Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 17 Allies & Axis
🕑 Added 2024-07-04 14:11:11 +0000 UTCAmelia Cooper, Level 49 Botanist Surveyor
“Those kids are going to be the end of me…” She grumbled to herself as she marched angrily through the camps to the alchemic workshop. Only a day and they had already all moved out of the agricultural group home and off to their selected areas of work. Just like that, no warning, hardly even a goodbye!
They had been her responsibility… She had thought she could trust those she left to watch them while they were gone. But her assistant had gone and joined the Watch during the fighting, and Edna and George had been too busy maintaining the border. So the kids had gotten out and done something they would certainly regret.
‘Throwing away their childhood! How could You let them do that?’ She snarled internally, glaring over at the mountain as she moved through the ever-present streams of people.
She didn’t care if the kids had saved her near the end. They had done so by risking themself needlessly, and that was not the job of children. Then that puffed-up excuse of a Deity they were all sticking their necks out for had given them a “reward” for their recklessness!
Taking away a child's chance to live out their young years was a crime in her book, no matter who the criminal was. She noticed those around her on the packed dirt street were beginning to give her a wide birth, and she scowled, shooting a glance back along her path and finding a thorny bramble springing up in a long line leading back toward the river bridge.
“Away with you!” She snapped, gesturing sharply at the growth. The long line of interconnected plants shriveled and decayed. She turned back toward her destination with a huff, equal parts frustrated and embarrassed by her lack of control.
Helping Jonathan’s Phoenix kill that monster and then carrying the Bloom resulted in many changes to her magic that she was having trouble adjusting to. Holding the Facet for so long had forcefully expanded her Mana Pathways three or four times, and agitated her Well until it was less a well and more of a spring. Not to mention her quest reward, which was another world of headaches in itself…
It had a year-long cooldown, but even the idea of becoming some sort of giant on the battlefield disturbed her. She had never minded fighting when she had to, but full-scale battle had always been something she avoided if at all possible.
Not that it looked like she would have much of a choice in the near future. The thought of a plane-wide conflict disturbed her more than she was willing to admit, and it was clear that their Patron was going to be at its center. She shuddered at the idea of what kind of pressure they would have to be facing for her to activate its “gift” to her. She looked up from her musing and found herself at the doorway to the workshop.
Taking a deep breath, and smoothing out her shirt and jacket, she pushed through the door, ready to leave those thoughts behind and spend a few relaxing hours pursuing an exciting idea for a potion based on her Blood Weed breakthrough with the Order.
As the door opened, a thick cloud of smoke billowed out, along with the sound of shouting, “Listen, you little Twerp! It was all fine and good when you wanted to help out around here, but now you're disturbing our work!” A hazy figure shouted down towards the other end of the shop.
“That one wasn’t my fault Kelvin! This new Glass is crazy, it has so many properties with alchemical importance to discover!”
Amelia continued to wave away the smoke and saw some enchantments begin to glow in the ceiling, sucking up the rest of the smog and revealing the head alchemist Kelvin, staring daggers at little Cog. Unlike the others, he physically looked the exact same as when she had last seen him a week ago.
Amelia would almost have said he was the only one who had dodged the lunacy the rest of the children had taken up, but there, plain as day above his little frame was the strangest class she had ever seen.
Level 9 Thaumic Munitions Specialist
The head Alchemist turned away from the gnome in a huff, muttering to himself, “‘Properties’ he says… just wants to know if they will make a bigger boom.”
Taking that as approval, a white smile slashed the soot-covered mask that was Cog’s face and he quickly turned back to his own station sweeping away the pile of slag that was his last concoction into an already full waste bin.
Kelvin looked up at the now noticeable light coming in from the open door and found Amelia there, pausing in the entry as she tried to process the scene and the implications therein.
“Mrs. Cooper! A pleasure to have you. I’m sure you heard about our new Synthesizer!” He bragged shamelessly, gesturing to the large boxy stone plinth covered in runes with a gapping opening in its side.
“Cog, you too?” She asked, completely ignoring the statement.
At the sound of her voice, those little hands froze, as if caught doing something they weren’t supposed to, and the gnome turned,
“Yes, ma’am. Me too” he answered simply, his eyebrows knit in a look of concern. At first, she thought it was concern about what she was going to say, but as they both stood there staring at each other, she realized that it was much worse than that.
‘He is worried about me… ‘
His little eyes seemed to take in far more than she was comfortable with, and she found herself breaking the stare first and looking down at the stained planks of the workshop.
“Well, you are free now, free to take as many risks as you like! I won't be in your way anymore…” She noted with some surprise that a few fresh droplets were now watering the wood near her feet, and she quickly raised her hands to wipe at her face when the impact of a small body hit her in the legs. Her eyes widened in wonder as the least affectionate of her charges hugged her tightly.
“We may be adults now… but we still need you.” He muttered, seemingly oblivious to the other workers who were all studiously avoiding looking over at the scene.
She opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by another impact on her shoulder as a hand pushed her and Cog aside to make way. Two clopping hooves sounded on the planks behind her and a voice called into the shop,
“Where is the young prodigy? We are taking him and building another workshop near the wall, where none of your grubby hands can interfere with his genius!”
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Erash, Level 90 High Priestess of Origin’s Flame
A Horn screams in the distance, awakening lusts as old as time.
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The lone dragon falls from the sky as the crown of the Plane is torn in two.
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Reality becomes choked with blood and ash, intoxicating the Land with its destruction.
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Roiling seas of chaos crash against the last bulwarks of order. The sky is dark, boiling with hatred and a single star rises into the heavens, its light small against the fury of the growing storm.
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Erash pulled free from the vision gasping, finding herself collapsed on the floor of the central chamber of the temple, paces away from the altar. Her chest heaved in exertion as she tries to catch her breath in between the billowing waves of emotions that threatened to drown her.
Of all the new Abilities that had come with her temporary class, the one she had been most hesitant to use was, by far, Commune. Most of her newer companions had little to no experience with Diefic interaction, and they had no clue just how much it cost to open themselves to beings of such power. Control, and at times even conscious choice disappeared in such interactions, and all that was left was the Will of the being you sought.
This was doubly true for whatever Origin was. Most deities were consistent with the ideals they embodied, but what did He represent?
She looked around as she wiped her eyes, finding blood mingled with her tears. The central chamber was still thankfully empty. The Acolytes had protected her need for complete privacy as she performed the twelve hours of preparation it took to clear her mind and activate the Ability.
The pleasant new growth that now filled the chamber reached toward her collapsed form and she leaned into their small strength thankful for the show of support as confusion, terror, and sorrow warred for supremacy in her soul.
“How could you let that happen?” she breathed, finding the strength from somewhere to raise her head and glare at the Flame. The Flower growing within its blaze remained unapologetic in its song, exuding Warmth and Wrath in equal measures.
The High Priestess climbed shakily to her feet, feeling weaker than she had even in those final hours on the wall. The weight of what she had just seen hung on her heart like heavy chains and a sob pushed itself up from her chest, bursting through her lips with small stringers of spittle.
“HOW COULD YOU?!” She screamed, demanding an answer that she didn’t think she could bear to hear.
…
Tim Level ??? Time Lord
“The things I do for my research…” Tim sighed as he took careful steps around the small rivers of blood and ichor that continued to pour forth from the Hive's central chamber. A close observation would have revealed that the Time Lord was walking a foot above the ground, but the tunnel limited how much space he could put between him and the flow and he couldn’t help but grimace in displeasure.
Thus marked the end of a project with significant potential… At one point it had conquered a full third of the Underdark… now with its Queen and her daughters consumed by the workers, the population was doomed. Evidence of Corruption was everywhere, moving through the tunnels like rich deposits of living ore.
In the end, the Hive had fully embraced the power that the substance represented without any precautions, and this had led to a radical expansion, almost to the foot of the Dwarven Deeps, before collapsing in on themselves in hunger.
Over his long life, Tim had found that this always ended up being the case for those given too much power without a truly great purpose to temper it.
“Truly, such a waste. It would have done much for those above to face such an incredibly durable opponent. Alas, such a conflict will never be.” He muttered, scanning the threads of the Underweave as the Hive’s fate unraveled from the pattern and fell away.
Now this is what he had actually come to see. To watch something so heavily connected to the pattern of the Plane suddenly ripped from its future was… Fascinating. The effect of Corruption on the Weave was unlike anything he had ever encountered, and he was sure that it held to potential to break the limits he had hit up against Epochs ago.
So much to study and so little time to keep up with all his little projects…
Speaking of which, he had detected several very interesting changes to an old failure that he had thought relegated to obscurity. He had dabbled in creating Classes earlier in this Epoch, and had mostly been disappointed by the results. But some shifts had occurred in the Land since he had been away and now that middling Faction’s fate suddenly hummed with renewed purpose and weight.
Such variables could not be left untended when the balance he had struck to guide the plane into its next iteration was so tenuous.
Tim waved his hand and activated a portal faster than the foremost teleportation expert on the Plane. Then his features shivered as he activated an old favorite Ability, Perfect Mask.
