[Warpworld] Ch 19 – Interested Visitors

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            -Master, we’ve flying visitors coming in from behind. They passed the Domain border without incident.-

            I lifted an eyebrow as Feature raised his head, eyes leaping over the miles to identify what looked like a combined force of dragons and assorted eagle-like brightly plumaged phoenixes winging their way rapidly towards the Pyramid, artfully armored and bridled flying beasts ridden by equally colorful armored or robed bipeds in familiar styles.

            “Well, they moved quickly enough,” I mused aloud to both Ices and Feature. “Any experience with elves, Ices?”

            They indicated they’d heard tales of Hydras enslaved by corrupted elves, but no personal experience they could recall... which didn’t mean they didn’t, it just meant that the heads who had the experience had all perished in the past.

            The elves had seen the renewed auroras, remembered my words, and had come to investigate. Probably prodded with the thoughts that I was meddling with forces I could not control, and I would have to be stopped before I destroyed the world or something.

            Meh. I watched them winging closer, a bit cautious, and only when they drew nearer and started to spread out did I speak up.

            “To the elves coming in from the flanks. Don’t fly around the Pyramid, I will take that as a hostile action. Don’t attempt to land on the Pyramid, I will take that as a hostile action. Please land at the southern steps on either side if you have friendly intentions. If you have hostile intentions, by all means ignore my words.” Pulsing out a Stillflight would be very unwelcome to them, and just what would happen to them if I pulled the Domain in and let the Warped friendly folks ride up on them?

            All possibilities they had to consider.

            Their forward progress was checked a bit, and their formation hesitantly tightened back up again.

            I watched them straighten up and start descending to the right flank of the Pyramid, catching up without any effort given it was drag-racing turtles for speed.

            I watched the whole flight settle to the ground, the Phoenixes carrying a mage apiece, while the Dragons carried a mage and a warrior. They landed separately, keeping the animals carefully separate, pride radiating off both types of creatures. Both were magical, fully sapient, and apexes of their kind. The normal tendency to start conflicts and establish dominance probably meant fights broke out between them without much cause.

            They were probably a bit surprised at how calming the atmosphere here was.

            I recognized the rider of the lead dragon, but his counterpart dismounting a multi-hued Phoenix of new plumage to me was unfamiliar. He looked more the wizard, however, having a staff in hand, although both of them had swords at their waists... and they both had ridiculously ornate oversized hats similar in design, if not colors.

            The stairs started on the second tier. The Block below them on the first tier split and flipped over and down, the blazing, multi-hued Flames there parting to let it fall and settle into place.

            “Master Sethanon Dragonspeaker, High Wizard of the White Tower of Sindalphin. You’ve flown a long way to meet me again,” my voice echoed around them in Draconic. “I don’t know your companion, but I assume he’s a fellow High Wizard.”

            Their eyes lifted at a streak of refracting light moving along the Pyramid, zipping along the twentieth tier at speed, making a hard right at the steps and gliding down to wait on the steps, resolving into two butter-silver Disks of force there waiting for them. “Your escorts are welcome to come up onto the Pyramid. Have the phoenixes and dragons spread out on the first tier. They should enjoy inhaling the flames of the Walls there. Their riders can walk about as they like, but don’t bother trying to advance above the twentieth tier, it will be quite painful and you’ll probably be blasted right off the Pyramid. It’s a long way down.”

            I watched them glance at one another, then turn back and nod to their followers. Side by side, they advanced to the hovering steps, paused at the Disks, looked up at the climb, and decided to ride instead of walk. They sat down on the Disks, which promptly folded up into custom-fitting seats, turned, and zipped up the stairs at speed.

            The elves coming behind warily led their mounts up, a dragon going first, it looked like by coin flip, and alternating with a phoenix, favoring neither and not making them wait for the other as a group. There was only ten feet of space, but it was enough for the great beasts, who had no problem balancing there.

            Both types did extend their noses to inhale the Holy Vivic Walls of Fire Burning there, and chirruped and growled in surprise, scales writhing and wings fluttering excitedly. The riders were a bit amazed to find the excitable and tense beasts laying down without any encouragement, sticking their heads over the edge to inhale the fiery essence coming off the top of the Walls there.

            By then the two High Wizards there had shot up the steps, turned at the twentieth tier, and sped along the tier, taking the corner at speed, zipping up and turning a complete cartwheel to do so, both startling and amusing the two elves as they did so. I could feel both of them attempting to test my control of the Disks, I calmly flicked back against their pressure, and they withdrew the attempts.

            I was perched on the angled front of the Pyramid, looking ahead at the point of the Pyramid Burning heartily below, a landscape seared white ahead of me... and the sky solid, bursting mistfire. Streams of vivus coiled through the air like living things from multiple directions, plunging into the altar and the top five stories of the Pyramid.

            The Disks zipped up to either side of me calmly, and I passed control over to them, startling both of them. They started to get up, saw I was sitting down, and decided to hold back, looking out at the view ahead of and below us.

“I am Aelryinth of Terra-Luna, Human, Magos, Heavenbound, and Ringlord, Monarch of The Steel and over ten million citizens who have given me their Oaths, and that is Truth,” I repeated for the benefit of the new elf. “May I ask who I am addressing?”

His sharp eyes glanced over at me, perhaps considering that I might be insulting him by not turning to face him, and burying the thought for the moment. “I am Thanolque, son of Carramanador, called also Artlis the Phoenix Mage among humans, High Wizard and current High Master of the great White Tower of Sindalphin,” he recited formally.

I took off my glasses and turned slightly to listen to him, feeling his reaction when he saw my empty eye sockets. “Well met, Master Artlis,” I stated calmly, this time in the Elven tongue of the Jade Empire back on Korbald’s world. It was how he preferred to be known among humans, so I addressed him that way. “Is this legible to you, or would you prefer Draconic?”

Both elves looked intrigued and startled. “Your accent is... very strange. I confess to having not heard that dialect before, but it is quite legible.”

Elven genetic language confirmed, even weird elves, I thought to myself. It just mutated to whatever the local elves were. Around the corner, the other elves were all looking this way as they heard the voices of their superiors and myself clearly.

“Well, are we to be engaging in small talk while we dance around the subjects, or would you like to get right to the questions, High Wizards?” I swept a hand out in front of me. “As you can see, there is nothing too busy going on immediately in front of us, so I have time to do either.”

The two elves looked to one another, and the elder spoke up first. “We saw the lights of the north dance in the sky as they had not for ages, pure and true with the magic, yet we knew it was not from the Vortex’s workings. Divinations indicated that this was a matter of great magic at work, a portent of monumental significance, and so we hurried here in force to see the cause of it,” Master Sethanon related to me.

The tenth of the elven escort wizards jerked back as they tried to reach into the workings of the Pyramid, swearing softly as they clutched charred fingertips, the same as their companions. I smiled at nothing.

“And lo, you did come flying up to a cloudy barrier that forces of the Warp were gathered without, and could not enter. Recognizing the vivic energy, you bade your people enter through the harmless stuff and came within, seeing this little hunk of stone I put together,” I smiled, patting the Pyramid.

“Yourself? Alone? In such little time?!” High Wizard Artlis gasped.

“Yes. I am a Lord of Pyramids.” The air seemed to ring at my Title, and both elves flinched at the effect. “Making these things is the biggest timesuck that I have on my schedule, but this seemed to be a very appropriate use of one.” I waved Mortus Dius at the white conflagration of mist all about us. “The Gods of the Warp are being kind enough to charge this up for me. The area of the Domain should begin rising within the hour.”

“What is the purpose of this creation of yours then, Master Aelryinth?” Master Sethanon asked, the appellation coming off in spite of his hauteur. He couldn’t whip up anything like this in the time I’d taken either, after all, and he could certainly feel the power and craftsmanship Shaped into every crystal of the stone.

I pointed directly ahead. “About two hundred and forty miles that way is the polar Rift that was torn open on this world, a forced convergence between two very disparate Realms. I am going to take this Pyramid up to that Rift, suck all the Warp energies out of the area, feed them to the Land, rebuild the shorn Veil, and Seal that thing shut forever.”

The elves both tensed, agog at the simplicity of the statement, and the edges of Truth around my words forced them both to realize that I meant exactly what I said.

“This...” Master Artlis blurted out. “Without any aid?” he finally asked.

“If you wish to help, I won’t turn it down. A ringside seat to chopping the Warp Gods off one of their pet show worlds will probably be most satisfying.”

“Pet show worlds?” Master Sethanon repeated blankly.

“Yes. Your world approaches its End Days, as the Warp Gods have decreed. Once it is completely destroyed and all resistance expunged, naturally it becomes completely boring, and so time is rewound upon it to some time in the past, and the world starts again, reliving the events with new twists and turns and faces and names.

“Then they let all the tragedies and triumphs play out again, in new and different forms, until the End Times arrive again, and it is time to start over again.

“It’s difficult to tell, but this world has died at least a thousand times. It always resets to the moment the Warp Rift was torn open, so I doubt anything older than that has any clear memories of what came before. The resets would keep mucking with their memories, but such old creatures might even seem to have some sort of foresight, having played through the games of the Warp Gods so many times.”

Both elves were silent as they digested those words, which were probably turning their worldview upside down, and not in a good way. “We... are but puppets in a vast play of the Warp Gods’ design?” Master Artlis hissed out softly.

“They are right bastards,” I nodded once, tapping Mortus Dius against the stone. “But if that Rift is closed, they lose their foothold here, much of their power and influence, and their games end. What deeds you accomplish then will truly matter, and you will finally forge a history that is your own to keep.”

“They will try to stop you,” Master Sethanon stated calmly. “Is this... Pyramid, truly enough to do the job?”

“I can’t say with absolute certainty, naturally. We’re dealing with powers of Chaos and Evil here. But what that means is that they are ultimately selfish. Literally the only way to stop me from doing what I am doing is to pump enough power through the Rift to make the planet explode. That will also make a final End Times and stop this horrid play, but it will also cost them all the power they must expend to make that happen.

“It will be all spite and no benefit, and the thought of spiteing a mortal like myself by shooting themselves in the foot is terribly amusing to me.

“So, yes, it should work. I come from outside the plays they’ve been putting on. I am not part of the game, I don’t have to follow their rules, and I’m not subject to their prior machinations. I also bring vivic energy,” I pointed at the misting streams above me, which they were studying intently, doubtless both having examined the Vortex Formation and the vivus there intently, “and the powers of Heaven, which they have otherwise prevented from manifesting here. Pandimensional divinities save themselves are also not present here, which means they are more powerful than the native gods that they allow to form here. Since they regularly destroy the world and start over, the native gods never have the wherewithal to grow strong enough to truly challenge them, and are likely infected with the edge of Chaos and Evil, whoever they are, and thus unable to oppose them properly.”

The elves were thoughtful for long minutes, thinking about all of that, of the absurd futility of their own existences, not even having known their deaths were just something replayed again when the End Times inevitably came again...

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