Introduction

Defeat


"I...I lost".

It wasn't with pain or sorrow that Larloch found himself admitting defeat. In fact, it felt like the natural cause and effect of his existence. Yet that was not the Only thing that happened to him after his thwarted attempt at Godhood.

He was torn from the realities that he was familiar with, powerless to stop the hand that had grabbed him and forced him beyond the multitude of universes that he knew.

Despite his hundreds of contingency spells that went off, they were all immediately negated. His countless artefacts and items that would normally stop any sort of forced removal were equally useless.

This was the will of the being beyond even Greater Gods. He had heard rumors of such a transcendent being. A will that acted upon the infinity of realities within the Realms and Spheres.

Resignation filled his undead mind as he realized that at this moment he was powerless to stop the transcendent will that acted so freely upon reality and himself.

He had attempted to take the place of a God, and now this was the price he paid.

At the moment of failure at the hands of Elminster and the Srinshee he was snatched from the hands of defeat.

This wasn't to say he would let himself be used as a tool for whatever the transcendent will wanted. After all, this will had left his rationality and free will untouched.

Something that signaled to him that he was required for some untold design. Some vast plan he was not yet privy to. As he was sheparded through the infinite universes and spacetimes, even above and beyond the higher dimensions that looked down upon realmspace as if it were amusing fiction written upon paper to be molded to their will.

They traveled past the sight of the old ones that had long since surpassed time, space, concepts, and even dimensions as a whole.

This was solely due to the fact that the transcendent will shielded him from being utterly erased by the reality beyond even Larloch's abilities to comprehend.

At this moment, Larloch began to feel an emotion that he had not commonly felt. At least since his undeath.

Fear.

He was far beyond anything that he could comprehend, wearing only the bare minimum of items. He began to feel exposed, as any time this Transcendent will could shed the wards from him and he would simply cease to exist, far beyond any meaningful way of returning to his phylactery.

Then there was only blackness. A vast black beyond space and time. A void beyond length and width. Yet the transcendent will continued to carry him through the nothingness. Much like a warm carriage shielded the passengers from the cold of winter, this will shielded him from the nothingness that surrounded him. Annihilation in it's purest form.

Then a reality opened to them, and a world turned beneath them.

Verdant lands, vast oceans, and blue skies flooded his eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. It very well could have been forever in the nothingness.

As he was directed across the sky, he looked down through the clouds and onto the ocean below.

Small beings flashed back and forth, exchanging blows with impressive cannons and considerable speed.

What was particularly interesting was that he sensed that these beings were not of flesh and blood like most beings upon the world he was used to.

Instead, they seemed to be emanations given physical form.

He decided to leave his mark upon the beings very existence, it's data itself. He would track it later, as he seemed to be slowing down, almost ready to land.

Before he could study them further, he had moved too far away, and divination magic would be needed to watch further.


The fighting between ships was only starting to heat up as Kaga and Akagi stood atop two large rocks that jutted above the water like stone fangs. In a simple way it fit them, being two lethal fangs of the Sakura Empire.

Akagi was about to taunt the failures that Laffey was facing against her current enemy when she felt a cold prickly sensation move across her body, and for a brief few seconds, she felt like she was doused in a thick tar like sludge that weighed down on her to a fundamental aspect of her existence.

Such a thing should not be possible. Something was horribly wrong. It felt like her data, her very existence was being scrutinized and exposed. She looked up to the sky as if she was drawn to some greater thing up above.

This was no Siren. She was somewhat familiar with the energy and existence they gave off.

If Sirens were inquisitive sharp existences, this thing, whatever it was, was like a black swamp that could submerge an entire fleet in mere moments with it's expanding vastness.

Then, like a hot shell through her hull, she felt a shocking pain as a purple mist began surrounding her.

Every second that passed afterwards, her rigging grew heavier and heavier. Even processing became sluggish and even moving became a chore.

It was as if someone or something was extending it's will to supress her.

Kaga noticed the energy surrounding Akagi and expressed her nervousness at the strange affliction that was affecting the ship next to her.

Then as if it never existed in the first place, the energy disappeared, leaving Akagi exhausted and nearly out of strength to fight. Her rigging sagged dangerously, and her body slumped slightly forward.

She was looking directly at the sky, as if some horror lurked beyond the clouds.

What was that?