Strands of light began to seep from the God of Light's wound as it pulled the limb back, inspecting the damage with a look of disbelief. The implement responsible began to slide down the rock and toward the pool of mixed aura and blackness, prompting Lora to begin running. With a quick leap, she made her way from the stone she had appeared on to the sloped rock where the Sword of Destruction was slowly sliding down. The Maiden grasped for the hilt, only to miss it by inches. A quick flare of magic seized the handle just as the blade dipped into the pool and aura began to creep slowly up the blade, charging it while Lora clung desperately to the angled outcropping. A pair of footfalls landed behind her as Astrid began making her way around the arena toward Lora and Salem took to the sky to occupy the deity once again.
"Daughter… I cannot allow you to do that," Ozma warned from behind Lora as he began to walk toward her upon the stone. "You do not understand wh-"
Lora looked over her shoulder and used her free hand to unleash a quick blast of multicolored magic at her father. Doing so caused her to slide farther down the rock before she got her grip once again. The man simply dodged to the side as Astrid made it within jumping distance to Lora's rock.
Suddenly, Salem was sent tumbling downward, barely managing to right herself with magic to save herself from falling down into the sinister liquid below. The God of Light reared back, taking immediate aim at Lora and the sword with its remaining claw.
"Enough of this soft approach, Ozma!"
There was no avoiding the ensuing blast. An all-consuming beam of light flew from the dragon's outstretched limb, shattering the rock and engulfing Lora and her father entirely. After the dazzling projectile had dissipated, she and Ozma were simply gone, the area wreathed in obscuring smoke and the Sword of Destruction rapidly sinking into the mingled soup of aura and unlife. Astrid stared from her position nearby for all of a second as she watched the weapon disappear beneath the mixture.
Then, she leapt into it.
"Kill him!" the Maiden cried up at Salem, her skin immediately beginning to bubble and burn as she desperately searched the liquid for the sword.
"Astrid!" Salem cried, flying down as close to the scorching surface of the pool as she could, offering a hand. "Daughter, what are y-"
As if to answer, Astrid's decaying arm thrust up and out of the liquid as the rest of her disappeared beneath the shifting surface of the deadly lake. In her hand was the glowing Sword of Destruction, which Salem seized before the last of her daughter sank into the grimm fluid and out of sight. The witch stared at the depths where she had lost her daughter for a brief moment before unlatching the lamp from her belt and dipping it quickly into the dark waters. Within seconds, the Relic had charged, and she floated upward to face the God of Light once again while the smoke around her cleared.
"Only one remains," the God of Light taunted, its severed limb already beginning to regenerate within an outline of shimmering magic. "What is your supposed 'plan', then? Having lost everything, is it even worth enacting? I will give you this one opportunity, Salem- return to me. Count the loss of your family as penance, and together, we can build a new world. Do not discard my forgiveness in a fit of foolish anger."
Jinn's voice came from the lamp in Salem's hand as the crystal within it glowed brightly.
"…he's afraid. He knows that with this much raw aura, we can do something. For all of his power, not even he will be able to resist us."
The rumbling voice of Pela emanated from the Sword of Destruction as the Staff of Creation left Salem's hand and floated closer to it.
"The time is now. We all know what must be done."
"I don't," Salem reminded as the sword and staff suddenly snapped together, forming a polearm. The Lamp of Knowledge flew from her hand and socketed in place on the butt of the weapon, giving it a rounded bludgeon at its base. "Tell me what comes next!"
Apoph emerged briefly from the Crown of Choice as the metal loop straightened out, adhering to the hilt of the Sword of Destruction to form a long, jagged crossguard.
"Wound him. We'll take care of the rest."
Salem gripped the combined Relic with both hands and began to rise up toward the dragon's face. Oddly, those observing the scene rose up along with her, and the details of the surrounding area seemed to fade, leaving only the two combatants themselves. Sun took it as a signal to pay attention and moved closer to Salem. There was no remorse or concern in her expression- no grief over her lost daughters or spouse. The witch was entirely consumed with rage, her beautiful features twisted into a mask of absolute hate.
"I will end you and take your power as you pilfered that of your fellow gods," Salem declared, readying her spear. "Afterward, I will conquer death itself, and take back what you stole from me. The Ozma you brought here is a lie. My daughters are not gone, and this world will not bow to you in death or otherwise. Your refusal to bend to my will has rendered it absolute. No more words. We settle this here and now."
Salem flew forward, her midair momentum boosted by magical force. Her first swing of the combined Relic clashed against the God of Light's talons, and he easily turned her blow aside before lunging forward to bite at the space she had occupied mere moments before. Salem struck out with the butt of the spear, slamming the rounded crystal part of the Lamp of Knowledge against the side of the beast's face. As she pulled the weapon back, golden light was siphoned from the dragon's maw and pulled into the lamp. The God of Light recoiled, bringing its newly reformed claw up to the side of its jaw and feeling the area.
"…you plan to trap me," the deity accused. "Imprison me within the very crystals I used to imprison them…"
Salem made no effort to reply, once again charging forth with the spear leveled. The God of Light rocketed backward, trying to create space between itself and the witch. Salem saw the move coming, raising a hand to snag one of the perpetually falling meteors and redirect it into the back of the dragon. The hit was direct, sending the panicking god careening downward as it wrestled to right itself in midair. With a boost of magic, Salem propelled herself downward to impale the dragon through the chest with the Sword of Destruction.
As the pair plummeted toward the unstable cauldron, the God of Light swiped upward at Salem, raking its massive claw into her arm and tearing her flesh. The witch refused to budge as the Relic siphoned more and more from within the dragon, turning its glittering flesh pale and translucent. Just before falling into the mixture below, the pair separated and began to float once again. Ambrosius spoke from within the Staff of Creation making up the shaft of the Relic Spear.
"We won't be able to contain him! With the God of Darkness' power inside of him, the four of us can't hold him!"
Salem surveyed the area through ragged gasps as the God of Light tried to stabilize itself to limited success. A large chunk of one of the containment crystals was jutting up and out of the mingling lake nearby.
"…would a fifth Relic make up the difference?"
"Only if a fifth deity was present to keep him contained," answered. "What are you thinking?"
"That I'm about to become one."
A sudden rush of magical force fragmented the remains of the obelisk and began to condense the stone into a small, perfect teardrop shape. The God of Light let out a roar, opening its maw before rushing straight for Salem. A wall of aura and grimm tide rose out of the lake at Salem's command, obscuring her position as she pulled the miniscule stone fragment toward herself. With a hiss, she plunged the stone into her forehead, causing it to alight upon piercing through her aura. The witch's eyes blackened in reaction, and something inexplicable about her seemed to change. As the God of Light broke through the wall of liquid, Salem sped forward to meet it, whirling her spear.
The resulting clash ended with the God of Light outmaneuvering Salem and seizing her within its jaws. Salem herself managed to embed the blade of the spear up into its palate, pushing with all her might as the dragon tried desperately to bite through her. More and more of the god was absorbed into the combined Relic, before the wisps began to redirect into the stone embedded in Salem's forehead. The pair spiraled the short distance downward into the pool of aura and grimm, and then suddenly, there was an explosion that sent liquid rocketing up and out of the remains of the mountaintop. A natural disaster soon followed, breaking apart the sides of the mountain as the foundational stone began to shake and crack. Within seconds, the mountain itself was utterly broken, leading to a massive flood of aura, grimm, and stone down into the surrounding lands.
Once again, everything went white.
"With their final clash, the essence of the God of Light was absorbed into the five Relics- the Lamp of Knowledge, Staff of Creation, Sword of Destruction, Crown of Choice, and Stone of Enmity," Jinn informed as a new, final scene began to fade in. "Even now, we struggle to contain him… and should enough of the Relics be brought together by one individual, he would be able to free himself using their life force and escape our grasp."
The landscape all around was destroyed- pools of aura and grimm were all about the countryside, with fragmented bone and rock both within and around them. All of Remnant looked like a wasteland, and only one figure was visible in the area. The lone man approached slowly, his eyes on the ground as though he was looking for something.
"The God of Light is limiting our powers from within the stones. My ability to answer you is constrained- my brother is only able to create that which can be described to him in painstaking detail. Apoph and Pela are similarly restricted by him… and in all likelihood, Salem is, as well. Destroying the Realms of Light and Darkness was our effort to separate the Relics and scatter them around Remnant. For the most part, we were successful… but they both still seek the Relics for their own ends."
Ozma came into view of the group before kneeling down and beginning to clear away some of the ash on the ground. A glowing, blue orb was visible beneath the soot, and the man got down on all fours to begin digging around the Relic. Within minutes, Ozma had pulled the Lamp of Knowledge free from its entrapment and held it aloft before everything faded out entirely.
Sun blinked several times as the real world manifested around him once again. His stomach dropped as he realized he didn't quite understand where or when he was… but looking toward the nearby sliding glass door revealed that the sun was in the sky exactly where it had been when Jinn's explanation had begun. Sun felt as though he had been out of his body for years, though he knew it wasn't true.
"That is all the help I can offer," Jinn said sorrowfully over the holo-call. The spirit was still levitating over her Relic in General Ironwood's office, though she was rapidly fading. "The cycle resets in roughly twenty years, at which point I can answer another three questions. Until then… best of luck."
There was a moment of silence between all involved on the call as they merely stared into their screens. Eventually, Ilia spoke up.
"So… what the hell do we even do with all of that?"
"I don't know," Sun admitted. "I really don't know…"
Author's Note:
Next time, back to business as usual… ish.
-RD