Chapter Fourteen
Dance of Shadows on the Final Board
Ral Zarek reveled in the chaos around him, allowing the emotion to cover his simmering rage. The anger was his constant companion lately, ever since Niv-Mizzet had demoted him. Instead of being the one closest to the dragon, Ral Zarek was now in an office in Nivix, working on the dragon's endless projects.
Well, Ral had decided not to. He'd summoned a storm and destroyed everything in the office. Now he stood in the middle of it, alone. There had been some other workers who'd quickly peeked in to see what was happening, but had run away when Ral shot lightning at them.
How dare that dragon do this to him! He, who had travelled to worlds Niv-Mizzet didn't even know existed, who knew secrets of magic anyone would kill to learn, he should be the leader of this foul organization. No, even better, he should be the Living Guildpact! That disgusting mind-mage, Jace Beleren, he had usurped Ral's rightful place as arbiter of the guilds.
Even worse was the knowledge that that umbreomancer had been part of the reason Beleren now governed. Lazav he been so close to delivering the Supreme Verdict, but Buras had jumped in and given Beleen the necessary strength to stop them! If only Ral Zarek had managed to kill the wretch when he had the chance.
So this what was he was reduced to; throwing tantrums and destroying office supplies. His own actions disgusted him at their pettiness, but he found that there was no other way to calm his anger even the slightest bit. So, he gladly shot lightning at delicate instruments.
Someone cleared their throat at the door, somehow doing it louder than the storm overhead. Ral turned and saw Mizzet's new henchman standing in the door. Ral had never bothered to learn his name; calling him "The Snitch" was much more fun.
"I have to hand it to you, Zarek," the Snitch said, "Creating a thunderstorm inside a building? That's new."
"Why do you care?" Ral snapped, "You're just here to deliver Mizzet's punishment for my disruptive behavior."
"Surprisingly enough, that's not why I'm here. Mizzet wants to see you."
The storm died, responding to Ral's surprise. The dragon had not asked to see Ral once since he was sent to this gods-awful office.
"Tell him I'll be right there," Ral said, trying to feign calm.
"Ah, but that's not how it works, isn't it? When the boss says jump, you're supposed to be five feet in the air before asking how high he wanted you. Come. Now."
Ral sighed, but followed. Infuriating as he was, the Snitch was right. If he wanted to even stay in the Izzet, which he did, complete obedience to Niv-Mizzet was required. The dragon wanted to see him, so to the dragon Ral would go.
They passed numerous other offices as they walked through the halls. Nivix was a tower full of winding passages; it wasn't nearly as confusing as New Prahv, but it took some skill to memorize the layout of the building. Finally, Ral and the Snitch reached the lifter at the center of the tower. Inside was a mage specializing in electricity; he would power the lift as it raced up the tower to the aerie at the top.
They entered the lift, the metal door sliding closed behind them. "Where to?" The Mage said. There was a time when that question would have followed with the phrase "Lord Zarek." The casualness of the querie once again reminded Ral of what he had lost. Hopefully this meeting with Niv-Mizzet would restore Ral to his former position. He dared to hope that it was possible.
The lift's cables groaned as it climbed steadily higher. The groans were just loud enough to make Ral worry ever so slightly when they stopped; the lift had reached the very top of Nivix. The aerie.
Ral still understood what an honor it was to be allowed into the aerie. He could not let his anger show here. He needed to show Niv-Mizzet an image of absolute subservience.
"Zarek," he heard the dragon say from his perch, "You came. I must admit, I wasn't completely sure that you would. How silly of me; you are Izzet to the core."
A compliment. That was promising.
"As always," Ral replied, "I have lived to serve you, Great One."
"Yes, so you've said. Nevertheless, I must inform you that you must be temporarily excused from guild services, Zarek."
What!? Ral thought? He'd been summoned to be dismissed? No, that couldn't be it; Niv-Mizzet never handled dismissals himself.
"Pardon me, Great Dragon," he said tentatively, "But you do not normally dismiss guild members yourself. Why else have you called me here!"
"That is the reason for your dismissal. Someone else has a more important need for your services."
Ah, it was a temporary guild transfer. "Who needs me? The Azorius? Boros?"
"Not a guild, Ral," a familiar voice said from behind Niv-Mizzet, "An old friend."
Ral's eyes narrowed. He knew that voice...
Julna Buras stepped out from behind the dragon. He looked slightly different; he no longer wore the uniform of a Dimir, and he had gotten a magical sword somewhere along the way, but it was still him.
"You!" Ral shouted. He summoned mana and shot a bolt of lightning at the planeswalker.
Buras looked almost bored as he drew his sword. The sword absorbed the lightning bolt. What kind of weapon could do that? The blade looked like the night sky itself, and Ral could tell that there was an immense amount of magical energy in the sword. Where had Buras gotten a weapon of such power?
"Come now, Ral," Julna said, "You should know by now that you can't beat me in a fight. However, that is not why I have come. I need your help, Ral."
"I'll burn in a Rakdos lava pit before I ever help you!" Ral growled.
"Oh, it's not going to be only me you'll be helping. No, your assistance will keep the entire Multiverse alive."
Ral scoffed. "I may be a planeswalker, but that doesn't mean I have to care about things outside Ravnica."
"You know, Domri Rade said basically the same thing. I showed him some pretty terrifying things to convince him. Do you want me to do the same thing to you?" He raised a hand, and two shades, one pure white, the other jet black, sprang up on either side of him.
Ral backed away. He remembered how dangerous Buras' shades could be, and he didn't want either of those anywhere near his mind. "What could possibly threaten the entire Multiverse?" He asked, less certain.
Julna smiled grimly. "I take it you've never heard of the Eldrazi?" Ral shook his head. "Well, I'll briefly explain: the Eldrazi are beings who live in the Blind Eternities, and they are powerful enough to wipe out entire planes with a token effort. Sorin Markov, Nahiri the Lithomancer, and Ugin the Spirit Dragon trapped them on the plane of Zendikar millennia ago, but now they are breaking free. Sorin and Ugin are gone, but Nahiri and I have been raising an army of planeswalkers to fight and destroy them. We could use a good storm mage."
"Even if you do not accept this man's offer, Zarek," Niv-Mizzet interjected, "You will not be allowed back into Nivix until I say so. Know that it will be longer if you refuse to help the Multiverse."
Ral stared at the dragon in shock. "You know about it?"
"I had a rudimentary knowledge of it, and what I didn't know, this man told me. It was imperative that I knew where he was planning on using you." The dragon eyed Ral quizzically. "You didn't really think you'd kept that knowledge from me, did you? I'm a telepathic dracogenius; I can tell when someone is trying to keep information from me."
Ral sighed and turned back to Julna. "What do you plan to do with me?"
"Seeing that I plan to do nothing less than wage all-out war on the Eldrazi, I'll probably have you as a soldier and commander of any storm elementals you summon."
Ral growled. This hadn't been at all what he'd expected when he walked in here. But there was really no way around it; if the Multiverse was destroyed, it would be the end of... Well, everything. He knew deep down that he had to protect it.
"Where do we start?" He asked, defeated.
Buras just smiled. "I've sent out a call to the other planeswalkers; we're gathering on Innistrad." He raised his cloak, said a few words, and vanished.
Before Ral could enter the Blind Eternities, Niv-Mizzet addressed him one last time. "Know that your performance in this battle will greatly affect your standing here, Zarek. That is all."
Ral left Ravnica behind.
"I cannot believe how anticlimactic that meeting was, Thalia," Julna said, pacing back and forth, "I guess I never realized how great an influence Niv-Mizzet has on Ral."
"Either that, or he really does care about the Multiverse," she replied. Thalia sat at her kitchen table, running her finger down the flat of Lathraia's blade. Julna paced, she played with her dagger; each of them had separate ways of coping with battle anxiety. The planeswalkers had nearly finished gathering, and once they did, they would all travel to Zendikar and engage the Eldrazi. For the first time since he'd made his etherium body, Julna felt sick to his stomach. Fighting Lukarme's shade army was one thing, but the Eldrazi? Beings so powerful they could destroy planes? Julna had fake memories of fighting the Eldrazi, but he knew that they weren't his, so they did nothing to soothe his nervousness.
"I don't know," Julna said, "He took great care to insist that he didn't care about the Multiverse."
"Men always do that," she said dismissively, "The more they care about something, the more they declare how much they don't. It's a man thing."
"Huh," Julna said, "Do I do that?"
"Not that I've seen, but then again, you've been around for a thousand years and I've only known you for about six months."
"Touché," he acquiesced.
Thalia put down Lathraia and stood up, her chair squealing as it dragged across the floor. "Well," she declared, "That's enough of that."
"What?"
"We've done enough moping about for one day," she said, "I sent a shade out and told it to return when all the planeswalkers for accounted for." She pointed out the window to where a blob of shadow was moving swiftly toward the house. "Here it comes."
The shade entered through the window and rose up, addressing Thalia. "Mistress, the one with white hair says that all the planeswalkers have gathered."
Julna nodded. "How many are there in all?"
"There were somewhere around twenty last time I checked," Thalia said, thinking.
"Some new ones have arrived, mistress," the shade said, "One of them demands to see master Julna specifically. He is large and seems to be covered in brownish metal."
Julna raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I'll be right back," he said, then dashed out the door. He ran down the pathway to the cathedral and sure enough, there was the planeswalker the shade was talking about, angrily shouting that he needed to talk to Julna.
"I'm right here, Timdis," Julna shouted back.
Timdis turned around, looking for the source of the shout. He saw Julna and smiled. "I heard that you were gathering planeswalkers. I hope you weren't planning on fighting the Eldrazi without me!"
Julna laughed. "I would have invited you if I could find you. Still, I'm glad you heard anyway. We could use those Nyxian arrows of yours."
"I'll be glad to help. How many planeswalkers have you gathered?"
"Not as many as I'd like, but then again, it's the best I could do. Did you notice how the Multiverse shook about a month ago?"
"Come to think of it, yes. Was that you?"
"Actually, no. Sarkhan Vol travelled back in time on the plane of Tarkir and broke that plane away from the Multiverse. Nissa Revane, Sorin Markov, and he are now unable to travel back to this Multiverse."
"What do you mean this Multiverse? Is there another one?"
"When Sarkhan changed the past, yes, it created an entirely new one based on the factors it changed. The whole thing is technical and hurts even my brain to think about. Just accept it."
Timdis chuckled. "If you say so. So how many did you get?"
"Thalia said around twenty. A few of them can summon armies themselves, so we'll have a respectable horde to attack the Eldrazi. We were all getting ready to travel to Zendikar when you showed up."
Thalia and the shade came running up. She was panting slightly. "Julna, in the future, could you give me more warning before you go running off? I had some more things the shade told me."
Julna chuckled. "Of course, Thalia. What is it?"
"Apparently some other planeswalkers appeared as well. Liliana Vess, for example, and Ashiok."
Julna's expression darkened. Ashiok seemed to be doling out his skills to whomever seemed the most powerful. Before Xenagos died, he'd been working for the satyr god. Still, his nightmares could be extremely useful. "Very well," he said, "As much as I dislike Ashiok, I'll accept him. Anyone else?"
"Garruk Wildspeaker."
Julna started just a bit. He hadn't been expecting that. Garruk had allegedly gone insane with hatred after Liliana cursed him. With both of them here…
"This could be a bit of a problem…" Julna said thoughtfully, "Does Liliana know?"
"Yes, and she's apparently hiding next to Avacyn. Both women don't seem happy with the arrangement." They laughed at the comment.
Thalia's shade rose up from the ground. "Pardon me, Mistress, Seneschal, but the men and women in the cathedral are getting restless. We'd best be leaving."
Julna nodded. "You're right." He turned to Timdis. "Ready for what could be our last battle?"
Timdis nodded. "If it means stopping the Eldrazi, I'll go with you to the death."
"As will I," Thalia said, the stood on her tiptoes and kissed Julna.
Timdis just stood there, staring. "Wow," he said, "When did that happen?"
Julna laughed. "Soon after you left, my friend. It took me by surprise too."
They all walked to the cathedral together. When they arrived, Julna held the door open for the other two then walked in himself.
Thankfully, none of the planeswalkers were at each others' throats, although Julna could just make out Liliana at the other end of the room. She was sitting next to Avacyn and was both annoyed and thankful for having an angel sitting next to her. Julna knew how much she hated angels. Garruk was on the opposite side of the room, repeatedly glancing at Liliana in anger and apparently trying to keep himself from trying to kill her.
Ashiok was next to the door and pointedly looked the other way when Julna's gaze fell on him. Julna responded by turning his head. The gestures clearly said We will work together, but we don't have to like it.
Julna walked down the center aisle of the cathedral up to where Avacyn and Liliana were sitting. He stepped up to the podium and turned around to address the crowd.
"Well," he said, nervous, "This is it." How strange that he could face down Heliod without being afraid, but stick him speaking in front of a crowd and it was like he was a child again. "Um… We're going to leave for Zendikar now. And… we'll gather near the Eye of Ugin. It's a good base." His palms were sweating, and it was quite distracting. What else should he say to them?
Thalia's shade subtly approached him and whispered words into his ear. "Be prepared for an all-out attack," he said, repeating what the shade whispered, "And quite possibly all our deaths. I know it's not an easy thing to think about, but it's true. The Eldrazi are more powerful than anything you've ever faced, even Griselbrand or the gods of Theros. But I know that together, we can take them down!"
Just as last time, no one cheered; they just gave him the same look of determination. They understood the risks.
"So," he continued, "We go." He took Thalia's arm, raised his cloak, chanted, and disappeared. Shortly after, the rest of the planeswalkers followed, fading into the Blind Eternities.
Three Weeks Later
Julna looked over the planeswalker's preparations. They were doing well; at least half of the planeswalkers could summon an army of minions to fight at their command. Considering the horde of Eldrazi spawn that they'd have to fight, it was good to have so many summoners. Garruk was proving a bit difficult to work with, but the beasts he summoned were powerful, as were Domri's. Together, the two could bring hordes of beasts, rhinos, and other monstrosities to fight. Ashiok simply walked around, creating nightmarish versions of every creature he encountered. Julna even saw a few nightmare-Eldrazi; he had asked Ashiok how many the man could create, but the answer didn't please him. Ashiok couldn't control more than two or three, and he could only control a single nightmare total if it was an Eldrazi titan. In all honesty, Julna would rather have an army of nightmares than a single anti-Emrakul.
He kept Liliana practicing far away from Garruk; she seemed quite happy with the arrangement. On her own, she could summon several hundred zombies, but with the help of that chain veil she wore, the number bordered on two thousand. A remarkable horde for a single necromancer. Julna's shade army numbered three thousand, but it was much easier to create shades than it was to summon the undead. One did tend to run out of bodies after a while.
Ral was still sullen as to how easily Niv-Mizzet had turned him over to Julna and refused to demonstrate his abilities whenever Julna was near. He was not, however, able to see the shades Julna sent to spy on him. His storm elementals were coming along pleasantly.
Ajani could summon his leonin brethren, and Elspeth could summon some soldiers, but not in enough numbers to satisfy Julna. He therefore appointed them as a team of generals who were to take on any Eldrazi that were overwhelming the bulk of Julna's forces. They didn't seem to mind, as long as they could stay together. Sometimes Julna thought that their relationship seemed almost romantic in nature, but he didn't say anything. He had brought Elspeth back from the dead, of course.
Jace could handle himself. He'd shown Julna very early on that, while he couldn't summon hordes of soldiers, his telepathy could leave whole swathes of Eldrazi fighting the other side. Julna had managed to provoke a few preliminary skirmishes with the Eldrazi, and one had ended with Jace taking over the entire enemy army and having them kill each other. It was gruesome.
Julna loved it.
The one time Julna had talked to Gideon Jura, the man had insisted that he could take whatever Eldrazi were thrown at him. Julna thought that seemed a bit on the side of bravado, but Gideon would not take no for an answer.
Meanwhile, Julna had been working on something new. He'd been practicing tapping into Nyx again, and trying to see if he could extend his influence beyond a single shade. If he used a lot of mana, he could bestow his energy on his entire shade army and control them all at once. It was much like a military game they had played at the Dekatia; he could control entire armies with a wave of his hand.
Other than that, he'd mostly been training Thalia in umbreomancy. She learned very quickly, and though she was much weaker than Julna, she had a squad of shades she could maneuver expertly. He found that it was useful as an assassination force against the leaders of the Eldrazi horde. They weren't entirely sentient, not in the same way the Eldrazi Titans were, but they could control the spawn enough to be a match for Julna's forces. When Thalia killed these hordemasters, however, the spawn plunged into chaos and became easy pickings for the planeswalkers.
This was all child's play compared to the Titans themselves. Julna had watched Nahiri, Ugin, and Sorin trap the Eldrazi, so he knew firsthand how devastatingly superior they were to simple Eldrazi spawn. They were more powerful than any army, but Julna reasoned that if three planeswalkers could trap them, ten or twenty could kill them.
The problem was getting to them. Emrakul and Kozilek had vanished and Julna had no idea where they went. Ulamog had been killed when Julna severed his connection to Lukarme, but these two were still at large, and Julna worried that they had somehow escaped back into the blind eternities. He needed to lure them back to Zendikar and he figured that killing their brood was the way to do it. Every time they wiped out an army, Julna got the feeling that they were being watched. Now, after three weeks, he was sure that today would be the day that-
"Master!" one of his lithomantics yelled, dashing to Julna as he watched Timdis Vulshok shoot Nyxian arrows with extreme precision, "The scouts found an Eldrazi. It is much, much larger than any we have ever seen before!"
Finally, Julna thought, We found one. Today they would see if the preparations were enough.
Timdis stopped shooting as he heard the shade's report. "So this is it, huh?" he asked, trying to sound flippant, "Time to fight a Titan."
"We don't even know if it is," Julna said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Come on, Julna, you don't believe that," Timdis said seriously, "I got the sense that when the shade said 'much much larger,' it didn't mean the spawnsires. It meant one of the Titans."
Julna sighed. "You're right," he acquiesced, "I'm just nervous, I guess. I've seen firsthand how catastrophic these creatures are. I'm worried that our preparations won't be enough."
Timdis was silent for a moment. Finally, he said "We'll just have to hope."
Julna nodded, then summoned a handful of shades and sent them off to alert the rest of the planeswalkers.
Soon after, Thalia came running up to him. "Is this it?" she asked.
"We'll soon see," Julna replied, "I'm heading to the top of the mountain to get a better view." She grabbed his arm without a word. Smiling, he chanted to activate his cloak and whisked them two thousand feet upward.
He now had a clear view of the horizon, and he saw it. The enormous creature was taller than the mountain. It had grayish skin and a single giant eye in the middle of its head.
"Kozilek," Julna said, "Butcher of Truth. It's a Titan alright. Come on, we'd best get back to the rest of them." He took her in his arm and brought them both back to the Eye. The rest of the planeswalkers had gathered, looking worried.
"It's Kozilek," Julna said. They murmured a bit, but didn't show too much fear. That was good.
"What do we do?" One asked. Julna couldn't tell exactly who said it.
"We do what we planned. We summon our hordes and fight our way to it. Once we have a path, we forge together and kill the thing."
It sounded so simple, but they all knew that these things were more powerful than anything they'd faced before.
"Kozilek will have sent his spawn ahead, which means we need to hurry. They could attack at any time." They all swarmed towards the mouth of the Eye. Julna soon stood alone in the cave with Thalia.
"Are you worried?" she asked.
"Of course I am," he replied.
"Good. That fear could keep you alive." The exited the cave.
As Julna predicted, the spawn were fast approaching. The other planeswalkers had already begun summoning their hordes. Julna stabbed Shadowseer into the ground, then sat cross-legged on the ground. He looked up at Thalia and said, "When I'm controlling my army, I won't be able to command any of the other planeswalkers. I've gotten each individual to promise that they will follow any order you give."
She looked almost sick. "Me?" she asked, incredulous.
"You've studied tactics, haven't you? I know of no one else who would do as well commanding us. I can't, so it's your responsibility."
She looked like she would protest, but then she saluted and said, "I would be honored, Julna." Then she dove forward and kissed him fiercely. "But that doesn't mean I won't worry about you. You need to stay alive, do you hear me?" Julna nodded. She stepped back.
He released his shades from the sword, then tapped into Nyx. His body burst apart into thousands of stars, which settled onto the shadow horde.
It was a different experience. He now had access to control every single shade body. He could simultaneously feel the thoughts of all of them, limited as they were. They weren't true sentient shades like Falderin or Niredlaf; they could follow commands and kill Eldrazi. That was what was important.
Within the horde were Falderin and Niredlaf. They both expressed nervousness.
Master, Falderin said, I worry for you. What will happen if one of them die? You will feel it as if a piece of yourself has.
I must endure, Falderin, he responded mentally, his thoughts radiating out from every shade, This is too important.
The horde of shades moved in perfect unison, every one of them controlled by one mind. Julna's. They flew down the cliffside, and the rest of the hordes saw that as a signal for them to charge as well. Through the eyes of his shades, Julna could see Kozilek's brood moving quickly towards them. He had to keep the fighting far away from the Eye as possible; if the Eldrazi killed the planeswalkers controlling the armies, everything would dissolve into chaos.
In a few seconds, the distance between the shades and the Eldrazi had been halved. Mentally bracing himself, Julna prepared for the inevitable death of some of his shades. Three seconds passed, and the armies collided.
Immediately, Julna felt a strain all around him. Every shade was fighting an Eldrazi spawn, and it felt like he was being ripped to pieces. He had no substance; why did it feel like that? Was it just his mind trying to make sense of the information it was getting?
Suddenly, a part of him disappeared. The first shade had died.
Intellectually, Julna could tell himself that it was bound to happen, but no amount of logical thought could prepare him for the visceral terror that engulfed him. A part of him was missing, never to return! All he wanted to do was flee, not caring that his actions would cause all the shades to retreat.
No! he said, shouting at his unconscious mind, We must endure!
More pieces winked out, but Julna pushed through them. It was like he was bottling up his grief and pain, keeping it away until there was a safe time to deal with it.
It made him even more grimly satisfied when he saw how many more Eldrazi spawn were dying. Just as he felt the death of every shade, Kozilek would feel the death of every spawn. True, he had more, so the pieces destroyed were smaller, but the effect was the same.
On Julna's left, a horde of zombies engaged the Eldrazi. Julna looked through the eyes of one of his shades and saw Liliana sitting on the side of the mountain, eyes closed, concentrating on controlling the undead. An army this large necessitated that she remove all other distractions in order to keep them controlled. Zombies would very easily attack Julna's allies as they would the Eldrazi.
Personally, Julna felt that zombies weren't the best of soldiers. They were rather slow and shambling, but the fact that they didn't feel pain meant that they fought long after a living man would be on the ground, gasping in agony.
Julna had no idea whether to be worried or confused as to why Garruk insisted on having his beasts battle next to Liliana's army. He understood that the beastmaster hated Liliana, so a part of him worried that he was planning to use this battle as a distraction to kill her, but he also had witnessed the planeswalker avoiding Liliana at all costs. It was a strange dichotomy.
Ajani and Elspeth were a terrifying duo. As Julna watched with a single shade, a spot in Ashiok's line was breached. The two were immediately there, single-handedly (or, well, double-handedly) pushing back the tide of spawn. Elspeth fought with a deadly grace; wherever Godsend swung, an Eldrazi died, the god-weapon proving too much for it. Kozilek could give magical resistance to the spawn, but not enough to withstand such a powerful weapon. It was also a good thing that the Titan couldn't give the resistance to every spawn at the same time; such an advantage would have made the bulk of Julna's forces useless.
As the shades fought, Julna spotted an opening in the lines of spawn. He urged his shades forward, charging toward the opening.
As soon as the majority of his forces were breaking through the line, three spawnsires charged forward to intercept.
Julna cursed. It had been a trap! His shades could probably take a single spawnsire, but three? Impossible.
There was one thing he could do. Julna released Nyx, and his body materialized in the midst of his shade army, losing all connection to them. A moment later, Shadowseer appeared in a starry flash in Julna's hand. He needed a powerful weapon to fight these things. Each spawnsire was over fifty feet tall and were writhing masses of tentacles, all whipping and slamming the ground around him. As one came near, Julna lunged, cutting it off with his sword. Such a wound was inconsequential, but he theorized that the overwhelming energy in Shadowseer would cause immense pain to the spawnsire.
He was correct. The Eldrazi howled with a volume that Julna didn't think was possible. However, his etherium body was bolstered against the pain and he managed to not even cringe. He took the moment of hesitation to jump onto the spawnsire itself, climbing up its body. The spawnsires roared, all three throwing tentacles at Julna. Perfect. He jumped down and away, letting all three spawnsires snare each other in their tentacles. Within minutes, they were a tangled mess of grayish flesh.
Julna heard a loud rumbling from overhead, and he jumped away from the spawn sires as a group of enormous lightning bolts struck the spawnsires. They screeched, burning in the magical electricity until there was nothing left but ash.
Julna stared at the enormous storm elementals looming over the battlefield. He turned to look at the cliff behind him and saw Ral standing at the edge, a hand upraised, sparks still crackling across his body from the storm magic he conjured. He nodded to the shade army and to Julna, but that was all.
It's a start, Julna thought.
The pause didn't last long. There were still many spawn to fight. Julna dissipated back into his shades and returned to the battle with a vengeance.
Thalia stared at the battle unfolding beneath her. A dozen shades watched with her, waiting to run messages should she need to command a section of the troops. She hadn't seen much that needed to be changed by her up to now; the planeswalkers were fairly good at controlling their troops and keeping the spawn back. But there was one question she'd forgotten to ask Julna before he left.
"Go to the shade army," she told a shade, "And ask Julna what our objective is."
"Yes, Mistress," it said, then swooped away.
In the meantime, best to keep watching the battle. As she looked down the mountain, she gasped. "Send an urgent message to Elspeth and Ajani. The Eldrazi are about to break through Kiora's leviathans." She'd already been worried about Kiora; the beasts she summoned were much more dangerous in the ocean than they were on land. They were more like a wall than an army, and that made it hard to fight back against the Eldrazi.
"At once, Mistress," the shade said, and swooped away, no more than a blur at the speed it was would seek out the two generals and order them to help shore up Kiora's defenses.
Her first shade returned. "Well?" Thalia asked.
"Master Buras wishes to tell you that the objective is to get to Kozilek. Holding back the Eldrazi is a start, as they charged, but you must turn the tide, pushing them back until a path to Kozilek is revealed. The goal is to kill the Titan."
Thalia nodded. It made sense; she'd been fairly sure Julna meant to kill Kozilek, but the Eldrazi was so powerful that she wasn't sure if Julna could do it. At least she now knew what she needed to do.
She saw something. Ral Zarek had broken off a storm elemental from its position to move towards the shade army. There were three of the larger Eldrazi bearing down upon Julna, who was desperately holding them back with Shadowseer. A dozen bolts of lightning shot from the storm elemental, frying all three of the Eldrazi. With their deaths, other groups of spawn died as well.
That's our opening, Thalia thought.
"Send word to Julna and Ashiok!" She ordered a messenger shade. Those two armies were closest together. "Take that opportunity, the break in the Eldrazi lines!"
"Right away, Mistress!"
She called up two other shades. "Go to Gideon Jura," she told one, "And tell him to help those armies out. You, go to Elspeth and Ajani and tell them the same thing." The shades nodded and flew away.
As her orders were relayed, the shades and nightmares moved forward, keeping the breach in the lines from closing. It was slow going; there may not have been anymore spawn in front of them, but instead they were getting attacked from both sides. It was a dicey situation, but Thalia knew that the opening could not be allowed to close.
The hours wore on, Thalia's shades relaying messages to the armies to help Julna and Ashiok. They were, very gradually, making progress, but Kozilek seemed to know that they were getting too close and was diverting his armies away from the others and towards the gap. Thalia, in response, pulled away her own troops to counter.
In Thalia's eyes, the conflict became much like a dance and a game of chess, at the same time. Every move, every tactic either she or Kozilek did was quickly countered by the other. They stepped, leaped, bounded across the playing field, both struggling to search for a flaw in the others' choreography. Thalia understood too well that she was the kingpiece, Julna the queen, and the other planeswalkers the knights. They would do great things, but the two most important pieces were her and Julna. She was the goal; Julna may be powerful, but it was Thalia leading this army, so it was her that Kozilek, the other king in this game of chess, would aim to capture. She had to simultaneously direct her forces away from her towards Kozilek and defend herself from attacks.
Finally, she saw it. The gap had widened enough that a path to the Titan became clear. Sending messages through her shades, she funneled all the armies into that gap. She was left undefended, but the gap split open from the influx of troops, functioning like an axe.
Thalia sat down and waited. She had no defenses left; it was up to Julna now.
Julna worried about Thalia when he heard the orders she gave. Taking that many armies into the gap would certainly give them a way to Kozilek, but it left Thalia completely undefended.
But the message was clear; Thalia had given Julna an opening. The goal was worth the risk.
So, he followed her direction. He pulled the shades further into the gap, keeping them to both sides so they could keep the spawn back. Behind him, he heard the crackling of Ral Zarek's storm elementals blasting the lines of Eldrazi with lightning. He turned a shade around and saw every planeswalker barreling into the breach, forcing it open even further. Elspeth and Ajani were running around, sneaking up behind Eldrazi forces and killing them all. Gideon Jura snared entire squads of spawn with his sural and disintegrated them with its magic edges.
In front of Julna's shades, the path cleared; they had reached the other side of the Eldrazi lines. Kozilek stood there, apparently unconcerned about the breach in his defenses. In fact, it seemed like the spawn around him were pulling back, allowing their armies to come through.
Julna didn't try to speak with the Titan; in this form it was incapable of speech. Besides, Kozilek wasn't very bright. He coalesced back into his body and snapped his fingers, Shadowseer appearing in his hand.
Kozilek didn't… flinch, per se, but he somehow seemed wary of Julna. If Julna had been an Eldrazi, the thought would have been laughable; one of the Titans, afraid of a puny planeswalker? It was ludicrous.
And yet, Kozilek was afraid. This gave Julna courage as he engaged the Titan.
He ran forward and jumped, leaping far higher than any normal human could. Still, it was only high enough to reach the Titan's lower torso. He stabbed with Shadowseer, but the sword barely even pierced Kozilek's skin. Julna cursed.
Kozilek slapped an arm downward, trying to crush Julna, but the Titan moved slowly due to its massive size. Julna dodged the blow easily.
I need more force behind me if I want to stab him, Julna thought.
There were a few ways he could do it. He could get Ral to carry him upwards into the sky with a storm elemental, then drop him. Gravity would do the rest. The problem was, Kozilek could easily kill a mere elemental.
What if Julna somehow got Kozilek himself to do it? Kozilek enjoyed playing with his victim first, and it shouldn't have been too hard to make Kozilek toss Julna up into the air.
He didn't leave Julna any time for hesitation. Julna sent Shadowseer back to Nyx, leaving himself undefended. Kozilek roared in triumph; he obviously thought that Julna couldn't keep his sword any longer. The Titan grabbed Julna in one hand, staring at him with its one, enormous eye. It lightly tossed Julna to its other hand, and as he flew, Julna screamed in mock terror, "No, please! I'm afraid of heights!"
Kozilek stopped after grabbing Julna out of the air. It seemed to be thinking. This was a mind-numbingly powerful being capable of destroying planes, but Julna had heard that of the three Titans, Kozilek was the least intelligent. He could command Eldrazi armies, but his personal battle tactics left much to be desired. The question was, would he fall for the ruse?
Roaring happily again, Kozilek tossed Julna into the air with a tremendous throw. Julna sailed up into the clouds at a terrifying speed, and any normal human probably wouldn't survive the fall back down. Julna didn't even have time to think if he would; all he focused on was aiming as he reached the peak of Kozilek's toss. He turned his body so he was looking back down at Kozilek as he began to he picked up speed, he prayed to the gods of Theros, something he hadn't done in a very long time. He thought it kind of ironic that he was praying to Heliod after nearly killing the god.
Seconds before he landed on Kozilek, Julna summoned Shadowseer. The Eldrazi wasn't even trying to catch him this time. Kozilek's eye grew terribly close as Julna, sword and all, fell straight into its path.
Thalia looked up as she heard roars from every direction. Fear began to race through her heart; had Julna lost? Was Kozilek coming for her now?
No, there was Kozilek in the distance. He was clutching at his eye, and she could just barely see a figure in black and blue scrambling off the head of the Titan and jumping a hundred feet down to the ground. It was a fall that only one person could survive.
"Julna," she said happily, "He did it."
Yes, a voice said. It was Lukarme. He did, but this is not the end. Kozilek was the least of the Eldrazi Titans, and Ulamog's power was limited as he possessed me. Emrakul will not be so easily killed.
Thalia took Lukarme's advice to heart, but now was not the time for victory. She joined in the cheers of the planeswalkers as they dismissed their armies and marched back up the mountain to the cave. As Julna drew near, Thalia could see that he was exhausted, and there was something wrong with Shadowseer. The stars had dulled, and the metal was gray rather than black.
"What happened to it?" she asked in dismay.
Julna was so tired it took him a minute to register what she was talking about. He looked down at Shadowseer. "Kozilek's energy must have tainted the sword's magic. Etherium will take on the properties of many magical energies it touches. I should have thought about that."
"No," Thalia said, "It doesn't matter. What matters is we won!"
Julna shook his head. "We still have to defeat Emrakul. He'll be so much harder to beat, Thalia. I'm still not sure we can do this."
"Well, we're not going to think about that now. Regardless of how you feel, this was a victory." She kissed Julna on the mouth, not caring that the other planeswalkers were watching. "We should celebrate it as such."
The other planeswalkers smiled, even Garruk, and they all walked into the Eye, leaving the couple alone on the cliff face as the sun set on the ravaged plain. Thalia ignored the ugliness of the ground and focused on the sunset. It was perfect.