Chương 495: BECMI Chapter 494 – More Crimson Rain

Darkmoor +952 years, Cirru's Greatsleep… Cirru's waking was felt by all the dragons of the Ringlands. Thunder and lightning crackled solemnly in the air, the winds carried word that a truly great member of their species had completed the climb to power. Her white scales fairly glowed now against the blues, which ranged from deepest indigo to lightest azure as one gazed at her.

Lightning crackled and flowed about her like a living thing, and to look at her was to think of the highest vaults of the evening sky, the great blues of the stormy heavens, and the brooding wall of a thunderhead coming to sweep all away before her.

Her wakefeast waited as she stalked up above Castle Doomrose's palatial dome, and there stood as countless bolts of lightning collapsed down from the storm that had brooded above the Castle for two whole years while she slept, serenading and honoring her commitment and long years as they did so.

The song of dragons roaring in a harmony of honor and respect seldom found among their kind joined the thunder like a living thing, and elemental energies swirled and gave tribute to the true Elder Dragon of the Ringlands now, her place now by right and age in true draconic fashion, none could think to denigrate her position now. If she was still under me, well… my Song was behind every crackling note of Thunder, and every pulse of the Storm that had circled above my Castle where she lay within my own throne room.

I had reigned here for a thousand years, and nothing had managed to challenge me here in my home, dragons and overeager mortal wizards seeking wealth, power, and secrets alike. Her insights and power were her own, to share or not, and her choice to serve or rule as well. I never took them from her, and never begrudged her leaving if she so desired.

If they were calling her the Empress of Storms now, a unique Storm Dragon, that was only suitable for her station and power now, which certainly eclipsed that of any other Blue dragon in existence, and indeed, any Amber or Gold, as none of them enjoyed the favors that she had gained over her years. Cirruluxul bathed in the adulation of the storms and the dragons, the greatest of her bloodline and clutch to ever live, and thought on what dragons were meant to be…

Darkmoor +1003 years… I felt the snap of it along the magical lines from hundreds of miles away, and turned my head. Seven centuries of waiting, finally over. A few years off from the Far Shore. Time quivered, countdowns to this moment crystallizing in my Runes of Time." THIS IS THE CRIMSON CALL!" I uttered, for every soul in the Ringlands to hear, and echoing in the Markspace and beyond for Sif and Thor and their Empire.

"A CATACLYSM COMES FROM THE WEST, THE VERY SIGHT OF IT BEARING POISON! THERE WILL BE A BALL OF FIRE HUED AN UNNATURAL SCARLET, AND POISON RAINS WILL BE SWEPT UPON FELL WINDS ACROSS THE WORLD!" RETREAT INTO YOUR LAIRS AND WAIT FOR IT TO PASS. SEEK NOT TO INVESTIGATE ITS SOURCE, AS IMMORTAL HANDS ARE UPON IT AND WILL REAVE YOU FROM LIFE TO CONCEAL THEIR SECRETS!" NOTE THIS! NOTE THE SAD GROAN OF THE WORLD, THE POISONED TREBLE IN THE SONG OF MAGIC, THE WASTE MADE OF THE LAND, AND KNOW WHAT IMMORTALS DO FOR FUN!"

The dragons all passed down the tale of the Doom of Darkmoor, and word of a Crimson Cataclysm also wrought by Immortals to follow it. The Crimson Call was the warning of that moment coming into existence! There were calls for more information, which I shunted off to Gina, taking Cirru's hand and Teleporting down to the Thisbean Inn far below. The door was already open, Master Lalo nodding at me grimly, Emeril's android Avatar giving me a crisp salute as we swept on by.

The Portal was beating, and would be disrupted for a short time when the actual eruption blew up, and the Core of All Magic finally came fully online. It would be one of the biggest magical events in the world, and a fine, FINE time for some other huge events to catalyze off of it. I felt gentle brushes against my thoughts, the generation of new Avatars having fun in the Dungeon of Doomrose having heard everything and letting me know they were ready.

Marktells were flying as Eternals and Aspirant Masters got their own tasks ready to execute, and a moment that many people and profound beings had been working towards for many, many years prepared to happen. I walked with Cirru through the Portal of Time, back to the Far Shore, ten minutes after I had entered previously.

"Whoa," Tek's own quiet android Avatar murmured, holding out a mechanical hand towards Cirru and I.

"That is a BIG change, Edge," he admitted, looking back and forth between us.

"How long were you gone?" his stereo voice asked softly, impressed by what he was feeling.

"Seven hundred years. I have broken Fifty on the Eternal track." I nudged Cirru quietly.

"May I present to you the Great Wyrm of Storms, Cirruluxul?" I introduced her to him. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"You don't look a day over Adult!" he said promptly, bowing to her. It was true, she hadn't aged her preferred mortal form at all, preferring to look of an age with me.

"Everything is ready?" I swirled up a Rune for him, Time thrummed and echoed softly about us. A fifth-dimensional existence, he could see and feel vagaries to it no mortal could, and he nodded urgently.

"I have everything in Shadow Kheper ready to go! Off with you now!" I headed for the stairs up and out of there, my people in the Inn here having no true idea of what had passed for me, and I wasn't going to tell them. But this next… thirty-nine minutes was going to be very important for all of us, and I had just spent seven centuries of prepwork making ready for it, let alone trips through time and the works of many Sims here.

I set foot outside the Inn, and Teleported back to the Umbral Pyramid I had left just minutes ago. Cirruluxul likewise departed urgently, heading for her own destination. A great many dragons were going to be very surprised to know that a unique Great Wyrm now stood on the Ruling Council of the Eismark, when said dragon had not even been an Elder an hour before…

In a joint display of power, the Delphan High Council's surviving hundreds of Overmagi Teleported together with their archmage underlings, appearing at a secret focus only a few miles outside of Zanzyr City, buried and placed decades ago by an agent for just such an occasion. As one, the glittering army of Overmages, more powerful than all but five of Zanzyr's native wizards, Flew into the air and headed for the city.

Fireballs and Lightning Bolts from Wands and Staves heralded their arrival, as spells began to warp the weather and display their ire and the massive amounts of magic they gathered to them. The bombardment of Zanzyr had begun!

Moving at miles per second, a great mass of stone smashed into the Worldshield, breaching it in a display of Immortal Power and fiery energies that alerted the Immortals in the lunar city of Nexial that something had happened… but not in time to stop it. The moon was on the other side of the world, and by the time they arrived at the site of the disruption, the asteroid had already plunged past and begun its descent onto Nown. By then, Zanzyr City was under full attack.

A great dome of tremendous arcane power had come down over the city and was absorbing many of the spells being sent at it, while others were punching right through the dome and had to be countered individually, yet others Dispelled, and some yet got through from the thousand and more archmages and began to reduce the buildings and monuments of the proud city to flaming rubble.

There were a lot of lesser spellcasters who Countered what they could and devoted their energies to the dome, but as the walls were pounded and multiple spells breached what they'd thought to be an almighty protection, everyone knew it was only a matter of hours, perhaps minutes, before the mighty Cityward was overcome and collapsed. The sky turning red was enough to interrupt even the vengeance-minded Delphans from their bombardment.

A streak of fire descended from on very, very high, and many, many eyes watched it fall to the south of them on the horizon at deadly speed. Many thoughts flashed through their minds as they considered who might be responsible for this strike, but it did not matter as the asteroid struck.

The black and white stones of the Umbral Pyramid lit up with thousands of Valences of magic from the elves upon and about its stones. Dimensional Magic surged up into the sky, unseen and unanticipated, diverting the path of the asteroid north and west, away from Umbravie and Erendyl, giving it a course and impact halfway between Skyhill and Maleventi, right on the foothills of the Neros Alpes. Right where a massive Gate opened to receive not all of it, but a great deal of it.

Tarterus… It had been a stressful year, especially with losing such a highly-placed Avatar and having to start much of his manipulations of Siricil from scratch. Happily, he still had his followers in Delpha left intact, and naturally Delphax's drive to destroy the descendants of his former countrymen had not waned in the slightest. This latest scheme was meant to force Zanzyr to action.

Thanatos had to admit the timing was wonderful, coinciding with the judgment by the Delphan High Council his own secret followers and pawns had voiced 'reluctant' support for. That fool Thaum had already exposed his hand, the powers he had available were nothing to sneer at. If he was truly pragmatic, he would unleash them upon his own followers and their city now, easily wiping out the entire Delphan High Council and being capable of making sure not even Wishes would bring them back.

It would likely doom his own mortal nation, but it would shatter Delpha's grip on power entirely, and the empire might never recover from such a loss. Delphax's method was crude and showy, but he'd hidden any sign of his involvement, the Artifact used to power the asteroid's descent left behind by a rival Entropic Thanatos hadn't seen for nigh on five thousand years, and so perfect for this function. Eh?

Its course was shifting, here at the end, the chosen spot of Skyhill perfectly situated to take out three neighboring Principalities at the same time. Perhaps it was the Worldshield? Thanatos almost reached out to correct the course back to its original destination, then restrained his hand. By now, many Immortals were watching, and what happened, would happen. Wait, was that a Gate opening?

He felt a shudder run through him, as something tore through the boundaries of his Home Realm with a perfect resonance, as if he had granted permission for something to enter… except he had not. He did not turn around.

He looked down into the Scrying Pool filled with the blood of Immortals who had challenged him and failed over the eons, and saw a familiar darkness, a familiar city of bones and doom rising from a plain of no hope, and he also felt something horribly un familiar, yet totally intimate, rising within him. Fear.

Delphax's ecstasy at the show of his power and daring was at its peak. The breaching of the Worldshield, an announcement of his power! The flaming arc of descent, a celebration of his might! The impact, the explosion would be a declaration of his willingness to defy those fools of other Spheres, an eternal monument to his promise to make all those who had failed him, and their descendants, and whatever barbarians they bred with, pay for what they had cost him! Why was it shifting course?!

His aim had been perfect, perfect to inflict maximum death and destruction! The mountain foothills would waste three-quarters of its power on irrelevant savage humanoids and stone! Was that a Gate? Why were there red shadows coming DOWN around him? Delphax's head snapped up, and his jaw dropped down as the flaming asteroid grew with miles-per-second speed in his vision. He didn't even have time to throw up a Force Field to protect himself before it covered the last few miles and was on top of him.