And you may have heard of me from here to the Eryth Sea
There's a legend about me in Colony Six, they say I am the reason it fell
And they know me wide and far, from here to Agniratha
The Mechonis came for me
I am I am I am a Unique
The song still buzzed around in Despotic Arsene's head as he set off the next morning to meet the challenge that had been chosen for him. He hadn't really rested, between the atmosphere of excitement and expectation and the after-effects of heavy drinking and frenetic dancing, which had taken their toll on his small body. He recovered as much as he could while Daedala flew him back to Satorl Marsh. Being hauled up into the air by a Mechon's claws grabbing onto his front paws wasn't his favourite method of transport ever but at least he didn't have to traverse the Mountain again, and he felt relatively refreshed for the task of making his way back to Tephra Cave and doing what he could to affect the war between the Giants and the Arachnos.
Taking out a champion was the only way a single person could really affect the course of a war. Marcus' intelligence had informed him that the champions of the two armies were, conveniently, leading from the front lines in a recent skirmish in Tephra Caves. Reckless Zanden, the Giant leader, was known for his habit of charging into the front lines without ever considering that it would totally break morale if he went down. Firework Geldesia was a particularly terrifying Arachno Queen who loved burning her opponents alive and razing their homes to the ground. At present, Marcus knew that they were very evenly matched, their duel would take forever and many lives would be lost on both sides in the effort to assist their leaders. Arsene was to assist Zanden in taking out Geldesia. The powerful Bunnia should hopefully be enough to tip the scales.
It was a simple plan, except that there had been complications. If the first complication hadn't occurred, if it hadn't slowed Arsene down so much, the second complication wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have been far too late. But then again, he might have just been on time, dangerously so, and the disaster would have claimed his life too.
The first problem was that the Arachno had intelligence networks as well. As he loped down the road to the Glowing Obelisk, an enormous Arachno Queen jumped down from the top of the Exile Fortress, where the Ignas had their own settlements and mostly left the Bunnits well alone. They had sent Eternal Palsadia herself, the Ignas' Spider Goddess, after him.
He tried to retreat, aware that his mission was time critical, but a large Arachno was faster than a Bunnia and he was soon forced to fight for his life. A fierce battle commenced, leaving Arsene exhausted, dark blood matting his fur from deep lacerations all down his body. Still, finally, he dodged her furiously slicing mandibles, then smashed his mace into the joints of one of her many chitinous legs, sending her off balance. This was the opportunity he needed. Hopping onto her head, he brought his mace down hard on her huge bulbous eyes. After a few blows, the scaled eyes caved in and he stabbed into her skull, sending out a spray of sickly yellow ichor. The Arachno Queen went down. Now slowed by his injuries, without time to really do much to heal himself except roll in some patches of medicinal herbs he spotted on the way, he prayed to the Bionis that the two hotheads would kill each other by the time he arrived and spare him the trouble.
When he arrived, he wished he hadn't said anything.
The caves had gone very quiet. Usually, some creature was making a loud noise about something, probably trying to eat something else that was violently objecting. He couldn't even hear the scuttling of the ever-present and numerous small lizards who lived in the hidden smaller alcoves and darted from rock to rock whenever they saw a Bunnit. The water dripping from the ceiling and the wind whistling through the caverns were deafening in the absence of the sounds of anything more alive. Arsene knew this was a bad sign. Something big had arrived, something dangerous, more so than the Gogols and Arachnos who were pretty much an accepted part of the Tephra Cave food chain these days.
He arrived at the Arachno Queen's Nest to find both Zanden and Geldesia dead on the floor, their followers sprawled around them in a heap of corpses. The air stank of discharged ether of all elements and Arsene saw that both the champions' bodies were covered in stab wounds. He recognised the pattern of the wounds. He had seen a death like this before. He remembered seeing Patrichev, lying in the cloudy red water, suddenly lifeless.
Blinding blue light hit him, knocking him to his feet. He saw what looked like a juvenile female Homs, but with wings on her head like a Nopon's but more majestic, holding out a staff from which flowed seemingly endless ether. He saw the Nopon again, fire billowing from his sharp-fanged maw. He saw the Homs with the blue blade.
Ether didn't take long to dissipate. The spells had been cast recently. They were still in the cave. They had just taken down a Gogol and Homs champion. From the lack of Homs and Nopon blood on the floor, they hadn't even taken many wounds. He was already wounded and exhausted. He ran from the remnants of the nest. He hoped that Bunnitzol had sensed the danger too, and had escaped long before the Great Threat came. He didn't have time to find out. Collapsed tunnels wouldn't stop enemies as powerful as them. He needed to be with his people.
Despotic Arsene, Holy Emperor of Bunnitdom, felt it when the Bionis turned on its own people. His visions, never pleasant to begin with, became red-tinged and burning, as though the world itself were burning down. Through a haze of pain, he saw only death, the world devouring all life upon its surface, clouds of ether rising to the heavens like souls ascending to the next life. Sometimes his visions went blank and he could tell it was because the Monado itself was faulty, as Abaasy had warned him it might be. A lot of the time he just saw the Great Threat, killing over and over again, mostly not by choice. Then the Telethia came for them, as they came for everything that lived, and the Bunnits fought them off with their teeth and whatever blunt or sharp instruments they could carry and comfortably swing in their tail-hands. Bunnitdom would not fall easily, even if it meant defying the God of their entire world. Being Holy Emperor no longer meant he had a special link to the Bionis. The Bionis was not something sacred and great. He was Emperor because he was strong enough to protect his people from the ravages of the Bionis, because he was cunning and daring enough to feed off its own power and use that power against it.
Some sceptics said that he was Emperor only because all the other candidates kept dying off, either in Bionis or Great Threat-related incidents, or in mysterious circumstances that Arsene was inevitably blamed for. These sceptics subsequently disappeared off the street. Arsene had no time to play stupid games with the media.
Shortly after the Bionis turned on its people, the Mechonis' head exploded. Arsene had been worried that Daedala, who seemed a fairly amiable sort of person, was caught in the blast, but he had in fact been on a rescue mission and had retrieved almost the entire Unique population of the Mechonis. Arsene demanded to know where exactly they were going to go when the Bionis inevitably died too, as they wouldn't all fit on the Fallen Arm. Marcus reassured him that Abaasy had a plan.
He also said that the Great Threat attacked him a few days ago, and the Slobos had barely escaped with his life. Daedala had been targeted too. From what his translation matrix had been able to pick up, they were going after all the Sages in order of strength. It was time for Despotic Arsene to perform his ultimate duty to the Order of Uniques.
Surrounded by his retinue, the Bunnia waited on the hill next to the Nopon Sanctuary for the inevitable battle.
