Azri's magic took hold once more - apparently the body leaping did count as a fresh target for her magic - but between the brutal chain of blows, combined with the oddly low armour he was suffering from, the Devil once again.
...and the bells tolled once again. For a moment you were in an add swamp, a blue sun hanging in the sky and hundreds of yellow frogs. An oddly confused looking woman stand in the distance, knee deep in the water, before you flash back to the Tower.
Nigrum coup de grace's the remaining enemies. He did not want the parasite to return and they had chosen their fate. He brings down Tsui to behead them.
They have to make a fort save vs the damage as a DC to survive. Pretty sure with Nigrum's damage mod that's impossible.
Once that is done he moves to the rusted sword and attempts to remove it.
Son of a...
These constant changes might be a problem. Azri focused slightly, then rose up in the air, standing on top of a cloud. If they were shifted anywhere dangerous, that ought to protect her from anything on the ground, at least... and she could try to figure out another way of dealing with this... this... hellborn jerk.
...
Wait, was this what emotions felt like?
"We can deal with this later. Let's find where this bell is coming from."
|
However, it is the group of blank-faced armed warriors surrounding the chamber, watching you without blinking that draws your eyes.
Nigrum coup de grace's the remaining enemies. He did not want the parasite to return and they had chosen their fate.
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Ayreth sees Nigrum raise Tsui at the remaining soldiers, and moves to intervene since they aren't turning into Khaul at the moment. "What are you doing? They are no threat at the moment."
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"They are puppets for the parasite. Can you say for certain that he will not use them in the future. Or that even now he is not lurking behind their eyes, watching us? It serves no one but the parasite to allow them to live. Unless you have a way to dispel the parasite from it's host or protect those that are vulnerable to it. I will end them and let the heavens judge their place."
Had no one wondered where all these puppets came from. Clearly they were at best mercenaries, they knew the risk of their occupation. At least the parasite would have no hold in the next life. Anyways they had nether the resources or people to jail anyone or even a local authority to hand them over to. It made no sense to allow enemies to walk free.
|
|
"Of course I can't say for certain. But they might be bystanders who were controlled by whatever Khaul is. It serves justice to find out if they deserve to die. We can either be the people who took eight lives or the ones who managed to save two." Ayreth takes a breath and changes her approach from a moral one to a practical one. "We can tie them up until we know. They might even be able to offer insight into what it is."
Aibek's head once more looked up at the sound of the bells, before staring in confusion at the scene around them, before it flickered back to the Towers. Mihara's statement brought the witchwolf's racing thoughts back into focus as they looked towards the kitsune,
"Yes, the bells interplanar power leaks are getting worse, I do not want to see where they could shift next..." Aibek comments before beginning to move towards back towards the door. Tie them up or give them to the Mother of Souls, whatever you all think is best, but time and the bells don't seem to want to wait...
As much as the shadow archon longed for the Plane of Shadows, an uncontroled shift could put them in an anywhere...an umbral's lair...or worse... or better but still painful due to limited time. Shaking their head of thoughts once more, Aibek checked out the doors while waiting for decisions from the others, shadows turning still around their hands, teeth, and around.
"As far as we know, that guy can control anyone." Selena grumbles, her muscles still stiff from the now-dead caster's spell, as she picks some rope from her backpack "He probably could control us, too: are you going to lop off our heads and yours?"
"Aibek, how do we stop the bells once we find them? Hold them in place?"
Checking on the puppet soldiers proves pointless - Khaul wasn't especially interested in protecting them from that Negative Energy burst, or perhaps he didn't even consider them when he'd done it.
The Council chambers are in the middle of this floor. There are likely windows...somewhere...but finding them will take time. Going up the stairs is likely the fastest method.
Aibek considers. Stopping the bells will depend on exactly what's happening, the mechanism that is moving them and the spells empowering them to ring through planes and dimensions. Stopping the physical movement will be part of it, but likely not nearly as simple as it would seem. The Witchwolf, and others with knowledge of the planes, would likely know more once they saw what was happening.
Aibek also does not see anything out of the door when they take a peek, the stairs up and down seem clear for now.
The bells rang out, power growing, but no effects were felt on your plane of existence.
Aibek paused, looking to Selena, "That...may be part of it. It'll depend on a lot of variables - type of bell mechanisms, the magic powering it through multiple planes, possibly how our plane compares to the plane of the bells origin or which planes it's traveling through, why it's gathering and/or leaking power..."
The witchwolf shook their head to stop the babbling as the bells began to toll, sending the witchwolf once more looking up, listening, features rigid for a moment, relaxing with a sigh once the shadow archon saw that nothing seemed to change.
Looking back to Selena and the others, Aibek finished with "I'm hoping I, or one of you, may know once it can be examined..." before turning, if not stopped be either another's need or opposition, to move with incorporeal steps at immaterial speed up the stairs and towards the bells...
"Someone get the sword." Azri suggested before following Aibek up the stairs, zooming up them on her cloud. She couldn't go very high - yet - but it was better than walking in case there were any ground-level problems. Bells were usually at the top of places, so that seemed to be their destination.
"You start going up, I'll follow after you in a second." Selena says, marching toward the stuck sword, her strength back.
"Didn't I pull out a magic sword out of a body two days ago? Is this going to keep happening?" Selena chuckles, giving a tentative tug before, trying to take the sword...
...but it doesn't seem it wants to budge.
Those of you that head upstairs emerge into a room of cathedral-like size and splendour, although if it was dedicated to a God it would likely be Brigh, rising the same height as three of the floors you've seen before. Massive gears line the walls, ceiling - even the floor beneath you, under some kind of thick glass. Gears of steel, mithral, bronze and crystal clink and clank, and other strange mechanisms, coated in runes, sigils and incantations move to a steady beat.
In the centre of the room, nearly 40 feet up, a series of huge bells sit, each made of different materials. It is these you have heard ringing as the power builds and grows.
But amongst the mechanical flowing and motion are strange...things. Cogs have been torn from their place and things of dark, pulsing energy and flesh put into their positions. Chains have been replaced with bones. Arcane scripture has been blasphemed with evil symbols of holy power and Infernal texts.
"It's impressive, is it not?" The voice behind you has a familiar - and annoying - candace and intonation to it. To those who turned a small figure in a dark, hooded robe stood within a circle of pale black light. "To set this up in but an hour was challenging, even for me, but it is far easier to taint what is there than build it from scratch. Can you guess what it is doing yet?" Khaul asked mockingly.
Of course, the machinery here is also clearly an integral part of Nexus, co-opted for this purpose, and destroying it would likely be impractical.
"Meh." Azri said... hurling a bolt of Misfortune at Khaul's latest body from her place atop the cloud. "I didn't think my predictions were going to come true THIS quickly, but hey."
Nothing happens as the magic touches the devil and flows through it, inspiring a slight chuckle. "No, no, you've won! All my toys are broken. Alas, I am but a poor, humble spirit, able to send merely this poor image to watch the fruits of my labours come to fruition."
Aibek stared at the bells and relevant thoughts simply would not come. Between feeling overwhelmed at the sight and possible horrendous outcomes combined with rage rising again at the sound of Khaul's voice and taunts, any answers would not come.
Mind snapped back with Ayreth's explanation, Aibek considered the Oracle's words while starting to circle the room, looking at the mechanisms. Not wanting to say much more in front of the annoying parasite devil - and even less to them, Aibek comments aloud towards the group mostly obvious thoughts...
"There are ways to thicken the barriers between among other ways to block interplanar travel that I've used before; though, with the way this is already leaking and affecting this Plane, stopping the mechanisms and magic will likely be the first several needed steps. Later, figuring out how much this trick has affected Khalharum and related places elsewhere may be important..."
"Suuuuuure you are." Azri answered. She glanced at the others a moment later, then raised one hand. "Want me to fling a few dispelling bolts into it?" she asked.
"Stupid...sword!" Selena groans, gibing a last angry pull at the sword before giving up.
"" the half-fiend cheers as she pulls out the greatsword, running after the others with the weapon in hand.
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Selena, with a little help, does indeed pull the huge sword from between the gears.
As per usual, Khaul seems to be telling the truth. Of course, he also doesn't seem to be acting like a creature that feels it has been defeated...there's more to the situation than he's mentioning, and Khaul has been shown to have more than one plan.
The devil chuckles. "Oh, please, feel free to break the little circle. Such exciting things happen when my circles get broke. Of course, to do so may take some...time, and, well, tick tock." He nodded to the bells, as they once more chimed.
Khaul clapped his hands. "Ohhh, nothing this time. I wonder, though, just how long it will take before, as the dutiful daughter here mentions, you all go on a little trip. Somewhere. It'll be fuuuun, thought. For me. Trust me. Maybe her pet will enjoy the trip, though."
Glancing over at the Witchwolf, Khaul added, "They're right, of course. There are ways to thicken the barrier, and stopping the machinery is probably the first step...but oh, are you willing to pay the price and loose access to other dimensions again? Surely you've wondered if this toy can take you where you want to go."
Aibek kept circling the device, considering Azri's offer while examining the bell device, concerned about what anything would do it. Pausing and solidifying sharply when the bells rang, looking around as they began.
A half-sigh, half-growl came from the witchwolf at Khaul's targetted taunts. As much as the game of 'how much does Khaul know about us' had some relevancy to the situation - Khaul knew Aibek had done similar enough things before and though didn't seem to grasp the finer details of it or the consequences, or maybe didn't care -, Aibek really wanted the devil to be quiet, particularly about painful things. Frustrated thoughts bubbled to the surface though...
In a dismissive tone that grew more annoyed, while continuing to circle the bells, Aibek replied to the devil, "I've not really considered the bells and your use of them anything but an annoying threat. I'm sure you're aware there are far better devices for shifting to the Plane of Shadows as well as natural places like the Vakana lands used to have and people who can do it themselves and can take others, all with their own expenses and risks, most very expensive, but far less than this overcomplicated, overly risky, and unneeded contraption for someone like me who sometimes wants to contact and go h...to go again someday. I imagine you'd only use something like this for something bigger...and if someone else is having to pay the price... which seems your standard way of doing things..."
Nigrum mostly ignored the parasite.
"I do not know much of such things. But I do know that it would need a source of power to move and if the new additions are for the sake of it's new purpose. Why would we not simply disrupt the flow of power or target the new additions to be destroyed?"
He raises Tsui ready to start laying waste to the foul foreign cogs at a word from those more knowledgeable of such things.
Azri raised her staff and fired off a few bolts towards one of the fleshy replacements, trying to see if she could simply blow them away. Devils were... interesting. Generally, though, you could assume that pretty much everything they said was some kind of manipulation intended to further their own plans. The best response was to simply ignore them, rather than letting their silver tongues trick you into something.
Mihara turns to those of her companions who are studying the mechanism. At a simple glance of the contraption, she knows it to be beyond her.
She flicks out her tools, ready to help disassemble anything that might need nimble fingers.
Azri's bolts made the fleshy creation bleed, shrivel and eventually die. With a groan the machine was forced into a slightly different shape, gears pulling from their position, to remove the gap. Eventually, the machine wouldn't be able to compensate...
But the bells chimed again. There is a subtle note of difference this time. Something has changed.
Seeing Azri's action and no word forthcoming he brings down Tsui on a near by foreign cog.
"Everyone - wreck the organic parts, if you'd be so kind." Azri said, aiming her bolts upwards and starting to fire a steady stream of them at those her companions might find harder to reach. "The faster, the better."
Following Azri's command, Mihara leaps into the air, shifting into her fully vulpine form. Flittering about the room with the grace and agility one would expect of a songbird, she seeks out anything that looks fleshy or out of place, tearing out whatever she can with her fangs, and sniffing at the air.
Aibek's eyes grew wide at the observations, an anxious, tired groan escaped the witchwolf as they kept circling the bells.
"From my observations...it has the power to...we have minutes at best before it rings a disastrous combination...I just wanted to..." Aibek begins, the dark shadows around the shadow archon swirling and whipping around and pulling through their hands until they conjured a massive net.
Muttering under their breath, Aibek moved to arrange the shadow net over one of the gears, waited a moment as it was dragged up higher by the moving teeth before...
...giving it a tentative tug and turning to look at Selena. "Good job getting the sword" Aibek said with a small smile. "While they get the fleshy parts, can you help me pull some of these gears out of position? It's the fastest thing I can think to maybe get it to stop..." said in a quiet voice that became more of a worried, nervous plea as the words tumbled from Aibek.
"Hey, after pulling this thing" Selena pants as she catches her breath for a moment after reaching the others (and seeing some fleshy...things, all over), holding up the sword. "This will be a piece of cake! At my three: One, two..." the Half-succubus says as she grabs the gear Aibek was holding on.
""
Mihara can smell the gears easily enough, as they are at least partially organic with...something else mixed in. Something unpleasant.
The attacks damage the gearing, causing the whole machine to shudder and pause in it's operation for a moment. More pulsed and grew, however, the room groaned as the mechanics were once more forced to make up the gap.
Ayreth's detect magic could see the magic around the room faltering, being diverted to make the machinery work - although it wasn't destroyed, you had forced it to spend the energy it was gathering bypassing the damage.
A smile started coming back to Aibek's face as Selena moved the gear. Looking around the bells again, the shadow archon said, "We can use the net to drag it further out of position or try to move more gears out of alignment, I'm not sure which will bring this down faster... one completely out or a lot of them wonky...or something else" while looking at the mechanisms carefully for a moment.
Nigrum moves on to the next vile gear.
Mihara maintains the assault as well.
Azri determines the most expedient way to stop the system is to stop the ringing of the bells. It is the noises, the carefully tuned frequencies, that are ripping holes through the fabric of both time and space. Without the bells - the six, huge bells - the spell will fail.
Another potential method would be to take the machinery and use it for yourself. The twisted spell of Khaul could not survive the machinery being turned back to it's real purpose. Of course, that would mean restoring Nexus, and that would require the fourth Symbol...on Khaul's first body, on the floor below.
Aibek notices that the damage is slowing the great machine. She also notices that Khaul still does not seem especially considered by the damage that has been wrought so far. Unfortunately, the damage Nigrum, Mihara, and Selena if she choose to attack as well, have done this time is not enough to stop the build up of energy. The bells ring once more.
...and Khaul laughs. Power pours out in ever peel as they flood through the Towers. Runes ignite in Hellfire, spreading on to the walls. With a groan, everything shifts - but this time begins to move with them. A haze of negative energy, enough to make your stomach boil but nothing more, pours out.
All six bells roar out on final, deafening peel - and Towers vanish from Khalharum.
~~~
It's difficult to say how much time passes. The travel through reality is not a simple or easy thing. When things come to rest once more, time has passed. That is about all that can be said.
The gears now lie silent, the organic components Khaul installed dead or dying. The bells are equally quiet, although the final peel still sounds in your ears, a noise time itself will likely never erase from your memory. Outside the windows...a blinding light, purer than even the desert sun of Khalharum.
Aibek held their ears, the ringing and laughter burning through them, fear overcoming the witchwolf. Aibek allowed the shadows to fall from the conjured net and pulled them close to themself before everything begins twisting and turning. Closing their amber eyes, Aibek grit their teeth together, tasting the umbra, body tensed and just waited for what came next.
~~~
Once all was still and silent, Aibek opened their eyes and slowly dropped their clawed hands from their ears, still feeling the bells cacophony in their mind, still holding the shadows close to their body.
Looking to the windows and it's bleaching light, Aibek almost winced, the tension still filling the shadow archon's every muscle. Looking around the room they were in, fear overrunning Aibek's thoughts as the witchwolf desperately tried to piece together what they could, mostly how much time had passed and...
"Where in the bleaching blight is this?" Aibek commented, voice as tense as the rest of them.
"" Selena shouts, as the runes on the walls light up and the chamber starts to shift...
~~~
"Damnit..." Selena curses, slowly unplugging her ears after it seems everything had stopped. Moving close to Aibek, Selena tries to look out of the window.
"Where the hell are we?" the half-succubus says, before adding "Are we in Hell? Doesn't look very...Hell-ish."
"Oh goodness no," the image of Khaul said to Selena. "If my clients wanted to access Hell, I wouldn't have had to borrow your little city to do it. I have a door or two of my own. No, this place is...well, let's just say it's a little corner of Elysium. Not an easy place to get to for my kind, and certainly not undefended - especially not given what lives here - but there are a few ways around that, too. As for is it over? Well, your part is. And my part almost is. But what is the end of a tale but the start of the next?"
The image flickered. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few things to deal with. Do enjoy your stay, and try not to be disintegrated for, say, carrying a possessing ghost in your head, having the blood of werewolves, being an undead abomination or being a half demonic entity in a realm of pure good. You know, think happy thoughts! Or something. I don't care anymore. Have fun!" The circle went dark and blew away in dust as Khaul vanished.
Selena looks out the window and sees a perfect summer day. Khalharum - all of Khalharum, the other islands included - rests in a perfectly blue lake. The shoreline beyond looks like a perfect summers day, and a house sits on the far shore. Looking between the two makes Khalharum look almost unreal in it's battered, weather-worn appearence.
Of course, most houses do not sit larger than the city you're standing in. Even at the top of the tallest tower you can barely see over the residence. The house seems to have been designed for creatures that stand a great deal taller than most any of you. The front doors look taller than the room you're in.
Of course, the walls of the place somewhat blur the line between house walls and fortress walls, and the gates are no mean metal frames but solid adamatium of some kind. A bell of alarm can be heard in the premises as figures start moving into the courtyard - most of whome, by scale, must be 50 feet or so tall.
Aibek realizes the cool air means this place is significantly more temperate than the deserts of Stonespine Island, but the light seems almost liquid, pooling to eliminate shadows.
The Witchwolf also knows that Elysium is the realm of freedom, love and artistic expression - and the home of some of the most powerful creatures in the multiverse.
"Well, I'd probably come back in the city..." Azri observed. "But I bet we could get back faster if we made friends here. Elysium is supposed to be good, right? Let's just ask if anyone can get us home." She did, however, keep her Mortal Visage on for this, and spent a few moments healing up before stepping over to the window. <"Hello there!"> she called out in Celestial, one of the (many) languages she was fluent in. <"We were sent here against our will - can you help us?"> That was a carefully selected explanation - Elysium was big on freedom, after all. If they presented themselves as people whose freedom had been taken away by hostile figures - devils, no less - the residents of Elysium might be much more willing to listen.
"It's having blood of werewolves AND being bound to shadows that will be my problem, annoying parasite" Aibek grumbled while instinctively pulling back from the running light. Both were important details, particularly to Aibek.
Aibek took a moment to further pull their shadows into themself, dropping it from their hands, claws, and mouth. It was...uncomfortable...the new shadows edges pinching and twisting Aibek had not yet had a chance to sort or smooth them but the shadow archon couldn't...
Once finished, Aibek gave a frustrated sigh while debating shifting to a more human appearance, other thoughts spinning.
"Elysium is an outer Plane. One of places the Mother of Souls sorts the dead. Suppose to be for...wild freedom and expression and compassion -- within the limits of a specific view of morality. I've only known of people shifting physically in...I don't even know if dreamers can go this far...I've heard tale of living coming and going but..." Aibek rambled aloud as they sorted through their thoughts before looking to Selena. "This place also has some of the strongest fighters and defenders and such from across the Planes. This could...though I believe the Realm of Calistria is here as well which...I don't know..."
Aibek really wanted to have an answer, and even more for there to be an answer and a plan, and even more to get back to the inn and have a meditate and a sort and a nap. On hearing Azri's plan and talking out the windows, Aibek just nodded, thoughts spinning. "Getting down from this Tower and talking to people does seem a good first step..." Aibek comments with a tired small smile towards though did not yet move or shift.