Luxion was going to kill them. He was going to hunt down each and everyone of these so-called 'Umbran Witches' and he was going to make sure that he would kill each and everyone of them down to the last.
"Better than you have tried." Cereza stated as she looked on at the horizon. The three of them had narrowly made it passed the eye and were now parked outside of its influence, with the exception of several stray bolts of lighting that flew past them every once in a while. "Now what's the state of the battlefield?"
"...Leon has taken a step back, the older two are fighting the Black Knight, the younger two are circling around with the cat. Leon is preparing to excavate and execute the God of the Earth." Luxion had bigger priorities to deal with, he'll inflict his revenge for these two hijacking control over his body and using him to play lightning dodge ball later.
"Then we might be in a good position to help him out." Cereza stated as weapons appeared around her arms and legs, the familiar fire and lightning claws of Durga.
"Agreed." An identical set of weapons appeared around Jeanne's hands and feet. "We might as well take advantage of the world's largest generator here since this thing runs on lightning anyway."
"I run on electricity you bitch!" Luxion screamed at the top of his speakers. "Don't you dare run lightning through my systems again!"
"I suggest you prepare your surge protectors and rewrite your channels to direct the current directly into your main cannon." Jeanne stated bluntly, already the two women were siphoning lightning away from the storm. "If you have something that you can use as a lightning rod I suggest you prepare that right now."
Luxion was experiencing a whole new range of emotions lately. Rage with the king, and Agony thanks to these two, another thing he knew he wasn't designed to be able to feel. With a barrel made out of pure magical energy and the witches space manipulating magic the range of Luxion's cannon was forcibly extended by several hundred miles and after a single shot Luxion's drones were able to confirm the God of the Earth was down to the last fifteenth percent of it's body, which was fading fast.
"The creature is dead. Are you happy now? I imagine it has produced a rather potent drop weapon." Luxion was at his wits end. "That's the reason why you've launched this little conspiracy isn't it?"
"We'd be lying if we said that we weren't planning on taking the Devil Arm that would've been born from that demon. But it was more of a light warning to your kingdom than something like a conspiracy." Cereza stated as she shrugged her shoulders. "For one thing: if Holfort get's destroyed, then a lot of the plans we've made for the future would be off set."
"Then why did you push your son onto Holfort?" Luxion was too tired for this. "What do you want!?"
""World Peace."" The two witches stated as if they were speaking about something obvious.
"Don't lie to me!" Luxion snapped as if he heard a bad joke.
"We're not lying though." Jeanne stated as she shrugged in indifference. "As their mothers we want nothing but the best for those five. We want to scold Nick and Jenna for being out late drinking and teach them how to drink."
"We want to meet the girls the Leon brings back home with him and haze them for a little while before we give them our approval." Cereza stated sounding like an amused mother. "We want to get dragged out to Colin's and Finley's baseball and soccer games and cheer them on with the other soccer moms."
Confusion, another thing that Luxion wasn't meant to feel and yet here he was.
"Then why haven't you done those things?" These two were running around since before the old civilisation, if they wanted to drag things into this era so badly then why haven't they?
"Because unfortunately, that world is dead." Cereza stared ahead with a dead pan expression. "We killed it."
"Excuse me?" Luxion asked his red eye intensifying in it's glow.
"We were the ones who destroyed the old world and started the Shattering War." Cereza stated bluntly as if she had said something obvious.
You want to hear the story about how the world broke again?
Alright then.
The World's downfall starts with the story of a God, and how he founded our clan.
Aesir was the first being in existence, born of the conflicting powers of light and darkness. From his holy mountain Aesir observed that which was around him, and through his observations of reality, his perception of the world was founded.
His were the eyes that created the world.
Through his observations Aesir became aware of humanity, born from and as delicate as dust blowing in the wind, and took pity on these lowly beings, brought them under his protection. To Grant them free will Aesir gave them his two eyes, the Left containing Desire, Sorrow and Fear and his Right containing Restraint, Happiness and Reason, the Drive to move forward and the Wisdom to understand and recognised the world around him, and here Aesir planted the seeds of his own downfall.
Our two Clans were charged with keeping the eyes safe, ours were tasked with keeping the Left Eye of Darkness and the Lumen the Right Eye of Light.
What wasn't understood at the time was that in the process of dividing his power Aesir himself was also divided becoming Loki and Loptr. The two newborn demi-gods contained Aesir's good and evil qualities as a result, while Loki wanted to observe his work in action Loptr wanted to reclaim his old power. So Loptr continuously fed off of the darkness of humanity, empowering himself and attaining the status of a Demon Lord.
Using his power, Loptr started the Clan Wars, turning us against each other, manipulating us into killing one another and ultimately stripping the Eyes of the World of their protectors and allies before ultimately striking at our weakest.
I, the one who would inherit the Left Eye after your Grandmother's death, was suspended in a lifeless state at the bottom of a lake, my father, your grandpa, Baldur was flung through time after your Grandmother's death where he was manipulated by Loptr.
Loptr succeeded in reuniting the eyes, however briefly, before I destroyed them. Loptr's physical form was separated from his spirit and all the power he stole and fed to Gomorrah by your Mom, Your Grandpa Baldur took Loptr's evil into himself, using his body as a seal he engineered a situation where he forced the entity to kill itself at my hands, at the cost of his life, his reputation, maybe even his very soul.
Your Grandpa killed Aesir and saved this world from his mad ambitions, I want you to remember that, if you remember nothing else than that remember the determination and Spite of a man who suffocated a God to death under the force of his own will.
Cereza Blackmore's recount of the Story of the Fall of Aesir
Cereza told Luxion everything, her confession. It was good to get her guilt off her chest every couple hundred years or so.
"Our clan was meant to protect the eyes, but I destroyed them. The Overseers of the World and the stabilisers of reality." Reality is nothing more than people's interpretations of the world around them through their sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Of them sight is the most detailed, it gives colour, depth, permanence to your surroundings, and now they are gone. "Given the same circumstances, knowing what we know now? Yes I would do the same thing." Cereza stated bluntly. "A monster was trying to remake reality in his own twisted image. We killed him, we disarmed him, and because of us the human race has been able to survive."
"In what state?" Luxion asked voicing his suspicions. "How has the loss of these eyes led to the situation we're in right now?"
"Aesir plucked Baldur out of the past, that created an alternate reality, then as part of his own scheme against Aesir Baldur snatched me as a child out of the past as well creating another. Those Alternate realities continued to make changes to their timelines resulting in new realities being spawned, and there is one thing that all those realities have in common." Cereza gave a pause for dramatic effect. "Someone always makes a grab for the eyes. Sometimes they get destroyed in the struggle, sometimes they don't. You know someone who made a grab for the eyes don't you little orb? You're made out of his technology after all."
"Singularity." Luxion's lenses narrowed into a glare.
The New Human Project, or the Newman Initiative.
A world came under near constant incursions from Angel and Demon, as a result an AI was tasked with ending the threats to Humanity at all costs. Poring over centuries of lore about the creatures in question, the conclusion that the AI that would become known as Singularity reached was that Humanity itself was the problem, that so long as humans kept generating the positive and negative emotions that produced the creatures in question then they would never stop coming.
So the AI set about the process of remaking humanity. Nanotechnology was released all across the world, infesting the bodies of all living things, breaking them down into a technorganic goo and remaking them into Humonculi, a mid-stage Pupa like state on their way to the newly remade humans. However Singularity's plans were compromised after killing his world's version of Bayonetta, the holder of the Left Eye of Darkness.
With no eyes left to act as stabilisers Singularity's version of reality began crossing over with other realities that had also lost their eyes bringing with them their own versions of reality, their own Humanity and their own angels and demons.
So Singularity expanded upon its original plans attempting to convert not only the humans of his home reality but also the ones of the new realities that were crossing over with his as well. Singularity spread its seed throughout the multiverse, his nano-technology burrowing deep into the ground in search of more organic material to assimilate, though the majority of this material became inert as a result of the magnetic effect of Mana being reduced to simple Unobtainium in the process, also known as float stone.
Singularity was defeated, his project proceeded without him and the people he had mauled were restored though there was the issue of collapsing reality left to deal with. The excessive energies bleeding in from Paradiso and Inferno formed magical energy, as multiple Earth's were fused together many of them were broken apart forming islands wrapped around Unobtainium and floating on the excessive mana in the air. The two remaining groups of humans blended together, the existing 'old humans' brought the original drive, determination and wisdom of humanity, the 'New Humans' brought the ability to process the magical energy around them into magical phenomena, without being corrupted into Angels and Demons in roughly 85% of cases.
Luxion's compilation on Newman History
"Singularity was a stubborn cockroach." And anyone who knows Cereza knows how she feels about cockroaches. "When we beat him, the sore loser flung a piece of himself back in time to try and kill me. He failed, but in so doing he created another alternate reality. And another. And another. He created the very alternate realities that he hated so much and blamed us for. By the time he finally finished himself off there were hundreds of alternate worlds to work with, and all the ones that became part of this world."
"Based on the sheer mass of the planet I could believe one or two worlds." There was at least one Earth worth of mass beneath the waves, since the amount of water Luxion has been able to measure seems to exceed that of the Earth he knew he could also believe that a few oceans had been drained and flood the Earth in the process. The mass floating around the Earth made up at least several continents worth and he's been able to confirm the presence of at least three moons. There was good reason people don't go down to the ocean, because the closer you get to 'sea level' the stronger the pull of gravity becomes, until it eventually crushes you to death, it was the same reason Luxion didn't just build a floating colony and dismantle the sky islands for their Unobtainium. "But Hundreds?"
"Not all the worlds had their Eyes Destroyed." Jeanne cut in suddenly, and followed up with an even more terrifying possibility. "The lunatics with delusions of God hood for instance could succeed in their goal of remaking the Trinity of Reality to their liking, if we assume that they were aware of the alternate realities without their own eyes then they would've worked to expand their domains."
"Meaning they would've set their sights on this world?" Luxion questioned narrowing a glare. "So which side are you two on?"
"The Side of peace." Cereza stated bluntly. "Re-establishing the clans, restoring the eyes of the world, maintaining the Trinity of Realities. Those are our goals."
"In other words-" Luxion already had his captain, someone who understands what the world use to be like, the way that it should be, but even she had given up on returning society to that state. But these two on the other hand...
"We are going to take the world back." Cereza stated in simple uncompromising terms. "The demons will go back to Inferno, the Angels will live in Paradiso. Perhaps that arrangement is not satisfactory to you, a creation of that creature-"
"I am not Singularity's creation." Luxion corrected with a firm tone. "I was created by humans as their servant, not the lobotomised abominations of that malfunctioning program. Demons and Angels are a by-product of my masters existence, their numbers and power may have overwhelmed us in the past but we need only develop the means to defend ourselves." Luxion stated his mood having pulled a 180 from earlier, which reminded him. "Thanks to you two I will have to enter maintenance mode when we reach the capital again. I suggest you continue these talks with my captain."
"Sure Sure." Cereza waved the drone off as she and her wife brought out lawn chairs to relax on, after all she was in no hurry to get back to the capital.
Even reduced to a demon, the Black Knight was still the greatest warrior in two kingdoms. No it was more accurate to say that he had gotten stronger as a result of his demonization rather than getting weaker, he was reborn, his now demonic body could pull moves that generated stronger g-forces, his mana output had increased as had his reaction time. Jenna and Nick could both pause time as much as they liked so long as they dodged the Black Knight's attacks, but he was constantly deploying shadow magic to eat away at their reserves, which was not a attack, so it wouldn't be dodged as easily. Leon in the mean time had run off to finish the God of the Earth, so that left them down there for Angelica to implement her plan.
"Jenna!" Angelica didn't have something as convenient as a communication hook up with either of the older Blackmore Siblings. "Use that creature to protect the capital!" Angelica had flown the Weiss over the continent, it had convenient built in speakers that allowed her to send a message to everyone below her at once.
"Is this going to work?" Olivia asked as she looked down at the capital. "This ship was only designed to amplify the range and area of effect of magic spells, it was no more designed to work with your magic than that sword stuck in the console."
As Angelica explained this they saw the Black Knight hurling another blade through the air at them, Olivia was going to block with a barrier but Angelica stopped her, as the blade sailed clean over their heads and cut open the balloon which was now slowly falling to the ground, along with the airship it was attached to.
"Too little. Too late." Angelica had the perfect spell for situations like this, it affects a wide area of effect and then deals a finishing blow.
At once, all of the heat within the area underneath the air ship was siphoned away, the various plants, armours and others on the ground were being frozen over with the only exceptions being Jenna and Nick who had swapped out the standard uniform of the Umbra for a pair of winter coats and Bowser acting to cover the two of them with his body and fire breath. The Black Knight couldn't siphon away the cold air or frost that was covering his body, mostly he just heated it up with the heat he had already absorbed with his armour, of course there was a limit to that. A lance of flame had appeared in the sky, the Black Knight could see that the ice magic and the fire magic was coming from the ship, more of those accursed natural laws that the Duke's daughter was so fond of. The Black Knight prepared another swing and fired another blade at the ship, since popping it didn't work he'll hack it apart instead. A loud bang echoed out through the air and the flying blade was destroyed at the same time the lance of flame struck, not the Black Knight who would just suck the heat away and trap it in his armour, but instead Leon, who similarly sucked the heat into the Black of his Umbran battle clothes, augmented with shadow magic of course.
"Your opponent is me you asshole, and I promise you, you are not leaving here alive." Leon cocked his gun that he just fired as he glared at the Black Knight.
Leon's body transform, red Scales, pale skin, black hair and black clothes with a crescent shaped horn, his true demonic form.
Leon entered a boxer's stance, his weapons flipped around and held them by the guard, the slide would act as a pair of crude of brass knuckles. Then they charged at each other, Vandel in a Rhino's charge and Leon breaking into a slide underneath the armour and followed up with a jump onto the knight's back. Leon started firing rounds point blank into Vandel's back, testing his durability with increasingly powerful shots. The Extreme cold had affected Vandel's armour, the organic components inside froze up and became brittle, the metal outside shrunk and contracted due to the effects of the cold, just by being subject to these conditions the Black Knight had already received huge damage despite his best attempts to stay warm. Vandel responded to the itch on his back by reaching behind him like he was using his sword as a back-scratcher at which point in time Leon jumped off. Vandel gave a spinning slash that Leon jumped out of the way of.
"That armour drains mana from whatever it comes into contact with. I should be careful about touching him, and getting near that blade."
Leon opened fire with his guns, gradually increasing the power behind each shot as he attempted to find a balance between breaking open the Black's armour and being able to shoot him again before it closes up. Luckily the Black Knight had slowed down considerably, the internal injuries that he received from the shrunk metal crushing britle cold insides, the limbs that were freezing up from the excessive cold inside, and the damages that he was getting from enhanced injuries and delayed healing. Eventually Rodin decided the old man had enough, and so he stepped off his airship and dropped straight to the ground, his heavy boots crunching in the snow as he approached the demonic knight.
"Have you finished yet?" Leon eyed Rodin, quite aware that a lot of damage done here could've been avoided.
"Hertrude stabilised. You're quite lucky to bring both her body alive and her soul in one piece." Rodin pulled out what suspiciously looked like a rod, a handle from a blade more accurately. "I was saving this for the God of the Earth. But you'll do just as well if not better." Rodin aimed the weapon at the weakened Black Knight, tendrils of energy wrapped around the demon and pulled him in, a loud snap echoing out as the Black Knight disappeared into the weapon. "Got some bite to yah? Gonna have to fine tune this thing later on." Rodin put the newly minted devil arm on his belt. "But it's gonna have to wait." Rodin stated as he turned around to face Leon. "Now what were you thinking sticking your nose into this?"
"I learned empathy." Leon looked much too tired to deal with this as he gave a one fingered salute as he returned to his human form. "Deal with it." And then he fell backwards into the snow and collapsed, having been fighting, channelling multiple demon summoning spells, and forming contracts on little to no sleep for days now. He was asleep on his feet.
Mylene Rapha Holfort: Shall we at least take the time to get our stories straight? Or shall this alliance simply devolve into more pointless battle?
Rodin: Battle? I find it amusing that you believe such a thing would be had, in your current state or otherwise. Your crippled king sabotaged his own forces. Your defence grid is down and holes have been punched through your territory. Your people's faith in you seems to be mighty... low at the moment.
Mylene: You in the mean time allowed the God of the Earth to rampage in the capital and allowed The Fanoss principality to enter the capital. You'd hardly find yourself in the midst of willing subjects.
Rodin: Amusing. You think we should have a reason to care about your little kingdom? We are going to do what we want, take what we desire. You I recommend begging Leon to cooperate with you, and hope that his fondness for your god-daughter translates over to the Kingdom that she loves. Because right now that is the only hope that you have.
Excerpt of A conversation between Rodin and Mylene Rapha Holfort after the Battle at the Capital of Holfort
The Blackmore's medical ward was a busy place, Hertrude's soul had already been extricated from the mass of demons, though far from intact, it would be a few days yet until such a time that she had physically recovered. On top of that Yumeria was in the process of being separated from as much of the demon that had taken over her body as she could be. Not to mention Leon's own recovery, now being accelerated thanks to Olivia's use of light magic and Cleare's medical knowledge. Thus you understand that Mylene had a difficult time asking that Leon's room be cleared while she spoke in private to him, and now she was having an even more difficult time.
"Pardon me." Leon's voice had a slight growl to it, like he was angry but he was avoiding yelling. "I don't think I heard you right." Mylene felt the tension in the room rising, already her hand was going for the hidden dagger underneath her dress that she had for protection. "It sounded like your Kingdom has spent the past two generations sabotaging itself, including creating the Forest of Ladies and driving the Low Ranking Nobility into debt. Quite frankly I cannot imagine how something so utterly stupid could actually be possible!"
"You lack context." Mylene knew that she would have to be extremely careful with her wording.
"I'm getting tired of you using that excuse to justify your idiotic actions to me!" Leon's hair went wild as a familiar figure appeared behind him, a moon-horned demon with red scaley skin and wings coming out the back. "Any last words before I rip out the Kingdom's corruption at the roots?"
"The reforms were put into place after Fanoss's separation!" Mylene held up her hands placatingly as she backed away.
"I'll write them on your tombstone!" As Leon was getting ready to go on the offensive a sharp pain pierced his neck and he fell over.
"Sedative?" Mylene asked as one of Luxion's familiar drones appeared next to Leon.
"Muscle relaxer. We need him conscious if he's going to hear your explanation." The silver ball in question explained as it turned it's attention to Leon.
"Make no mistake: I don't approve of the notion of trying to cripple the government!" Mylene was pissed beyond recognition. "Yes, it was done as a measure to prevent the rise of another Fanoss but as you can see it came at the cost of leaving us vulnerable to the Fanoss we already had!"
In this world the most precious resource is Unobtanium as Luxion puts it, more commonly known as Float Stone, a unique mineral that sits locked in place inside of the mana rich air unaffected by Gravity. It was the reason why islands float in the air, and without floating islands people would be trapped where the air is too thick with mana to breathe on or under the surface of the ocean. However it was also a necessary resource to construct airships and armours if you want it to float in the air. Holfort values Islands more than airships because islands can be lived on and used to grow crops for food and other resources, however people like Fanoss value Airships more than islands because they can use them to go out and conquer more territory thus increasing the number of islands they control. What the Kingdom feared most is that there would be a lot of people like Fanoss among the ranks for their nobles who would destroy their islands for float stone and build airships to war with each other with. Indeed if you look at the number of airships and armours that Holfort controls you can imagine that at some point in their history there was a vast number of islands that were destroyed and broken down for materials in order to raise the fleets.
"And crippling your economy was supposed to prevent this?" Leon asked looking at the Queen like she was stupid, all the while working to get the feeling back in his body.
"Building airships cost money!" Mylene snapped as if the situation was obvious. "You need to acquire resources for the hull, mana stones to power it, crew to man the ship, weapons to arm it!" Mylene was growing tired of this ignorant child. "We all can't just summon demon ships from another dimension whenever we want!" As Mylene calmed down she also countered another point. "And we didn't cripple the economy. We Centralised it in the capital."
"Your economy is a giant fat tumour made out of frilly dresses, perfume and sex slaves." Leon growled eyes glowing. "Your food producing islands are dirt poor and your military is a skeleton operated by untrained Prepubescent boys."
"Which is part of the reason why I've been so desperately working to scale back the reforms." Mylene stated as she let out a sigh. "General Patton training our soldiers was one of the countermeasures we've put in place, as was investigating the Forest of Ladies." Which is not something Mylene can take credit for.
"We've also been working to fix the float stone issue." Luxion naturally gave the follow up. "A normal Super Conductor displays the same properties as Unobtainium at below freezing temperatures, which can be easily achieved by placing it inside of a liquid nitrogen tank." Which means that with a readily available Float stone substitute Holfort can start mass producing ships and armours, expand its military and police, and prevent anymore rebellions.
"It does however require that we transition into a Demo-monarchy due to this drone's insistence." As Mylene was about to explain further-
"You maintain the royal family, but all the positions of power are held by elected officials." Leon stated bluntly.
"Yes." Mylene was briefly concerned that Leon was familiar with a term for a system of government that to her knowledge does not currently exist. "It requires a larger base of educated commoners to accomplish." Mylene explained and Leon gave the follow up.
"And Olivia was supposed to be your initial experiment." And then Olivia turns out to be the descendant of the Saintess. "Well done. You set out to prove that lineage has no role to play in ability by recruiting the person with the greatest and most important lineage in your entire kingdom." Leon would be clapping to the Royal Family's 'brilliance' but he can't feel his fingers.
"Yes well. That was one of the goals with the reforms to begin with." At least that much was successful anyway. "All of the most problematic figures were gathered together under the late and un-lamented Marquiss Frampton in the initial battle against the Principality. We also have confirmation from the Principality that Frampton had been attempting to work with them."
In short: Frampton's plans had been that the Principality would defeat and conquer their enemies territories, and in exchange they would be 'defeated' by him keeping a few of the islands they had taken while Frampton would look good having won his staged battle, instead the Principality took the information Holfort had fed them through Frampton, and then reigned on their deal when the idiot had nothing left of note to give and wiped out him and the other traitors under him. Thus there was now a large portion of territory that was now up for grabs, which led to another point.
"On the subject, congratulations on your promotion Marquis Blackmore." The Nearby window cracked, as if reflecting Leon's mood.
"Excuse me?" Leon somehow didn't think he had misheard Mylene this time.
"You were the one who defeated the God of the Earth, the Black Knight and now I'm learning from the little half-Elf serving Marie that you apparently put down a Elven rebellion while you were visiting the Elves village." The Little Snot! "These achievements are more than enough for a Marquiss." As Mylene explained this she had come across another awkward situation that needed to be addressed. "That said..."
"You also want me to present candidates to fill the role of the now destroyed noble houses." Leon stated bluntly. In normal circumstances, the now master-less territories would be awarded to families that had made significant contributions to the Kingdom during the battle against the Principality. However Holfort was transitioning into a Demo-monarchy, which necessitates temporary place holders elected by the people to run their respective territories. Which means even more work for Leon, even more headaches, ceremonies, and putting up with people that he hates. "Are you going to leave now? If I can't shoot you I'd at the very least like to stew in peace."
Review Section:
hnh058513: Do you really think that Roland has the physical capacity for a honour duel after being run through by the Black Knight?
RonaldM40196867: Any phenomena, no matter how fantastic, that can be broken down to it's root cause and effect and understood is considered to be science.
RedRat8: It makes the most amount of sense.
m6102023: At the bare minimum? Roland has been crippled, he is no longer able to walk nor can he feel or use any of his lower extremities. The damage is only on a level where Roland could be healed, if there was say any advance self aware caches of old human knowledge and technology willing to help him, any good will with the church who can send their healers, or any political clout with the nobility or his wife to order that the aforementioned things be done. For a list of what he does not have, see above.