Chương 551: BECMI Chapter 550 – The Wrong Kind of Pyramid Power

Aelryinth … There would be more Black Pyramids, one for each Maw that led down into other lands, anchoring and securing the power of the Plane, empowering its ability to go out and grab the essence of other worlds and collapse them into itself. The throneroom at the top of Castle Doomrose raised its great rotunda ten feet, and then slowly spun itself around. If you had good eyes, you could see a rather large tube revealed in the open space now existing there.

It was impossible to tell how far away the Black Pyramid there actually was, distance being what it was in Leng. But the slice in the sky followed the dhole tunnel below it, and that was all that we needed. There was a stroke of silver, fast as lightning, lashing out into the distance. Even as it was dissipating, a crack of thunder followed it with heavy cerulean light.

Silver crashed into a field of something in front of the Black Pyramid, and shattered the unseen Barrier like glass that was eaten away by vivus before it could touch the ground… but the sparkling shards indeed never touched the ground before that cannon shot arrived.

The fusion fireball, chased through with white vivus to eat everything and not allow Dream to shrug it off, chased by a whole line of cerulean Dreadfire to Aberrants, blossomed like a new sun and raged for the sky in a burning cloud of too many pure colors for Leng. Behind us, the sky cracked open wide, and the dimming light of the dawn was suddenly reaching for the vault of Heaven, throwing shadows past us into Leng. The armies of Leng screamed, but there was no mercy on our end.

If some of them Burned away and died, and others fled screaming, still others came raging to the attack and were fed to vivus.

"TREMBLE!" Empress Sif's Voice rang out in a wicked glee only a Hag did so well. The Dawn is here, bearing your Fear! The Land comes to feast, from your best to your least, And Trembles with the meal to be had! The smallest of things births the largest of flames The Skein of all Worlds writes out its blames, And is fed with the crazed and mad! Tremble, SHE FEASTS!" Hey, I didn't even have to do the Singing any more, either.

I could just hum in my Sublime Chord accompaniment, giving +8 to the Spell Power of all the allied Casters in range… which was why the weakest Casters were in the middle with me. The trail of vivus leveraging open the path for us to take wriggled and writhed across the sky, but as we advanced, our path was as straight as an arrow.

We swept past the shattered columns and blazing hole where the Dark Pyramid had been, vivus raging up and down that line to get back to us, the sky splitting open further and telling Leng it could not restrain us. The Light of Dawn reached along the starry sky above us, and showed us the next Pyramid in the distance ahead. How far? It was Leng. As far as it needed...

Blossoming Pyroclasms consumed millions unceasingly. Their deaths generated vivus, devouring the distance to our next target, eating through the drifting and ephemeral nature of Leng and opening the way to the next Ring of Pyramids. A great white road was built around the floating pillar of roses grinding solemnly towards its target, everything assembled on pulses of cerulean Baneflame and led by a shining Celestial torch a hundred feet high, daring the dark hordes to come and take it. They could not.

Although the mortal infantry was cycled out and relieved in shifts, the Eternals and Masters kept going. Their own power was barely touched, Perpetual Spell doing almost all of the needed work, and their injuries in combat were minimal. The White Road was cleared of all that lived, and it could not be stopped. Sunlight fell upon them, never wavering, for it was also the days of endless summer and the midnight sun, and the light never stopped! Creation crept in, taking a hefty bite out of Leng!

A second Black Pyramid was blown apart, destroying the Second Circle's integrity. The Third Circle soon enough followed, then the Fourth. As each was destroyed, all of Leng seemed to shudder, and the distant lights of the other Maws suddenly drew sharply closer. The integrity of the plane was lost and collapsed, its dreamy, infinite size shrinking as readily as it had expanded. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

We were now no further from the Maw now than the first ring of Black Pyramids had been. Leng had lost much territory behind us, the trackless miles yet straight as an arrow, leading us here. I could actually see several more of those Black Pyramids in the distance, visible as they glowed slightly behind the great Dome ahead of us.

"This looks downright ominous, it does," I mentioned for everyone's benefit, staring up at the great big miles-high Dome.

"I suppose it wants us to pack up our things and go home, or try the Castle against it, right?"" Just so it can rebuild the Pyramid Rings and stick around to create more trouble?" Empress Sif's cutting Voice arose in the distance." Fuck him and the ghoul he rode in on!"

"Well, then, we should simply wrap this up, then," Emperor Thor said loftily.

"Lord Emerald, if you would?" The explosion that answered him was ten times the size of the fusion bombs that had taken out the Pyramids here… and it was far in the distance, on the opposite side of Leng from us. Yet the explosion was still very big, very bright, and shot through with vivus we could see at this range as the raging cloud of its vengeance billowed for the sky inside the Dome. The Dome in front of us shattered like an eggshell, blown out of existence from within.

All of Leng seemed to shudder and moan, the Veil raging in like a coming hurricane. The Light grew up behind us, and grew, and grew, and grew-! Cold winds, arctic winds, free of the taint of Leng, suddenly blew past us. Wan light from a summer sun deep at the foot of the world illuminated a trackless landscape of ice and snow, no sign of Leng about us to the edge of our vision.

Except for a split in the ground before us, spewing out a fountain of vivus a hundred feet into the air in a wall that tracked towards the horizon… and over the edge of the hole at that horizon, where I felt a Permanent spell get swallowed and vanish, food and compensation to a determined and hard-working Elemental who'd completed its task.

Everyone was a lot closer together suddenly. The Walls to the Maw towered only several miles behind us, not the hundreds of miles they should have been, but were now merely ice-covered mortal stone, not the Plateau of Leng. From up ahead of the lines, a Walrus hover-carrier model, but painted emerald green, came up smoothly over the close horizon of the polar hole to the Hollow World and came zipping for them at speed.

They all ignored the subzero chill, except the infantry who were being hastily ordered back to the Castle and its climate control there. The carrier arrived quickly as Eternals and Masters gathered to it, the side opening up to reveal a bunch of men and women in green-themed Armor, otherwise very similar to their own, and with green tints to their skin, with bright emerald eyes. They were all Eternals, too!

Jorg Turmalez, Lord Emerald of the Emerald Empire of the Hollow World, hopped out of the carrier and immediately came forward to shake Emperor Thor's hand, which he took warmly.

"Well done, sir, well done," Thor offered, smiling broadly to the head of the Greens who dwelled in the Hollow World.

"The fucker forgot he was dealing with Eternals on BOTH sides of the hole. More fool him!" Lord Emerald laughed loudly, taking the time to give Empress Sif a hug of greeting too, all of them old friends. There was a flicker of motion that turned heads, and Captain Emeril materialized among them, taking the rare opportunity to manifest among people for whom dealing with Immortals wasn't unusual. He and Jorg exchanged warm manly hugs, much back-patting all around.

Four thousand years waiting for justice, finally reached!

"The final blow goes to the Greens!" Emeril, mostly known as Doro the Explorer to the people, called out.

"Master Ialo invites everyone here, Masters and Eternals alike, to the Inn for a victory feast!" There was a cheer raised at that. The Inn's food had only been getting better for four thousand years, after all!

"Wait for it," a quiet voice sliced through them all. Everyone glanced in the direction of Lady Edge, there in her black and crimsons, her flawless ivory face tilted back.

"This is the big one."

"My people!" Emperor Thor's voice rang through the Markspace as well as physically, thundered down every Allegiance Oath.

"Leng is gone! The Eternal War is over!

"RECEIVE YOUR GLORY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" And it came down.

Aelryinth... I could feel the immensity of it, but I only got a tithe of it. These bastards, some of them had been fighting this for three thousand years. Creation itself was acknowledging what they'd done. The Eternal War was over. Leng had lost. By extension, so had the Immortals, for this was the last remnant of what the Carnifex had put into motion. Souls were igniting all over the Markspace and beyond.

Common citizens of the Empire whose families had labored their whole lives, for whole generations, to help fuel this war, all Leveled up. It was Creation's gift for an effort which should not have succeeded, but it had. I was just passing by, and had a tool which had helped cut the final end of it short. I was pretty sure Edge just hit Seventy. I didn't know what that was in Power of Ten terms, but I was pretty sure it was close to Lesser God in status. I would just have to see.

Modifying one of the Pyramids to send me home would be simplicity itself. Still, there was a celebration coming up, and no reason for me to miss it. Everyone here was whooping it up, riding a wave of heady exultation that was probably going to result in a lot of babies and family expansions in the near future. I wanted to be home so badly right now...

Aelryinth... The Thisbean Inn was rocking and rolling, had been for a good twelve hours, and didn't look to be stopping, probably good for another day or two at the least. The food and drinks were incredible, the music was irresistible, spirits were free, decorum went out the window, and basically a whole lot of people accomplished a whole lot of not much over a couple of days. I was up on the Rainbow Pyramid, always feeling more comfortable on the things, when Edge slid down next to me to join me.

"Done making merry?" I teased her lightly.

"For the moment." At her tone, I turned my head.

"I thought I might have some time to actually sit down and think about having some children now."

"You waited because-?" I asked her.

"As long as there were Immortals or their servants around, every divination I had for my children was absolutely horrible. Either they came to terrible ends… or they became the terrible things I had to end." I winced.

"And that's with Sources around, fixing the future?"

"Yes. Nothing was valid with a Source, of course, but… there were NO futures where my children turned out well. There were far too many things waiting to get their hands on them." She paused significantly.

"The only calculated effect of a Source Oath promising none of my children would Fall was that Thor or Sif had to kill them first."