Power over the earth.
Power under the earth.
It awoke again, rising out of its slumber to find its goal that much closer. The worlds were joined, at least in a tentative physical sense. Slowly, ever so slowly the porcupine form of the lavoid crept upwards toward the surface. Time to free its servant and consume their knowledge and power.
Knowledge. Useful for prediction and self-preservation. The key to opening the minds of lesser beings and bending them to your own whim.
Power. Key to becoming impregnable. Destroy that which threatens your existence. Defend yourself against the onslaught of nature and things unnatural. Yes, the lavoid mused as it crept along, I shall surpass the First and my olders. I shall possess two worlds as one. I shall be unassailable. I shall be the ONLY.
And maybe it would find another means of transportation. The outer shell was extremely tough and impervious to most damage, but it certainly made for slow traveling. Not that the parasitic beings were ever in a hurry...
"Magus? Frog?!"
The female voices sounded vaguely familiar to the blue haired mage as he struggled to compose himself after his attempted scrying of the past. True to his prediction, he had been able to maintain the level of power required, but without the aid of the Masamune as a focus would have been able to see nothing of relevance to the situation.
As it was, all that he had been able to view was certain changes that had taken place in the life-forces of two differing planes of existence…
He attempted to sort it all out in his mind, the cluttered mass of images and impressions left over from the wild ride that was his spell. Never before had he attempted to harness that much power for so long a time. The gods alone knew when he would next attempt it. Even with his aborted summons of Lavos, the spell's force had been contained by the circle itself; he had only been needed to make the necessary noise to complete the summons…
Oh how they did babble on! Couldn't the owners of the voices just leave him to his ponderings? He could solve this riddle if they would just leave him be!
Magus shook his head and stared up at the concerned faces gathered around him. Frog had pulled back somewhat from the wizard, a gigantic frown upon the amphibian's features. Lucca and Marle wore worried expressions as well, though when they had popped up… Gods! How embarrassing! He'd seen them arrive, just as the spell had finished.
Steeling his own face to conceal his consternation, the wizard slowly stood, retrieving the Masamune in the process and returning it to its wielder. "Very good deduction froggy. It was most helpful."
Frog blink-blinked as he returned the sword to its sheath. "T'would be safe to assume then that thou saw something to do with our present endeavor? Or hast thou simply recovered thine own austere composure and acerbic wit?" He remarked dryly.
"Really Frog! Just give him a minute; after all, he is the only competent spellcaster here at the present time!" Lucca was quick to chide him, even as she threw a worried gaze at the Zealian Prince. He was the most powerful magic user there and if he was having problems with his spells, what would that signify for the rest of the intrepid time travelers?
The mage looked slightly amused for a moment, but that could have just been her imagination.
Magus coughed slightly and turned once more to the occupants of the "End of Time". The two females remained worried, though Frog had managed to settle himself once again and Spekkio remained strangely silent. "However true that statement, I did manage to find the answer to at least one of our questions. The old man's current whereabouts."
This was immediately pounced on by all present. Cries of "Where is he?", "You saw him?", "What happened to him?" rang out simultaneously. He opened his mouth to reply…
…And was promptly cut off by the voice behind him. "That 'old man' was down visiting Melchior, the other 'old man'." The Guru of Time stepped back into the light under the lamp post.
Deep underground Alex lay in his tiny cavern, frustrated for the past few days in his attempts to exercise his power. Earlier he had been able to tap into it to pull a whole other world out of its dimensional orbit, now he could no longer manipulate anything. It was as though he were again confronted by the guardian after having received the Golden Light. He was being ridiculed for assuming that he now contained the power of a god.
"You have almost limitless power and almost limitless life."
And then the kicker: "I infused Isaac with a small portion of the power of the Mar's Star."
Due to the meddling of the guardian he was deprived of his ultimate goal: the power of Alchemy. He had almost all the power and therefore almost no limits. But he was still frustrated because he could use less psynergy now than when he'd first started learning as a pupil under Mia.
So this is what it's like to be a powerless human.
Forcing himself to relax, Alex closed his eyes against the darkness. Another thought struck him as he lay there.
Or perhaps what it is like to be a dead god…