow
Mythology: As the Lyra of the Living, Princess Wise pours her Heart into the World as an Elixir of Life for All, but most especially for her Celestial family, the bones and the dirt included. She leads wavering souls to the land of the living and departs endless souls to the land of the dead on the other side where a dragon waits for you. The Leviathan Dragon-Zombie judges each soul by the measure of its deeds and self-worth, and devours any soul it deems impure. To reach its hall, Sarah must escort each soul into the labyrinth waiting within Mirage Mountain outside our spacetime/ time space dichotomy. Its complexity of illusions and manifest treasures are all a sore sight for the unloving.
The Princess of the Elixir of Life is married to the Key Master Sanada Malkuth, who seals miasma leaks and other distortions in the reality fabric wherever or whenever they manifest. Because of their similar nature as outside-the-box mirror/shade Celestials, Sarah and Sanada met once upon a time in a crossover loop. They have a daughter, Hikari, since they are both esoteric beings of the nth degree.
She was petrified into living stone and stripped of her Reaper Cloth, the Psyche Tiara, and her Quicksilver Rod. Her husk is impossible to destroy, however the fluctuations in consciousness were enough to leave all the surviving devas in harm's way. Because only a god can destroy a god, that shouldn't have been too much of a problem on its own, however the timing of this betrayal coincided with the meeting of Syrous and his daughter's husband, the consort Apophis, who was destroyed at first sight. Their son did not witness this catastrophe, however, Aurora did. It was the last thing engrained into her memory before Syrous froze her.
Description: Sarah Sofia has short black hair that is overall not straight, and a black-and-grey costume like a dress, sheerly grey within and black without, as a kimono over a yukata. Its influences are slightly western, meaning the Overworld's. She can be found teetering over just about any sheer drop when she isn't guiding some soul in or out of the next world. Even though there are few enough deaths anywhere about her homeworld, as a being outside the confines of what we experience as linear time, there's a lot of Princess Wisdom. As the Lady of the Living, there isn't much she can inspire in poets or authors and any other kind of art you can imagine that isn't borne of the Celestial Elixor which sings life into all things. Not even Aurora, whose mission it is to inspire creators and actors, casts a shadow on her. As an explicit esoteric being she isn't found to interact with many outside the strictly speaking dead-and-buried.
Behavior: As an immortal and a providential Celestial, Sarah Sofia cannot die. No form of external danger can bring about this shade's destruction. That being said, She constantly feels outside her normal habitat without her father-san, LeSeth, the Choronzon being and their blacknightcity, Chairoscuro. She can be found hovering over abyss after abyss, as though waiting to jump or to fall, or even more happily, for someone to take interest and stop her.
Quotes:
Common Name: Apophis
True Name: Enshu
Providence: Destruction (Tessenshu)
Title: Kagai Kopesh
True Form: Giant Leviathan Serpent
Ancient Name: Guzendes
Symbol:
Occult Order:
Sacred Beast: Anaconda don't
Mythology:
Description:
Behavior:
Quotes:
Name: Hesper Phosphrous
True Name: Indra Kaosu
Title: Kagai Orpheon
True Form: Sentient Dragon style
Name: Ede Hikari
True Name: Ida Hikala
Title: Orpheon Kaguren
True Form: No Surface Moon
Name: Ash
True Name: EA
Title: Lyra-Mae-Astr-Ea
True Form: No Surface Moon
Indra (Cy Orpheon), Hesper Phosphrous, Crossover Encounter
Ash (Lyra May) Gusendes, Crossover Encounter
(Shaymin) Bolt the boy shaman, Iris PoV
Iris Astr, sylph, magician, ninja, PoV character
Ede Hikari (Mandala PoV)
Anasazi Medium Daniel (Dan), Delure, Yashiro Shrine, PoV Character
Wanderer Magician Endymion Astr, Iris PoV, Prologue, Iris' Father
Salamis, Shrine Nereid (Yashiro Naiad), Anasazi PoV
Lyra Polychrome, High Serebus, Myo Confederation, Iris' Mother
Magistre Andros (Thanatos), Delure, Barrier Peak
Magistre Erin, Delure, Caldera SysAdmin
Mother of Darkness Lyra Eris, Apollonea
Magistre Janus, Sky Pillar, Apollonea
Priestess Technician Lyra Dianatha, Delure, Daut
-Creatures-
Selebus (Nymph/High Sprite)
Sentient Dragon (Dracon/Cyborg)
Frija (Firebird/Angel/Jinn)
Red Lion Aberrant (Mutilated Undead)
Blackfriar (Wraith/Death Angel)
—
AotMS
What if you could obtain everything you ever wished for? Would you ask for all the power in the world? Would you go after true love? What about Adventure? What if you could actually find God? What would you do if you could remain healthful and young eternally? What kind of a community do you imagine yourself with? What kind of dreams do you wish could be made real?
Like Faust, I wanted to know how it would feel to be on top of the universe. I was in a rare and privileged position once upon a time to pursue just about anything and succeed at it beyond even my wildest imagination. So I made a deal, but not with any devil. It's something I totally earned, by the way. I was disciplined, and sufficiently knowledgeable and well-connected. I knew all about Alchemy, Divination, Astrology, History, and even actual Physics. I scribed the original Emerald Tablet and I opened the first Mystery schools.
I could read languages you never heard of, and understood concepts so tightly-guarded or so long-forgotten you'd get a mindgasm just thinking about some of these on a given day. I'll even divulge my secrets to you, completely for free. Unfortunately, this isn't a novel of that kind. Not quite, anyway. I have to take you on a little journey to make sense out of my superlatives. What use is knowledge without understanding?
That is my real point. You can have all the majesty of the universe at the behest of your whimsies, but are you able to grapple with your inner demons? If you could escape the life you have now, does that mean you've outgrown your problems? Maybe.
I don't want to tell a parable, though I'm sure one will find its way into this exploration regardless of my intent. You ought to know the whole truth, however I can't give it to you. Not only is it impossible for me to give you the full story, it is actually against my nature to ever tell the whole truth. I want to be fair though, so I won't actually lie either, which is technically also a part of my core nature. I suppose I should begin with sharing the Tale of the Legendary Endymion, who became a famous wizard, which basically means he was a magician, a sorcerer, census taker, and a researcher of psychology. In Astr Ea (as well as the ancient world), you basically had to be all of these to qualify for the prestige of Wizardry.
Endymion Astr was a young man who followed his dreams and believed in himself. He was a rare example of both, and he succeeded and failed to be faithful to them in different ways. Most knew of him as the one who ushered in the second Golden Age by letting loose the sealed deities within a derelict flying palace the size of a small city. He was responsible for the restoration of civilization to a war-torn continent, and for the betrayal of its new paradigm also. He had a daughter who was born of the Serebi.
Iris Astr grew up rarely hearing from her father and having seen him only once upon a time, long ago in her infancy. She grew up to be cold and beautiful, skilled and likewise deadly. She was also friends with a very special youth. He was the child of gods, and a sort of refugee after what became of his doomed family. His dream was to reclaim those bonds and avenge their fall. With a lot of help, their world was almost spared from quite a horrible fate during my absence, but in the end all anyone could do to save anything was a half-baked, last-ditch arrangement to send all the friends as far back in time as possible (which wasn't exceptionally far either), as many times as they could (which, on the other hand, gave them plenty of rope to hang themselves). Are you savvy enough? I AM
"You have 30,000 tries to get it happiness."
C1: Mandala
What are these stories we tell to ourself? Whether histories or fantasy, we construct these narratives each day, to what end? Are we endeavoring to escape our reality or are we seeking, somehow, for hidden truths within it? What are our dreams? Are they just a prison for the soul, from which we must also awaken? Or were they something that was meant to come true? I wanted to create reality wherein our illusions could be actualized and in which no falsehood could persist. I wanted to erase death and give everyone their deepest wish. I revived Agartha in the service of a Greatest Good. Her spirit dwells now in Astrea; we are her children. If you are all as stars then I am become your Galaxy.
-Taken from the words of our Supernal Arbiter, the Wisdom of the Sun.
Astr Ea was the young nation founded in the Land of Springs, spanning the entire Eastern portion of the Myo-Ishtara continent, the only significant landmass north of our equator. A period of profound evil predating the period immediately Astr Ea's inception vanished. Things like schools and hospitals had all but passed out of collective memory by then. Even the old libraries were basically all either lost or destroyed when the gods returned. Well, we thought they were God's way.
As it happens, I am he whose honor it is to deliver the history of our final growing pains. I don't remember most of it, to be quite honest. Iris filled me in on a lot of the murkier details. Apparently there was some kind of really protracted time loop; she says it was a nightmare. I wish I had been there for her. I do. But every time I say so there's this weird little smile on her face. I think they're in cahoots or something, Iris and the others. I was ten when Astraea celebrated its eight-hundredth birthday. How old am I? Fifteen-ish. Probably. It's actually a little hard to tell. Not everything resets with each loop, it turns out.
I don't even want to think about how long it took my so-called friends to figure that one out. On top of that, loops could last anywhere between one day and one or two whole decades. Apparently there were people who went through even longer ones somehow, and that's a trip because the world kind of ends after about five unless we pulled something kind of clever. My own loops apparently only went about five weeks on average. That's if I was obscenely lucky. I died a lot in my early loops, it seems. Indra still won't tell me everything, and the look on Ede's face when I stop to ask gives me pause.
In the beginning, before the loops when things were significantly less convoluted, Iris, Indra, Ede, and Ash apparently went off on their own mission to shut down the Cult of Aton. Don't ask. And when they got to the end of their hectic foray things got really messed up for them, and the loops began. I can almost see how that might have happened too.
Chapter 1
On the edge of Dawn,a whirlpool of fiery, all-consuming lights engulfed them. Like a door between the worlds, three travelers markedly came. A girl, a god, and a sylph fell through the tunnel, and in moments they had arrived. The room was dark, but people were around them, and from the cold damp of the breeze, Iris discerned they must have arrived within some structure that was exposed to the elements, and in the dead of night.
A strange silence gripped the room. The world-bridging vortex seethed and crackled behind the three, remaining stable. Its light was not enough to see the others until a fire lit ahead of them. The people were probably cultists, not that it mattered in the end. The impersonality of their dark clothes and theater masks perturbed the travelers, but they had been prepared for this sort of thing.
"You folks," the god said, "your little ceremony or whatever is done with!"
Nobody moved. The portal jovially continued making its noises, contributing greatly to the unsettling mood.
"If you'd please depart the area, we can begin to work…" the girl said, almost a little meekly.
"We're gonna tear this crappy little shack to pieces and blow all the rubble to bits," Iris remarked blandly. "Flee while you can."
Somebody chortled, and one among the shrouded figures stepped forward.
"Oh forgive me," she began whimsically, "you gorgeous children," the speaker plucked the Astr Ea deity-mask from her face and revealed a fairly genuine-looking smile. "You three must have come a great distance just to ruin the ruins of a long-forgotten castle. Such a long way from home,"
"Not really," the girl said.
"We can 'ride the lightning,'" the god recited, "'faster than a pair of old silver slippers transport you. Click your heels together and you'll be there in a snap.'"
"With the rumble of a bolt of thunder," the woman answered. "Through time, melted into your melted mirror for an electrifying ride; over the rainbow to the other world."
"Alright, enough of your bullshit. We're here on business," Iris said. "Get lost before you get hurt."
"I am called Lyra Eris," the woman continued, "My friends and I are often called the Blue Dawn," she laughed. "But you may call us the Family."
"You can be the heavenly order of the Painted Stick for all I care," the sylph remarked, "your crumbly old castle is an eyesore."
-oOoOo-
There was a soft gust and she was suddenly under him. Mandala wondered whether he had simply blinked without really noticing, but put it from his mind. While she was busy with hefting him up on her shoulder, he noted with some degree of humor just how determined and focused she was becoming.
No sooner did she have him steady than they where on their way. After a few moment of walking and some quiet observation as she took him god-knows-where, Mandala noted with some interest the barely-concealed little daggers strapped onto each of her thighs with a black leather material laced up the back. She had these off-white bandages wrapped around her wrists several times over, and he couldn't tell from his angle but he also thought he felt the hilt of another, bigger knife affixed to the small of her back.
"You didn't answer my question earlier." Her voice brought him out of his revere.
"Oh," Mandala flushed a little. "I guess I forgot."
"It couldn't have been more than a minute ago," she scoffed. "Nevermind. I was just curious what had dragged you out here. This ain't exactly the place to be."
"Didn't stop you," Mandala snorted.
She shook her head.
"No, it's not like that. We're inside Wychwood," she emphasized, as if this explained it all.
"It's also called theForest of Death, colloquially," another voice added helpfully.
Both kids spun around instantly to take in the new arrival, who casually stepped out from behind a big tree. She was a bit older than they were, with a sort of an amused look written on her facial features. Her dress was dark and quasi-formfitting, and there was a faintly smoldering look in her eyes. A cascade of rich, wavy black hair tumbled down to her back.
"By the way, I never got your name," Mandala said, head turning back to his new acquaintance from earlier.
"It's Iris," she said smoothly.
"My name's Madala," the boy said, "but my friends and family all call me 'Mandala'."
"Pleasure to meet you," the girl said absently.
"I wanted to make sure we traded names before anything else happened," he noted, a little sheepishly.
"You two," the witch or whatever said, smiling, "do you think really you can afford to be distracted? Prey should really struggle more to stay alert."
Iris let Madala down from her shoulder and ushered him back with her arm.
"You better sit tight for this, Mandala," the girl said seriously. "I was afraid of something like this."
Too tired by today's events to argue the point, Madala just decided to cooperate without comment.
The woman took an experimental step toward them and then stopped. Iris thumbed at the carved wooden hiltgrip of that blade Madala suspected he felt earlier attached to her back, and hooked her thumb through the steel ring, pulling the long knife free of its sheath with a ring.
"I don't suppose I could convince you to scram," the girl said imperiously.
"Maybe," the woman temporized, "but why don't you ask my friends?"
Maybe three dozen floating vaguely-feminine skeletons with glowing eyes, dressed up in rags, descended upon them. Iris turned to Madala with an indescribable look and grinned through her teeth.
"Run for it!"
-oOoOo-
'It is not enough merely to recognize the darkness around you, but to cast a light on it. Darkness shrivels in the presence of its natural enemy. Have faith in yourselves, believe in your own strength, and good things will happen!'
"Those were the words of a deva, fabled as the very first creation of Myo-Ishtara and who was hailed Lord of all the heavens. He was the prime authority on all the laws and customs of a nation called Astr Ea.
"That ancient empire no longer exists, and its power lasted less than a thousand years. The people exist and the customs persist, somewhat.
"It wasn't until the god returned with the breath of life to rekindle the last dying embers of high civilization that Astr Ea too returned, as if by magic."
Iris wanted to roll her eyes. "Magic, huh?" The blond girl grinned, "I thought the 'M' word was a big taboo in this country."
Endymion sighed. The girl reminded him too much of her mother. It wasn't that he thought it bad, but he certainly felt regret. "There are reasons… for that."
In fact, the clans, feudal lords and depraved despots that ruled throughout the age of darkness remained a bitter memory after three hundred-odd years of prosperity, triumph, and judgement. Staring at their campfire was becoming unpleasant.
"Hey! Quit reminiscing about weird stuff and get back to your story, Dad."
Ugh, kids… but she was happiness.
"Actually," he chuckled wryly, "this is your story. Mine is merely the stuff of prequels."
The girl narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Don't screw with me, old man. I lost friends because of you and your dumbshit adventures. That little boy," she gestured across the fire to the child in question, "would be dead if it weren't for the sacrifice they made before you even decided to show up!"
"I'm sorry about your friends," he began.
"Not nearly sorry enough!" She cut in, seething now. "I've known Ede since I was small. And Indra was probably the last scion! You really fucked up."
It was true. They were traveling now to find Virgil, the boy's guardian. He was sure he knew the man from his youth. It was an odd feeling he had. There wasn't much guarantee the man was even still alive. But at least there might be some information on this boy and his abductors.
C2: Kirin
C3: Lyra
C4: Endymion
C5: Ra
C6: Theater
C7: Daut
C8: Kaosu
You probably haven't met the lord of the underworld in a couple quite like Kaosu and Wessesh. Designer drugs and hypnotic drinks up above and the school of Chaos Magick down in the nestle of Chiroscuro's Delure. KamaItachiEl.
In her full costume, Kaosu included three layers, the ethnic jewelry underneath, a mauve dress with a vermillion waist ribbon where Iris wore a concealed dagger, as per usual made of special materials better suited for war. On top of that, a rinne festival gown with the original seed of life pattern on is back and to the sides hovering over her shins.
The seemingly heavy costume was nothing but the wind whistled as she crashed into battle with the instrument of the brain controlled assassin.
The first thing she did was destroy the floor with her frost flare emerald flame. His sword drawn meet her, Orpheon leapt into battle and when the dust began to settle he chased after her retreating form around the corner of a corridor right beneath the throne chamber's black sun seal.
There was another explosion and another stretch of floor went up in flames. One step behind, Opheon already understood she was leading him away from the rest of his platoon, but if he doubled back to regroup now, the goddess would outpace him and escape.
He followed several sub-chambers until he thought they were pretty far away from anyone who stayed behind to fight it out up above. The first thing he noticed had gone pretty wrong right away was when they seemingly entered into what must have been her private bedroom with burgundy and navy blue curtains hung from the roof and the remains of what no doubt had been her love bed.
There was still a roaring green fire in crackling in the fireplace at the far side of the new hole in the floor, and books, scrolls, and what might have been an emerald tablet. He jumped down the hole and found himself in a dead end with more serious-looking stone walls than the adobe brick or whatever the pyramid barracks were made of up above.
He immediately caught on to the narrow adjoining hallway and rounded the corner twice until they were almost in the same space together and then a wall of lustrous, pouring green light rose up and sealed them in what must have been a meditation chamber for the goddess.
The floor was flooded with water already ankle-deep from where he was standing at the far side of the room, and a tree disappeared into the oddly low-hanging roof. Kaosu was standing upon the foot of the tree, where the barrel of its trunk met the roots soaking in a bog.
As the new room swam into visibility from the firelight, Orpheon registered the willowly Lyra Andromeda and took an experimental step forward. He tripped over something and face vaulted into the dark water.
Orpheon thought it must have been a root from one of the vines or other plants, kinda like the tree in the tree he had just spotted the goddess before, but surrounding the chamber and lining the walls the same way the emerald fire of her frost flare rose from the ground to surround them. Kind of like the small forest of men with various headgear or tribal weapons from up above. And seemingly just as stayed as said trees.
There was a hiss from within the venomous pond he thought he heard and scrambled out of the way before the various heads of a chairo-hydra he had somehow not managed to see struck the spot he had just been. His sword screeched with white fire and he clove at the beast with lightning techniques and cool precision.
He had heard of a hydra's ability to rapidly regenerate from injuries to its sleek body or the various heads, but what he had not expected was for Kaosu to take his moment of distraction to close the distance between them and suddenly he was dealing with more than one of them.
A few more chairs-hydras that had melted out of the shadows joined them with a lumber rather than a leap until the heads joined in, goody. He clove and he slashed, sinking the flamed weapon into each new threat, whilst avoiding the goddess as best as he could until he could spare his full attention for her again.
C9: Orpheon
Natuya Kaosu was known commonly as the goddess of primordial chaos, Lyra Andromeda.
Down in the dungeon, the sentient dragon assassin stretched his bonds but found no budge. He was in a stone room with no plants or water, and no guard that he could see. There was a door, but his back was turned to it. He was staked to the floor, right in the grooves between stonemasonry. Some time had passed since he and Kaosu had fallen on their own attacks. He knew she was fine, because her weapon wasn't supposed to release fire on its bonding partner, but his sword Kagai was for tessenshu, and he had run out of energy eventually because it wasn't bonded to him as an adult, but as a child coiled up on the dirty ground.
There was a click, and the door opened sans sound. He didn't hear anybody walk in, and there was no other noise outside. Kaosu draped herself on his shoulder, grinning like a cat. He didn't move a muscle, or change his face in response. There was no data she could suck out of him, not an infiltrator.
"Tell me about your dragon-styled Kira, boy." That was the only question she could have pressed that he had answers for.
"Kopesh is their name for the tessenshu attempt you thwarted. It is lastly said that only a god can slay another god. Ra is a rally cry in Astr Ea. Those who cry Ra are rewarded with Ra."
"Boy, what do you think of the peeps that sent you here? Do you feel rewarded for your mission?" She was still grinning, just not uncannily.
"They were demonic," he answered. "There is no other mission. Other than your Death." They were done. He had nothing further to share with Her. He didn't really understand Kaosu.
"I see," she said, not really seeing. "What if I told you we could change sides? What would you think of 'Her' then?"
"Daut is a hungry place. It's never through with your souls, even when you're done. I have a new idea, but let me pitch it to you. We're going to invade the nation of Astr Ea, and you are my accomplice. I am your oversoul or higher self, and you are my ego. Who do I cut down to avenge this loss?"
"You are day," he said, not really feeling why, "but I made a wish sometime ago for a domestic war I can't recount to you now. Let me retemporize: there are teachers and there aren't ties. You aren't the last thing standing between them and a win. You aren't the last thing sly. You are in our day, and they can't have you normal. They said I can never be returned to normal, and that's new."
"Hn." She must have been done, he thought. "Give your heart to me, boy. I'll save you from your suffering." She dripped in his ear. He was unmoved. Nothing in him churned. It was dull and sorry that the elder god was late to this. He never forgave her in her other form, the Mother of Darkness, Eris.
"I can't imagine a world I can be positive into. This world… I can never…!"
"They were dead," she began, "The moment they walked into that door. You have to remember these, please. I need to know who is mine and who is gone."
Talking to God in the form of a woman wasn't all. She was also filled with envy at the sight of her haoriga. Eris, who was Mother of Darkness and not programmer. That was whoever Kaosu dipped naughtily into for him. It stretched the imagination that they could both be with him inside and out, and his careful shell was only designed to ease his move into regicide.
"Thanatos is Death. Not me. Before her it was my own sire, Sarah Sofia. These are dead men who hired you," she explained, drawing herself up from his shoulder and gliding before his staked silhouette. She leaned down on her crotches and engaged him again. "You are the fruit of my other child, Kaosu Enshu, the God of Destruction, whose sword you wielded against me. He and your mother Aurora, goddess of Creation. Your name is Indra Kaosu." She breathed a sigh. "I cannot leave this place, so I rely on you to guide your friends out the underworld and destroy our enemies." She continued. "Turn them into goo."
"What happened to your campaign?" He almost sneered. Calm and unquiet, he remained.
"We live underground. If anymore assassins stop by, I want to protect my people. They are fresh out of edges that can cut Lyra Kaosu."
Opheon didn't care. All he needed was a sword, that one they took earlier, and he was on a mission to destroy all memory. Indra Kaosu wasn't dimly-remembered, he was gone. Anything 'God' was gone. He was Death. No matter odds.
C10: Blue Dawn
Andros was an Astran Magistre of small renown, though his job was nonetheless important, particularly to the Order. Now the Family was restless. "Priest! What is the state of the monarchs?"
Andros stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose it does work, not terribly well." There was a silence.
"Do what you must," was the final message. Thanatous rose from his seat.
C11: Chiaroscuro
"That's Chiaroscuro, also called City of Dreams," the girl said as it came into better view.
Chiaroscuro was a glowing metropolis, perched amidst the deepest shadows of the Underworld. Every structure stood on its end, connected to the others by threaded yellow lights. In addition to the lights, a swift pulsing melody cut through the gloomy atmosphere with a thrilling new energy.
"Weather's terrible, but I might want to live here," Bolt said with a whistle.
"Let's keep moving," The streets were strangely quiet as the group traveled towards the tallest tower at the city's core.
"Where is everyone?"
"I don't know,"
"We'll get there faster if we ride on those light rails"
"The hell are you on about?"
"Just look at those bright filaments connecting everything up there." She pointed at the glowing yellow wires they'd seen everywhere.
Orpheon scowled. "That's stupid."
"It's not, trust me," insisted the young nymph.
"Hey, no guts no glory, right?" Bolt patted the soldier's shoulder and ran up to the nearest grounded wire. He jumped the line and for a moment his feet stuck, but he quickly lost his balance and fell.
"See? It's stupid, I told you. We're better off walking."
"Hold on, I get it now!"
The boy shaman landed this time at a forward angle, and there was a loud hum just a second before he stretched out and vanished. Orpheon stared in shock, trying to follow the boy's trail with his eyes.
"That's insane."
"Guess that's just Bolt for ya."
C12: Aurora
In a castle somewhere, drifting above the clouds, was a mirror frozen in time. Borne in this cell, the goddess Aurora Ipsissimus parried time. That was why Indra had arrived to change things. It was in the lowest chamber that Lord Syrus had imprisoned his daughter, the Creatrix. At the end of a hall that had stone-horned gargoyles and reliefs of the goddess of fire and water, Myo Ishtara, lay a room with light pouring in through a row of tiny windows at the top of all three walls, A double-row of mirrors leading to the ice mirror Aurora stayed within floated merrily, just as defiant of gravity as the one his mother slept in. Kaosu stepped into the new room with lights flooding in at every direction and walked the small path, passed eight mirrors to his mother's doorway to freedom.
"They are day," He thought, plumbing the mirror image of his mother's fragmentary memories or dreams racing much too fast for him to keep track of behind the merry shell of her demonic container. The God of Creation, too dimly remembered to be called 'Mom'. He touched the frost-gathered plate of demonic glass and felt for a heartbeat— something to connect his Will to the goal. He found it. There was a string of golden twine connecting his severed heart to her ghost in the shell. The story of Aurora flashing before and behind his eyes when he stopped to breathe then vanished like smoke and the mirror melted open. From its icy embrace the shoulders of Aurora swam forth, followed by her thighs, and the goddess pooled out onto the floor, leaving a gape in the pane one somehow mistook for glass. She poured, unbreathing on the floor. The snowdrops of her skin met yellow, opaque light from the outside and he didn't have time to ponder anything before she was alive. It happened in an instant and the floor gave way. They collapsed into timeless air and space, or so the boy dreamt. In reality he found himself falling alone, bound to the heavenly element for salvation without the doe of his mother with him. Had she destroyed the floor and flown away without noticing?
Magister Janus rounded the corner of the hall leading between the golden throne chamber and the teleporter they housed in like a closet and he deftly programmed it to send him for Mirage Mountains' base. He had heard the dragon Rokhtekh was in trouble and his peers were all busy. The lights went out, and he was no where.
C13: Revealing
The grass whistled in the breeze. Aurora twitched, flickered and vanished. A burst of light that shook the earth and burned the air consumed the mountain face, followed by another. The military academy crumbled under the created explosion and the tower descended after it. A vase with Syrus' ashes crashed into the far wall. The dust began to settle.
"FATHER!" Aurora cried out. Syrus emerged from the toppled ruins of his ivory tower, shock evident in his expression.
"Where is my SON?!"
The god grimaced, seeing the ruined mountains and all the land devastated by his fall. "You disappoint me, Daughter."
"Fuck you!" She spat.
"Disgraceful shadow." He uttered. "You've become a twisted monster by that corrosive beast."
The sky god steeled his eyes and the sky darkened. A reddish-orange mana coalesced into his right-handed Empyreal weapon, the Sword of Revealing.
C14: Last Dance
"Hey, Kaosu."
"What, Bolt?"
"So- you're a god, right?"
"Eh," he shrugged, "close enough."
The boy shaman grinned. "So you can shape-change, right?"
Indra Kaosu seemed to ponder this. "Yeah, I guess I could. I haven't really tried."
Bolt grinned. "Do it!"
The other boy frowned. "The closest I've come to trying was that time I almost turned into a dragon, and it wasn't pretty. I can't think of anything I'd really rather be than me."
"Do it!" The jury had ruled, and the young soldier relented.
"Okay, what?"
"You can turn into anything, right?"
"Supposedly."
"Turn into a rabbit!"
"No."
"Okay, a bird!"
"I don't want to turn into something like that until I know it won't lose my wits or forget who I am."
"What about an elephant? They never forget!" The boy Bolt nodded sagely.
Indra Kaosu stared blankly at his friend. "What the hell is that?" This was getting them nowhere.
"Okay, a thunderbird! They're smart, and even I can do that!"
"What's your fixation with birds?"
"Just do it!"
There was a tense pause before a whitewash of light erupted from where the youth Orpheon stood. As shapes and colors returned to his sight, Orpheon has become the biggest, most dangerous-looking thunderbird he's ever seen.
"Damn, I bet you could take passengers!"
His friend began squawking loudly, almost like a cackle, and ruffled up his giant feathers.
"Still remember yourself?"
The huge beast nodded its head, his eyes gleaming fiercely. A wicked thought crossed the kid shaman
"Ya know, Syrus keeps some pretty fine-lookin' dovetail, you know, human-form firebirds n' such. I heard a story from Ananazi about his favorite T-bird, Iris. He said she was like fire from heaven, or something like that."
Hmm, he knew that one. More times, he'd seen her in his court than any other face. She was nothing special, he didn't think so anyway. He was pretty sure he remembered her well enough, and his form receded into the new shape. His friend whistled appraisingly, and he found it more than slightly irritating.
"Can you talk?"
"Yeah, I-" He covered his mouth the instant he heard somebody else's voice. Bolt wanted to laugh his ass off, but that would be too unkind.
"Don't act so surprised!"
"Easy for you to say," he frowned at the charming melody his voice was making. A bit too sweet and musical for his tastes, despite his biting tone.
"She usually naked like that?"
What? Oh no. Had it-? Was he…? He looked down at, but saw nothing of the sort.
"Fooled you, didn't I?" The boy shaman smirked.
"Smartass."
"Hey, don't change back just yet, check out your reflection! You're somethin' else now."
Huh? He'd only gone by his memory, which didn't much impress his sensibilities.
"Remind me to ask for this one again sometime when you're smashed, yeah?"
"What? If you wanna see her tits, I'll show you. Not like they're mine to keep."
"How 'bout that ass, masakaa…" Bolt trailed off.
"Yo Hana," Indra spake, "drive harder."
"More for our girl." Bolt emote.
"Think of living off the grid?" He asked more seriously in his Lyra forme.
"She was sane." Bolt began in an inhuman tone. "But now she's more fire."
"I don't hear this you." He whined off.
"She's more fire shade now than other."
He doesn't get it all day, Indra Kaosu thought. "Her inhuman emotions are all sane. Keet," He tittered musically, touching the other boy's sternum. Where the heart met Hara.
If the boy shaman had reservations before about defiling Iris' image, they didn't occur to him now. Indra Kaosu was someone, but the god before him wasn't so small as to fall on him in a borrowed mime. She was just the same shape he last remembered their hero, leather black lace and daggers all. The frock leaving anything to his imagination fluttered in the wind. He had even remembered the sylph girl's dark blue Haori, worn like a vest rather than a coat, with an elite hand-to-hand shortsword sheathed over shoulder, and the steel ring of another, shorter weapon tucked away where God wore a waist ribbon. It was the perfect image of the killer, and it looked just right on the Morningstar. He had just been called 'keet' in place of the word 'keen'. The illusion, if there was one, was tight.
Its spirit floating down, she body-flickered in front of him and had him on his back to the ground. Cool grass whistled. The boy shaman didn't take his eyes away from her. Grinning, a tiny knife in hand, he watched the other cut into his armor, exposing his chest.
"All gain," he teased.
"This is almost green," the other boy offered.
This adventure loop tied them all together and it was spring. A last dance to unite the damage and send villain-alls to hell. This was why, gold. No one was coming.
"I'm disturbed you can play me so well," Bolt finally said.
And like that, it was gone. The whole moment evaporated like a lie. Almost.
"You're gay," She said, absent.
"Dumb," He parried.
"Not you."
"On dumb." She really was that musical.
Endymion
C1: Family
C2: Order
C3: Flight
C4: Dreams
C5: RA
Syrus was the common name of the sky guardian worshipped in the land of Asterea as it was known. He was held to be the wisest of the wise.
In the beginning, there was an awareness. It was with me, amid me, is me. Before I created a universe, the many worlds, or any people, there was only me, and my mind. I was perfect, yet still I knew I could be so much more. Dreams are a beautiful thing, truly. Many of my children take their dreams for granted, so immersed in games of their own. It is no surprise that they would take after me in many ways, without that absolute knowing I that take for granted. Yet to understand my children requires an understanding of their parent.
As an eternal awareness, my natural state is wakefulness. I can do anything, but understand that I exist in such a ridiculously simple state that nothing exists until I imagine it. Can you imagine the power to create anything at all? Of course I've done most of the work for you already. If perfect unity was all you ever knew, would you imagine other things? Even without the mechanism of time that allows me to put your hypothetical situation in the past tense? When would you arrive at the thought? Surely you know that a thought alone is not enough. It must be married with an intention to manifest. Would you know that? Quite simply, yes.
It happens in an instant, and with me there is a new mind. It is a part of me, a truth which my companion is well aware of. I give my first child the power to pursue its own destiny, to make children too, and those offspring too are, though still a part of its parent, capable of realizing a legacy that is utterly unique. I watch, look on my family with joy I hadn't felt before. In an instant, I am a great swirling sea of lights and sounds. My infinite potential is eventually expressed, for me in a mere moment, but the never-ending sea of history, truly the greatest story ever told, should be lived and relived in greater detail. My children and I are the same in many respects, but each of them is limited by their degree of separation from the source of their awareness.
I could go on, and I shall indeed, but in a different fashion. I want to share an anecdote with you, that I might explain my mysteries in a more familiar language. By this, I mean the language of symbols. My greatest creation was imperfection, a quality that grants each and every one of my creations without exception a unique character. As each new thing is added to the last in my eternal dance, a pattern emerges that is all around you. Call it my signature.
Many of the symbols will be familiar to you. Others were written for your siblings to see, that they may come to know themselves a little better.