[Warpworld] Ch 23 – Truth is a Total Bitch to Fight

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            Its bulging eyes rolled helpless in its puffed face. “The Masters, they would, they will...”

            “Truth, please.” Its whole corpulent body shook again, and the entire army shivered as its eyes rolled.

            “Less than one chance in a million,” it croaked out helplessly, and hisses of concern passed through all the reptoids.

            “What are the chances that any of their plans, schemes, intentions, and desires would have remained unaltered considering the circumstances of what has happened to this world? Again, Truth.”

            Man, did I have this scaled toad-thing by the balls. It had a lot of power, and was incredibly broad in its awareness and thought processes, able to handle tremendous mental loads... but it was all organic, it had errors, and its ravaged spirit after so many rebirths was finding it impossible to stay strong.

            I was able to think and calculate, and was aware of stuff beyond human limitations with my Stats because I did a lot of thinking on a purely spiritual and akashic level, outside my own head.

            Eventually it rasped out in its deep gurgle of a voice, “The Masters, the Masters were wise beyond all. They would have changed their plans to account for the actions of their enemies. Us servants, we cannot grasp the wisdom of the Masters, we know not what they would have planned...”

            Oh, wasn’t that terrible news for the morale of its army. Wasn’t that belief exactly what had driven it to come here?

            “And so, here you are.” I spread my hands. “In the middle of something that did not happen in your previous lives, something you can neither recall nor anticipate.

            “For your entertainment and pleasure, I will also inform you that the Warp Gods are also in the same boat. They don’t know why I am here, what I intend to do, or how I am going to accomplish it. They DO know that I am very dangerous, they know that I am opposed to them, and they are very frustrated they can’t foresee what I am doing.

            “If you follow their plans, in their worlds... that road leads straight to the ruin your souls have experienced before, and will experience once again if they restart the game once more for their own delight. The names, the faces, and the deeds will change, yet remain the same as they pick and play at all of you again, and again, and again.

            “I am here to break you out of this cage they have wrought, and return your destinies to you.

            “The odds your Masters will come on their own is so small as to be non-existent, and now you know this.

            “The only way to change that is to escape this cage of Fate, and grow strong enough that you might be able to reach out and contact them... a feat likely to be next to impossible, if the Warp Gods have anything to say about it.

            “Regardless, the path you must strike going forwards must be your own, and not one decided by the gods of the Warp, or weighed down by plans of the Ancients you know now are not valid by their own nature.

            “So, Elder, what do you wish to do now? Do you want to fight, which does nothing but prove who has the bigger fist, and try to prevent me from Sealing away the Warp Gods?

            “If so, you now know Truth, and that means you know you are damning your people and this planet to the endless cycle with your actions, aiding the Warp Gods in their insane little scheme, and I WILL kill you for that.

            “There is no weight or defense behind such an action but insanity and madness. Your Masters do not compel you now.

            “Now, there is only you. So, tell me YOUR decision, Elder!”

            Its fist-sized eyes rolled over again, and it burbled and gurgled, unable to voice a decision, its blurping words actually rising to a keening loop of confusion and indecision until...

            There was a voop and vorping, and suddenly chair, neo-triceratops, and big green-yellow bloated Muudr toad-thing were gone, Teleported off back thataway, and I let it through the Interdiction to go.

            Which naturally left a whole army of saurids standing there in confusion and disbelief at what had just happened.

            “Well, isn’t that something special,” I mused aloud, still not moving from my position. “You all have heard everything I said, and I say in Truth that I worked no magic nor power upon your Elder, save for absolute honesty and the dispelling of all lies.

            “Now, who commands here?”

            There was some confused looking around a moment, and then the big Komos Warlord mounted on a very toothy and spiked-out tyrannosaur stand-in egged his mount forward, lifting high an Axe that looked to be made of some heavily psi-crafted bone and exotic alloys, if I had any feel for such stuff.

            “I am Rixugor, the Toothed Warlord of the Komos!” he proclaimed ferociously to me. “I am in command here, with the absence of Elder Mauxmurkan!”

            I nodded once. Nice phrasing, too. “Raise your weapons if this Warlord is your commander!”

            There was only the slightest hesitation that I would say such a thing, and then clawed fists clutching spears, axes, crude swords, clubs, or nothing at all thrust into the air, accepting his authority to speak for them.

            “Your words are true, Warlord Rixugor. May I ask what your intentions are?” I asked politely. “I believe your options are to fight me and die; go out and fight the minions of Chaos gathering about this place who now outnumber you multiple times over, and die; join me and see the Warp Zone Sealed and the destiny of your people and world returned to them; or ask to return home, which I don’t really have the power to do for you right now, given where we are.”

            There was a hundred yards between us, and he urged his dangerous mount forward. Feature didn’t change his motion a bit, twenty feet above the ground, not out of reach, but not retreating nor even tensing up.

            The Warlord really was a big member of his species, easily ten feet tall, with cracked scales and scarred hide where wounds had not healed perfectly. I had the temporal impression that he was actually pretty damn old, had survived a lot of fights, and would survive a lot more.

            Helped to have a really big friend with him, too.

            He was probably testing my nerves, seeing how unshakable I was. I just turned my eyes on his mount, and let it know I was looking at it.

            It stopped very abruptly beyond Feature’s strike range, staring at me. I stared back as its tail twitched, and natural orneriness warred with the threat level it was sensing if it poked me.

            It didn’t submit, but it didn’t take a single step closer, either, although it kept pace as we moved backwards with the Pyramid.

            Warlord Rixugor caught the instincts of his mount and decided that I might actually be dangerous, despite my size. “You seek to ward away the vile Gods of the Warp, and their demons?” he snarled at me.

            “I fully intend to do so, and that Pyramid is what will do it.” I gestured at the streams of vivus flowing to the Pyramid above us. “You see the unwhite mists?” I asked him.

            “Yes. They are strange, but do not seem harmful.”

            “They are vivus, the foundational energies of the Mortal Realm. They are devouring the energies of Chaos leaking out of the Warp Zone ahead, pouring them into the Land beneath us, and enhancing the strength and stability of the Mortal Realm as they do so.

            “Were we in the Warp itself, they would be useless. But here, on the Mortal Plane, vivus is a terrifyingly hungry force, one that devours the energies of alien worlds and other dimensions and takes them for its own.

            “You might even say it’s the Mortal Realm’s equivalent to the energies of the Warp.

            “Every second, the vivus is devouring the energies of the Warp and reinforcing the laws of reality here.

            “None of the demons of the Warp can exist in here, as they Burn and die forever. Disciples of the Warp entering here will have the Tainted energies within them devoured and likely die as the vivus takes it from them, unable to live without their foul benefits. Their wretched travesty of magic feeds the Pyramid more.

            “I will take this Pyramid and drive it like a great and nasty Spear right into the gaping hole that the gods of the Warp are keeping open at the northern pole of this world. The harder they strive to keep it open and the more power they expend, the greater the strength that will come to bear and the more Reality will close in to devour it all.

            “Every step we take towards the pole is eating away at the Warp Zone, shrinking it slightly as the Domain eats away at the very essence of its existence. As it goes further, it will devour more, and get stronger, and stronger, and stronger!

            “By the time we reach the North Pole, not even the Warp Gods are going to withstand the long spear of the universe itself I am hitting them with. The Warp Zone will be forced to close, and their influence on this world suffer a tremendous blow.

            “All I have said is Truth.”

            The big fellow rocked slightly in his saddle, and even the dinosaur with the intellect of a block looked impressed. Still, he kept his wits about him. “You did not say they could not reopen it, in time,” he pointed out cunningly.

            “No, because they most certainly could.” My smile was toothless, I didn’t know how fluent he was in human expressions. “However, the place the Warp Zone will be forced closed will also be the only viable point they can re-enter this world from, so I will simply leave this Pyramid there.

            “The amount of energy they will have to expend to get such a Portal open again would destroy the entire planet, but it will cut them like gutted fish to do such a thing.

            “They are the Gods of the Warp; leeches, parasites, and scavengers. They gain nothing here if it is all destroyed, and they have countless other places to play their games in. If they truly want to destroy the world, it is other gods who will have to stop them.

            “But here, in these days, a mortal can kick them off this world and stop their Warped nonsense, and I am going to do so.”

            He studied me, I looked back, my eyeless gaze gained weight, and he quickly realized he wasn’t going to win a staring contest.

            Instead, he inclined his head. “We will assist you in this task.”

            “Very well.” I swept my hand back at the Pyramid, and the flames on its southwestern flank dimmed in the center, where the stairs were. “You may board the Pyramids to rest. If you wish to walk alongside or around it, do so at your own wherewithal. If you wish to raid the Warped forces outside the Domain and retreat back within, I leave such matters to your own discretion.

            “If I issue a command to return and board the Pyramid, it is because something has entered the Domain and it needs to be defended.

            “I will take responsibility for Healing any of you who are injured, including your mounts, up to and including severed limbs and the like.

            “Are those terms amenable to you?”

            His eyes were wide with interest. “You have such potent Healing magic?” he asked, startled.

            “Not all gods are mighty and stalwart warriors. Some are merciful and kind, and their gifts come in other forms. Healing is the mightiest anvil upon which the swords of great warriors are forged.”

            He turned that over in his head, and nodded slowly in agreement. “A fine statement. I will consider our course of action. Your terms are accepted.”

            I watched him ride away, pitched a thought at Feature, and he zipped around and flashed away with very impressive speed, drawing hisses of shock from the watching saurids as he did so.

            The things that had been using vivus and closing in on the front of the Pyramid? They were almost here.

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