Chapter Fifteen
Shadow's Last Stand
*Man, this update took way too long. I apologize for that, but this chapter needs a bit of an explanation. This chapter took so long because I spent most of the summer struggling to write this chapter as the huge battle scene that I've been building up to, but it just wasn't working. Most of the feedback I've been given concerning my battle scenes hasn't been overwhelmingly positive, so I wanted to make this chapter the best it could possibly be. What I found was that I just wasn't getting the feeling that the battle scene I was writing was working out. I kept working on it, trying to find some way to make it better in both my eyes and the expectations of the people who would read it, but what I eventually found was that it just wasn't working. I didn't want to write this as a battle scene if that scene would have ended up being just as sub-par as my others, and I didn't want to disappoint any of you with a sub-par conclusion (the irony is that not writing this as a battle scene might disappoint you as well. However, that is a risk I am willing to take.) Not only was the battle scene not as good as I'd hoped, but I didn't really feel like that was the logical course of action Emrakul would take. The Eldrazi wouldn't act like military generals, sending their spawn in orderly fashion to be taken down by Julna's planeswalkers; they would simply destroy everything in sight (for an example, look up the card "All is Dust" if you don't already know what it is). So, this is the result. If you feel like it wasn't the ending you were hoping for, I apologize, but this is what I felt was the best course of action. Thank you for seeing this story through to the end (although there is an epilogue).
Umbreomancer
The being some called Emrakul floated through the Eternities. It did not float with purpose, but neither was it aimless; it was the travel of one who was perfectly content. Eldrazi were not beings of emotion, but even Emrakul felt joy at finally being free of that place. The vampire, the dragon, the girl, all three would feel its wrath now that it was free. Emrakul would find them, one by one, and consume their homes.
Emrakul heard laughter. What?
You have been gone too long, titan, the voice said, The dragon is gone, and the vampire no longer exists in the Multiverse.
Emrakul expressed confusion. What a strange thing for an Eldrazi to feel.
It's quite simple. The dragon was killed by the one called Nicol Bolas, his bones interred on the plane Tarkir. The vampire was caught in a time spell that separated that separated him from this Multiverse. Tarkir continues to exist in the state it was before the spell was activated, but without the variables that caused the shift.
What are you? Emrakul said. It felt strange, communicating in this manner.
Something new was appearing in the Eternities. A strange rift appeared, revealing blackness beyond. It was a different sort of chaos; the Eternities were a chaotic, never-ending assault on the senses of any being, but what Emrakul sensed through that rift was… nothing. A chaos defined by its non-existence. It was a paradox Emrakul had never considered before.
The presence Emrakul had sensed was entering through this rift in the Eternities. It perceived a strange form, a large stone with several sinuous tentacles, entering.
Greetings, my progenitor, it said.
Emrakul had never encountered anything like this in its great lifetime, but it seemed… familiar.
How is this possible? Emrakul asked, How can I be your progenitor? You are not Eldrazi spawn.
This is true, the stone said, But that is not the only way to be made from an Eldrazi. My name is Lukarme. I'm sure you understand the significance of the name.
Emrakul did. It was simple. The letters were the same. Lukarme, Emrakul.
How were you created?
Why does that matter? Here I am.
Then why have you come?
To greet you before you are vanquished. My master is fighting another one of you Titans as we speak.
Only now did Emrakul realize the truth of this. In the back of its consciousness, it felt the presence of Kozilek on Zendikar.
What master is this you speak of?
The stone laughed. Why would I tell you? That is not why I am here.
Then why reveal yourself to me at all?
I will not reveal that either; it would defeat the purpose. What I will say, Emrakul, is that you will soon feel the death of Kozilek. Even now, my master prepares to deal the final blow.
Emrakul felt it. An Eldrazi Titan could always feel the presence of another. His sense of Kozilek abruptly vanished, in much the same way that Ulamog's had.
Emptiness, a horrible emptiness! A being who had been a part of Emrakul's consciousness since their beginning was gone! Emrakul let loose a terrible sound, a sound that would have crushed the mind of anyone who heard it, but Lukarme didn't seem cowed in the least.
All will pay for this, Emrakul told Lukarme, his fury becoming cold, quiet, First of all you.
He lashed out with his power, attempting to crush the stone and the mind that occupied it. It resisted. Emrakul tried again, this time pouring all his strength into this one act of pure anger. Lukarme screamed in pain, and the stone nearly broke; Emrakul sensed that if he tried again, it would shatter.
But wait…
Why kill Lukarme? It would take all Emrakul's strength to do it, and even then, he would not have gotten rid of the true threat. No, his real enemy was this one's master, the being who somehow mustered the power to destroy an Eldrazi titan. Emrakul could feel the lingering effects of Kozilek's destruction. He turned his consciousness away from Lukarme, now realizing just how inconsequential the stone really was.
He set his sight back to the prison. Back to Zendikar.
Back to destruction.
Julna stood amid the ring of planeswalkers, staring into the blazing inferno of magically-fueled fire in front of him. His sword, Shadowseer, now dull gray and lifeless, hovered in the blaze. It was deep in the night, but the light of the fire made this almost indiscernible to Julna's eyes. Not that he was focusing on the environment around him; his attention was entirely on the sword.
"Alright," he said to the mages around him, "Let's try it." He called on his mana sources, finally replenished after the battle with Kozilek the week before. All had been unnaturally quiet since then; no Eldrazi swarms had attacked, Emrakul had not shown itself, bent on destruction. It was almost eerie in its peacefulness, and Julna didn't like it. He needed Shadowseer back to full strength as soon as possible, for an ambush was increasing in probability the longer they went without another battle.
Each mage poured mana and energy into him, giving him energy beyond what he could ever draw himself. All this magic, all this purified energy was directed at the corrupt sword in front of Julna. Kozilek had instilled the essence of the Eldrazi into the etherium sword, corrupting its power and weakening it. It had started out as a greying on the edges, but the taint had spread across the entire sword. Now, chalky whiteness was starting to appear, and Julna knew that if it spread across the entire sword as the grey had, the blade would be lost. Shadowseer was one of the greatest weapons they had against the unstoppable horde of Eldrazi, and if it was lost, Julna wasn't sure if they could stop the onslaught.
If only Sorin and Ugin were here with Julna. They and Nahiri had originally sealed the Eldrazi, and the power of the three would very much have turned the tide. Unfortunately, only Nahiri was here with Julna; Ugin and Sorin had been sucked into that alternate outlet by Sarkhan Vol's meddling with time travel magic. It was a devastating loss. Not only did they lose Sorin and Ugin, but Nissa Revane had travelled to Tarkir shortly before the catastrophe as well. Julna and Lukarme had theorized that any planeswalker not on Tarkir at the time would have a duplicate in the other outlet, but not the ones present. That meant that those three were lost forever.
Focus, Julna chided himself, Enough mental rambling.
He took the energy and channeled it, turning the mana into a spell of purification, intending to drive out Kozilek's corruption. He worried, though; etherium was an incredibly powerful material, and driving anything it absorbed out was nigh-on insurmountable. This had to work. If it didn't, he wasn't sure what they would do.
He felt slightly more confident when he remembered that Thalia was standing next to him, adding the meager amount of mana she could draw to the pool. It was only a trickle, but it meant so much to him. She concentrated and squeezed his hand, willing Julna to do his best.
Shadowseer began to glow as the torrent of mana rushed into it. The glow complimented the light of the fire. It snapped and crackled, both fire and sword throwing up multicolored sparks. As Julna continued the spell, he felt something shove against it. He almost lost his concentration; something was blocking his magic, most likely the Eldrazi corruption. He pushed again, harder, forcing the mana to break through the taint and restore the sword.
It shoved back again, but this time it wasn't at the mana Julna was channeling, but at his own mind. Somehow, the taint was alive, and it had used the mana as a bridge to get to Julna. An impossibly heavy weight settled on him, and he crumpled to the ground. Within it, he could hear a cacophonous voice saying THIS SHALL NOT BE.
He tried to end the spell, but he couldn't. Now that both planeswalker and taint were using it, it couldn't be stopped by either. The force on his soul got stronger. It was… getting hard to think…
Julna dimly heard Thalia yell "The mana! Forge it into a blade!" What did that mean? Who was Thalia? All conscious thought was dissipating. His sense of self was shrinking, dwindling under the weight of whatever force was encased in Shadowseer.
The spell snapped, the weight vanished. He gasped for breath, realizing only now that Thalia had saved him, just as his ability to breathe was about to be erased. Thalia squealed in a very un-Thalia like way, squeezing him in a tight embrace. There were tears in the corners of her eyes.
"Never do that again," she said, her voice quivering.
"Agreed," Julna said, exhausted, "What did you do?"
"I used their mana, somehow," she replied, "I can't draw very much, but I took what they gave me and condensed it somehow. The energy was so concentrated that it could rip through lesser mana."
Julna stared at her. He'd never heard of something like that happening, especially someone whose magical abilities weren't nearly as strong as a planeswalker's...
"Lukarme told you how, didn't he?" he said.
She blushed. That was it, then. "I was pretty frantic, and then I just heard his voice, telling me what to do…"
"I'm not mad at you, if you were wondering for some strange reason. Anything that keeps my mind from being devoured by a living virus is good enough for me." Julna looked at Shadowseer. The chalky whiteness on the sides had disappeared, but the dullness of the blade remained. All that energy, and he had hardly made a dent in it. He sighed. "Well then, that's that." He picked up the sword from the fire and took it back to his tent. Thalia followed him, concerned.
"What are we going to do, Thalia?" Julna asked once they were both inside, "Without Shadowseer, we have no way of defeating any Eldrazi Titan, let alone Emrakul. I'm sure it's out there, just waiting to spring on us with a horde of spawn. How can we hope to defeat him without my most powerful weapon?"
Thalia stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder. "We'll do the best we can, Julna. It's all we can do. Besides, how do we know that we can't defeat Emrakul? It only took three planeswalkers to imprison the titans, and you have an army."
"It's not that simple. Last time, Nahiri had Sorin and Ugin with them. Ugin's power was so great that he spawned dragons all across Tarkir, and Sorin was the very first vampire on Innistrad, his power unmatched. Neither of them are here now; instead, all we have is the Lithomancer, her apprentice, and many lesser mages."
Thalia frowned. She pulled him into another embrace, and said calmly, "Your pessimism isn't doing much for us, you know. Try to have some hope."
He sighed. She was right, of course. Nothing was worse than going into a battle with no hope. Besides, he was probably exaggerating the weakness of planeswalkers in these times; true, they weren't gods like before the Mending, but that didn't mean that they were useless.
"Tell you what," Thalia continued, "Let's get some sleep, and tomorrow we'll wake up with a more positive outlook." She pulled him down to the bed they shared. It had been an exhausting day, and Julna fell asleep almost instantly.
The next day, Julna stood on top of the cliffside next to Gideon Jura, staring down at the band of refugees staggering towards the mountain. Word had spread that one of the Eldrazi Titans had fallen, and that there was a rallying point for all the Zendikari that wanted to flee to safety. Gideon probably had a very large hand in that; people trusted him, especially since he had fought among them long before Julna had recruited him.
"How will we find enough space to fit them all?" Julna asked Gideon, "The caves aren't big enough."
"Most of them are used to living in worse-than-normal conditions," he replied, still confident, "They travel with their small beds. All they need is a surface to lay them on."
"'Worse-than-normal'? I'd take that to mean horrible."
"We must be optimistic," Gideon said, somewhat sternly, "We've defeated Kozilek. We can win this fight."
"We defeated Kozilek with Shadowseer," Julna shot back, "And what did he do? Corrupted our greatest weapon? How can we hope to defeat a Titan even more powerful than he is without it?"
Gideon didn't have an answer, which somehow made their situation even more hopeless. Julna stalked away, shaking his head at the pointless retort. What was he doing? They all needed to think they could win, and he responded by pointing out how bleak the situation was?
He needed something to do. No Eldrazi had attacked, there was no hint of Emrakul's whereabouts, so he began worrying out of boredom. It was never a good cycle. He looked down again at the column of Zendikari refugees and had an idea. He'd need Thalia.
"What exactly are we doing?" she asked when he started (almost literally) pulling her towards the refugees.
"I've been wallowing in hopelessness, Thalia," he said, pulling stone out of the cliffside with lithomancy to form a path downward, "And I feel that helping these people can restore both my sanity and my optimism. These people have nothing, and each one I help will tell me that I have made a difference on this plane."
Thalia nodded. Of course she understands, Julna thought, she's been guarding an entire village for most of her life.
They made their way downward and into the throng of people. There were elves, kor, even some vampires of Malakir. Julna found that the most odd; the vampires normally never mixed with outsiders, as they saw them as nothing but a food source. Nevertheless, each and every one of them looked downcast, miserable; most of them had probably fled their homes only days ahead of the Eldrazi. They saw Julna and Thalia approaching, and their eyes brightened, if ever so slightly.
Julna used a trick of lithomancy that he'd learned early on, which made sound carry further through earth. It allowed his voice to sound much louder. "People of Zendikar," he said, trying to sound authoritative, "We are so glad that you have survived the Eldrazi scourge and made it to this place of refuge. Here, you are safe." They didn't cheer, but their faces lifted in eagerness.
"While there is not much," Julna continued, "What we have is yours." This time, the crowd cheered, and began walking towards the mountain much quicker than they had before.
Thalia looked a bit troubled at this statement. "Julna," she whispered, "How are we going to feed all these people? I thought the supplies we brought with us were dwindling already."
Julna looked at her slyly. "Do you remember the enormous old storehouse outside Thraben? The one that got overrun before you could get the supplies out of it?"
"Of course. The ghosts there killed anyone who trespassed."
"Well, I have influences over spirits and shades, as you know. I fought them and dissipated them, then had all the planeswalkers help carry the food here. We have enough to feed these people for about two weeks."
Thalia stared at him. "And why did you decide to not tell me these things?" she asked, sounding hurt.
Julna mentally slapped his palm against his face. He hadn't told her because he'd never thought that she'd need to know. Now he realized that she did, and the fact that he hadn't told her made her feel betrayed.
"I'm sorry, Thalia," he said, " It slipped my mind. I haven't had anyone to confide in for several thousand years, and so this is all new to me."
Her expression softened; she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I understand," she whispered, "But I have one more question: how are we actually going to give them the food? There are several thousand of them."
"What else do we have several thousand of?" Julna asked, "My shades have already begun rationing it out. They'll hand out food if they have nothing else to do."
She kissed him again. "You always think of everything."
"I certainly try."
It was strange. He hadn't even really done much for these people besides offer them things they were already expecting to get, but he felt a lot better. Just helping these people be happy again was amazingly uplifting. His own optimism increased, but he still had doubts. What else could they do without Shadowseer?
We still have a long way to go, he thought, But at least we've taken a step.
It was a day that Julna would remember for as long as he lived, which would be a very long time.
It started much like any other, with a small skirmish against a band of Eldrazi. No sign of Emrakul, just a few drones leading their spawn behind him.
He was alerted to this fact by a shade sentinel he had ordered to watch for such a thing. "Master!" it said, gliding into his tent, "Eldrazi have been spotted!" Thalia awoke with a start, sleep falling from her eyes like a curtain, leaving no trace. She'd told Julna before that she had had to learn to do that, as attacks from monsters on Innistrad could happen at any time. They looked at each other, eyes saying the same thing. Could this be it? Was today the day when Emrakul would finally show himself? They both knew Julna anticipated an ambush from the titan when they were fighting only spawn. So far, nothing had happened.
"Don't awaken all the planeswalkers," Julna said, "How many are there?"
"Only about three hundred," the shade said, saluting with a wispy black arm, "Not much bigger than other bands we've seen."
Julna nodded, getting up. It was probably just another band that had happened upon the wrong place at the wrong time. "I'll take care of them myself," he said, dressing and throwing Urza's cloak around his shoulders. He didn't grab Shadowseer; it would function as only a normal sword against Eldrazi now, and normal swords could hardly ever pierce their hide. He stepped out of the tent and dashed out to the cliffside to see the Eldrazi for himself.
Was it really three hundred? It seemed a lot smaller than that. There were a few drones and processors leading the pack, but it just seemed to be mostly spawn and scions, small things that were hardly worth fighting.
"Summon the shades," Julna ordered. With Shadowseer corrupted, he couldn't keep them in it any longer, so the sentinel flew off to rally them from their various hiding places. They came quickly, always eager to fulfill the orders of the Seneschal. Julna honestly never thought of himself that way; those so-called "prophecies" were nothing more than a ploy by Lukarme to get Julna to free him from Ulamog's grip. Still, the shades believed it, so he played along sometimes to keep them loyal.
Thalia stepped quietly up next to him and said, "I'll be watching. If anything happens, I'll wake the others."
Julna smiled and kissed her quickly. "Most likely nothing will happen," he replied, "But thank you for being vigilant." He backed away from her, turned, and burst into stars, his essence bestowing itself into the horde of shades. Once again, he was all of them at once; he could feel each on gliding down the cliffside towards the spawn below, saw through hundreds of eyes. Against this force, the Eldrazi pack seemed like nothing. The creatures didn't even notice when the horde of shades slammed into them.
With his omniscient-like awareness, Julna could feel the entire skirmish happen. He was the one who slammed a shadow fist into and Eldrazi's head, hand slipping straight through the thick head plates and crushing what passed for a brain in the Eldrazi. His powers were the ones who suppressed the mental functions that kept the Eldrazi moving and their body systems functioning, killing them without a touch. The spawn were dead in minutes, leaving only the drones. They were slightly more powerful, and Julna made it a rule to coalesce into himself whenever he fought them. It made it feel more personal.
He did so now, releasing his hold on the shades and returning to his own body. He didn't have his sword, but he could still summon Æther mana to nullify their powers and slow their bodies. He leaped and wove in between his shades, throwing bolts of mana at the drones as they were about to use whatever corrupt Eldrazi power was at their disposal. The shades swarmed around him, and he realized something. He may not have believed Lukarme's "prophecies", but he was, in a way, the shadows' Seneschal, able to control and rally any army of darkness at his command. It was a strange time to have an epiphany, true, but his mind had always been able to race and think no matter what the situation around him.
A drone shrieked next to him as the shades destroyed its defenses and crushed its mind, leaving nothing but an empty husk in its place. The other four drones were stumbling around, their unnaturally colored skins completely covered in shadow. Julna finished each one off personally with a bolt of Æther mana, and the shades did the rest.
He stood there, surrounded by shades and dead Eldrazi, not even panting from the exertion. Why did this happen so often? Were the Eldrazi unable to communicate with the others to stay away from this place? He'd always been sure that the Eldrazi could communicate somewhat telepathically, so why didn't they? The thought only increased the certainty in Julna's mind that one of these days, it would be an ambush.
He bestowed his essence on the shades again to lead them up the cliffside back to the camp. Another skirmish done, more Eldrazi dead, no shade casualties this time. A good fight.
How very wrong he was.
As he formed back into his own body again, an earthquake unlike anything he'd ever felt before shook across the terrain. The entire landscape heaved and shook, as if trying to get something disgusting off its surface. Unprepared as he was, Julna fell off the side of the cliff.
He hit the bottom with a crash, pain streaking through his body. He knew that if it weren't for his etherium bones, his skeleton would have shattered and his neck would have snapped. As it was, he lay there for a few minutes, gasping in pain, waiting for his body to heal. He could see Thalia staring over the edge, looking horrified. He waved an arm to indicate he was fine and shouted, "I'm fine!" just for good measure.
She was no longer looking at Julna, but something off behind him. He stood up, wincing as remnants of pain still coursed through his body, and looked behind him. He didn't feel fear, or surprise, or shock, or anything like that. Instead, he just felt… inevitability. He had expected this, and of course, it had eventually happened.
Emrakul had arrived.
The being some called Emrakul rose over the plane called Zendikar. It was aware of the dead corpses of Eldrazi drones and spawn below it on the distant ground. Beyond that, it felt the presence of him, the one responsible for the death of so many, even two fellow Titans. Kozilek's death, even Ulamog's farther back in time, were still fresh in the Titan's consciousness. The rage it felt, once so strange, an emotion, but now central to its purpose, flowed through it, pushing it towards him. The taunting words of Lukarme only served to enrage it more.
For the first time in living memory, Emrakul formed its thoughts into language to communicate with a human. You knew I would come, it said, directing its thoughts across the entire landscape.
"Of course," he said, almost conversationally, "With Ulamog and Kozilek dead, your species is on the verge of extinction. Unless you wanted to become the last of your kind, you would have to confront me sooner or later."
He was right, of course. With all Emrakul's power, it still fell prey to the most basic tenet of life: the protection of one's self and species. Even without Lukarme's dare, Emrakul would have eventually found its way back to Zendikar. It would not allow its brethren and spawn to be killed so casually; the scourge must be dealt with. He must die.
But how to do it? He had shown his power time and time again. What could goad him into recklessness or despair, destroying his ability to fight back? Emrakul could destroy the shades, of course, but he would probably feel no more sorrow than Emrakul would at dead spawn. He needed a titan, one parallel to Kozilek or Ulamog, the being closest to his mind and heart.
Where could Emrakul find one such as that? None of the planeswalkers with him were that close.
Wait.
What about the other one? The shade-caller, despite being so much weaker? She was not a walker, and Emrakul did not understand how one such as her could be on a different plane in the first place, but what did it matter? It sensed a connection between the two, one that it had never witnessed between any others. She would do; he would be defeated. It must be.
The whole of Emrakul's monstrous body began vibrating slightly, power rising and focusing on the shade-caller. She did not feel a thing, not at first. Emrakul slowly worked its power through her body, shutting down systems, destroying the electrical systems that kept her body functioning. She managed to say something—Emrakul didn't notice what—but her body quickly shut down completely. Without a sound, she fell over the cliff as well, just as he had only a few minutes before.
"Rally the troops!" Julna heard Thalia call before falling off the cliff. He couldn't move, could hardly breathe from the shock, but somehow his mind forced his body to move, rushing toward her swiftly descending body and catching it, knocking him to the ground. He held her for a moment, relieved, until he noticed something horrible.
She wasn't breathing.
He cried out in shock, searching for a sign, anything to show that there was still life in the woman he loved. There was nothing.
Julna began to cry in despair. He could not ever remember doing this before, but then again, when had he ever cared for someone as much as he had for Thalia? There time together had been so short, but the despair and grief he felt for her was all too real.
Falderin rose off the ground, eyes that could not shed tears still somehow conveying as much sadness as Julna felt. He disappeared in Thalia's body, searching her mind and brain functions for anything.
"Something has shut down her brain completely, suppressing all function. It is most likely, of course, that it was Emrakul."
Of course it was. This wasn't some random murder, this was a message. I can kill anyone you love, the message said, And you will not even know until it is too late.
"Is there anything you can do, Falderin? Niredlaf?"
Both shade and spirit appeared now, studying Thalia. The pause was long, much too long, but finally, Niredlaf said, "Yes, actually, there is."
Hope hit Julna so hard it was almost like a wall. "What? What is it?"
"Apparently, I hold some of your memories, Julna," Niredlaf said, "And one of them is relevant. Do you remember the single instance that Nahiri managed to heal someone?"
What? When did… wait, yes, he did. "The time someone with sickness of the mind asked her to heal him? How is this relevant?"
"That person's affliction was that his brain was shutting down, piece by piece. Nahiri used the man's own magical potential in order to re-awaken his brain."
Julna gasped, sounding almost like another sob. "Can we do that here? Where her entire brain is… dead?" He could hardly say that last word. It was just too terrible, too filled with finality.
"We'll have to see," Niredlaf said, "Now, Julna, you need lithomancy for this. As all magic is rooted in the earth, lithomancy can work with it."
Julna laid Thalia's body carefully on the ground and stood up. Niredlaf flew toward him and they melded, restoring Julna's lithomantic power.
Now, Niredlaf said from inside Julna, Take a small stone and place it against her forehead.
Julna looked around and saw a small pile of gravel to his right. He selected the roundest pebble he could find, because Thalia deserved the best of whatever he had to offer.
"Master," Falderin said, "It is getting closer."
Julna looked up and saw that he was right; Emrakul was trailing towards them, leaving an expanse of chalky-white emptiness on the terrain behind it. Julna ignored it.
"We have more important things to deal with," Julna said, turning back to Thalia.
"Master…?"
"No, Falderin. We will deal with Emrakul and all that it has done, but first, we have to save Thalia."
He didn't need Niredlaf to tell him what to do next; he knew instinctually. Using the stone as a focus, he directed his magic through it and into her mind. He saw the magical potential her mind held; it truly wasn't much, but hopefully, her mind could remember what it could do. He ever so carefully fed the potential from pure white mana he had drawn. There was a… resistance… of some sort, much like the resistance he had felt within Shadowseer. This time, however, he would not give. He fought against the Eldrazi within her, forcing it out, and finally, when all seemed hopeless, she gasped a breath. Her body was functioning again.
But her eyes were closed. Niredlaf separated himself from Julna and examined her again. "Her basic bodily functions are working again," he said, "But the potential was not enough to restore her mind."
Was it enough? No, it wasn't, but it was all Julna could do for her right now. With study and thought, he could probably figure out a way to bring her back completely, but he couldn't right now.
"Take Thalia back to the tent," he told Niredlaf, "And make sure she's safe."
"What are you going to do?" Niredlaf asked, worried.
Julna turned back towards Emrakul. He felt the spells being readied by all the planeswalkers up above.
"I'm going to take down the final Titan."
Lukarme floated in the Infinite, watching the conflict unfold. It was happening just as he knew it would. The catalyst had been and always would be the fall of Thalia.
Please, Lukarme thought, Remember.
Julna ran amid an entire army of creatures conjured by the planeswalkers. Beasts, nightmares, even illusions that he hadn't noticed Jace using before. He could feel the power of Zendikar's land flowing through them all; it was just as desperate for them to save it as they were. More mana than Julna had ever known before flowed through him, and he used it all to give his shades more power than ever.
Emrakul didn't waver, didn't hesitate; it simply continued onward, as if oblivious to the force coming to oppose it.
You think to defeat me,it said. It wasn't a question.
"I do," Julna said, "And nothing you can do will stop me."
I think otherwise.
An enormous force of Eldrazi appeared from behind the monstrous form of Emrakul. It wasn't spawn this time, but drones, spawnsires, and other Eldrazi brood that had originally been imprisoned with the titans. It was an army that would have overwhelmed them last time, but they were prepared now. They had something to fight for, and the very land itself was on their side.
The two armies clashed, and bodies began to fall, both Eldrazi and others. Julna ducked a swinging tentacle and tossed a ball of Æther mana at its head, destroying its ability to function. His shades swirled around him, protecting him from unseen blows and lashing out at any Eldrazi foolish enough to stand before him. He saw, of all things, a sword flying towards him, and he reached out and caught it. It was only then that he realized it was one of the swords he had made for his lithomantic shades. They had joined the fight as well, cutting down Eldrazi with every slash of their etherium swords. The sword Julna held wasn't Shadowseer, but it was etherium infused with Æther mana, and so it was enough. The gap in the defenses of the Eldrazi widened as they cut a path through. All through it, Emrakul did not move any more. He had stopped a small distance away from the clash and had not wavered.
More Eldrazi kept coming. Emrakul's force was growing, and that proved a problem. Julna was pretty sure the titan had rallied every Eldrazi on Zendikar for this fight. Julna needed more troops, but even with Zendikar's help, and the planeswalkers themselves joining the fight, it wasn't enough. The Eldrazi were beginning to push back.
He began to worry as a number of his lithomantic shades fell, their swords clattering to the ground. Julna rushed forward, killing the Eldrazi that murdered them in retribution. Still, more came.
We can't keep this up, Julna thought with despair, The Eldrazi are going to win. He looked back towards the cliffside.
I'm sorry, Thalia. I did the best I could.
He heard trumpets coming from the west.
The battle stopped, all sounds stopping as both creatures and Eldrazi turned towards the noise. Julna looked as well and saw a glorious sight.
The refugees had gone to rally the rest of their tribes. All the Zendikari, the elves, vampires, kor, and humans were there, holding weapons of all kinds to fight for their plane. At their head was Gideon Jura, smiling slyly.
You wonderful idiot, Julna thought, You left this battle to rally them, didn't you?
The allies let loose a deafening battle cry and rushed forward, flanking the Eldrazi. The monstrosities shrieked in denial even as they fell, unable to understand how mere mortals could fell them. Julna felt satisfaction for every one that fell.
Don't worry Thalia, he thought, I won't leave you.
The time was almost at hand. Lukarme watched as the allies and planeswalkers together drove the Eldrazi back. Emrakul watched over it all.
Lukarme worried. The turning point, the moment that all his planning had led up to was about to happen, and he worried about the outcome. Would Julna understand? Could he do it? Or would Emrakul win?
Julna stood among the dead Eldrazi, holding his sword aloft at Emrakul defiantly. The Eldrazi Titan made no notice of this, or it did not show it. The allies and creatures, streaked in brackish Eldrazi blood, cheered and raised their weapons as well. The feeling of elation was very real through them.
Now, Julna thought, to deal with the Titan.
"For Zendikar!" Gideon shouted, and they all charged towards the monstrous form of Emrakul. Power flowed through them all, the planeswalkers, the allies, everyone, and Julna was sure that they could do it.
Emrakul did not move, but a wave of chalky whiteness flowed out from him, and an insurmountable force crashed through everything around it. Julna was thrown backwards, as were the allies. Worst of all, all the creatures, the zombies, the shades, dissolved to dust instantly. Nothing remained to show that a supernatural army had even existed.
A deep rumbling vibrated through Emrakul. It repeated, again and again, and Julna realized that the titan was laughing.
You think you've won? it said, You could never fathom how insignificant you are. My spawn and brood are nothing compared to me. Nothing can stand before a titan. All is dust before me.
A tentacle reached out and grabbed Julna, constricting him so tightly it was hard to breathe. It lifted him up high into the air, then threw him back down to the ground. It was worse than falling off the cliff, and Julna screamed in pain. Emrakul grabbed him and threw him again. The titan was playing with him. All through the torture, Emrakul continued to laugh.
You. Will. Die. You will be less than nothing.
It was over. Julna caught glimpses of the allies and planeswalkers on the ground, unconscious. It was a small consolation, that no one would see Julna's final humiliation. Falderin and Niredlaf, however, were on the ground watching him get thrown again and again. The agony in their eyes was real, and Julna felt another pain, unlike the constant torment of his body slowly being broken.
But then they looked away. Why would they do that? Julna only had this single thought before Emrakul threw him again, this time much harder. He hit a large boulder and finally heard a scraping snap. It was the sound of metal breaking. His right arm's ethereal bones had shattered.
The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. How would one feel when their immortal body was broken?
Agony.
All thought ceased, any sense of consciousness dissipated through sheer torment. All Julna knew now was pain, horrible, mind-numbing agony. The one thing he could distinguish of the outside world was Emrakul's laughter.
The pain stopped.
Julna gasped and sat up. What happened? How had all that suddenly just vanished? It defied reason.
At least, it defied reason until he saw Niredlaf. The spirit-shade had taken on Julna's form and was now moaning incoherently on the ground in the exact same position Julna had been moments before.
More tears welled up in Julna's eyes as he realized what the spirit had done. Niredlaf had linked his mind with Julna's and absorbed all the pain. Any pain Julna felt from now on would transfer to Niredlaf until the link was ended. It was a terrible sacrifice, and Julna knew that it was because they all knew this was the end. It was now or never.
What had they been looking at? Julna glanced at Falderin and tried to ask without speaking, as Emrakul would know immediately if they tried to communicate verbally. Falderin glanced back towards Emrakul. Or more accurately, at the ground below Emrakul's writhing form.
At its shadow.
Memories flashed back to Julna, of a battle on a city-plane far away, a battle against a storm mage and a monstrous storm elemental. And a pebble.
The pebble had come from the shade Julna created from the storm elemental's shadow. After its form had used up its energy, it condensed into a shade stone, where it contained a remnant of its former power.
Julna looked back at Falderin and Niredlaf. The two were opposites, one shadow and black aligned, one spirit and white. Both were parts of his soul, but opposites, and their names reflected that. Niredlaf was Falderin backwards.
And Julna finally understood.
He looked back at Emrakul's shadow. If he took that shadow, and made a shade out of it, that shade would be the opposite of Emrakul. Equal in power, opposite in being. And what would its name be? Mentally, Julna flipped the letters of Emrakul's name around.
Lukarme.
He stood up, ignoring the flopping lifelessness of his shattered right arm. Niredlaf screamed louder as Julna moved it, but he had to ignore the screams. He finally knew what he had to do. Shadowseer was useless, he had no shades besides the two pieces of himself, and he still knew exactly how to defeat the titan.
"Falderin," he said, and his own calm astounded him, "I need you to wake up the planeswalkers. It's imperative that they be awake for this."
Falderin nodded and flew off to wake them up.
What are you doing? Emrakul asked, sounding surprised. You cannot hope to defeat me.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," Julna said, "And here's why: the most powerful beings in the multiverse tend to overlook that which they deem to be unimportant." He looked to Falderin, who had woken the planeswalkers and was explaining what they needed to do.
"And do you know what you've overlooked? Quite literally?" Julna continued, walking forward slowly.
I have overlooked nothing, for nothing is above me. I am pure destruction.
"You're quite right that nothing is above you, Emrakul. What I'm talking about is directly beneath you."
WHAT?
"NOW!" Julna shouted, and seized Emrakul's shadow with his left hand.
The planeswalkers, aware of Julna's plan because of Falderin, fed all the mana they could generate into Julna's body, and through his body, into Julna's cloak. He ripped it off and slashed it through the enormous shadow again and again, until it had all been absorbed and the blue of the cloak was obscured by pure shadow and mana. With a scream, Julna whipped the cloak away from him, and the shadow was expelled in a flash.
Emrakul had no time to react. The shadow had no sooner been ejected from the cloak than it formed into the monstrous body of a shade. Exactly the same as Emrakul, but the opposite at the same time.
Lukarme.
Lukarme's body rumbled with rage, reflecting the emotions running through Julna as he had created him. It slammed into the Eldrazi with a force mightier than the titan had ever had to deal with before. Emrakul's shriek was louder, more terrified than anything Julna had heard from the Eldrazi hordes he had destroyed. Lukarme raised a gigantic tentacle and laid it on the crown of Emrakul's body, with the clear intent of crushing the titan's mind. Emrakul fought back, shooting out tentacles, constricting Lukarme's body, trying to squeeze and feed on the life he contained.
The two were opposites, but the same. Neither could gain an advantage over the other. Neither could destroy the other.
But together, they were both destroyed.
When two forces of equal strength collided, neither overcame the other. Instead, they were both stopped, dissipated, as Julna saw now.
Emrakul finally got a firm grip on Lukarme and began to drain his life away, but at the same time, Lukarme's power filtered into Emrakul's body, stopping its functions. It was, Julna thought grimly, a cruel irony, as that had been what Emrakul had done to Thalia only hours ago. Together, the titans died, Emrakul dissolving into dust, another irony. Lukarme's shadowy body vanished like steam, but at his core, his substance condensed into a very familiar stone, about the size of a human head, with two small tentacles coming out either side.
The rest of Emrakul's corpse dissipated until there was nothing left of the scourge. The chalky whiteness of the land around it began to fade—slowly, yes—but it did fade.
An unfamiliar silence fell across the plane as Lukarme's shade stone gently lowered itself down to the ground in front of Julna.
Master, he said.
"Lukarme," Julna replied, "I created you."
Yes, I believe you did, Lukarme replied, chuckling a bit. He turned his attention to Julna's arm. I can repair that, he said.
Julna was shocked. "You can?"
I may not have the power of an Eldrazi, he said, But I can heal injuries, no matter how unnatural the body. Etherium proves no problem. A tentacle reached out and gently touched Julna's arm. A pulse of mana travelled down the tentacle, and Julna could feel his bones reform. Niredlaf stopped moaning, and opened his eyes. He looked at Julna and Lukarme.
"I'm going to assume," he said, "that we won. If we didn't, leave me to my delusions."
They laughed. It felt good, but it quickly died when Julna remembered what he still needed to do.
"Thalia," he said, "We have to help her now."
"Agreed," Falderin said, "But how?"
Julna turned his back to the final site of Emrakul, the Eldrazi titan. He had more important things to worry about now.
"Any way we can."
