Chương 528: BECMI Chapter 527- Educating Archmages

The thick head with that magnificent mane of golden hair inclined in acknowledgment, looking around.

"Anyone else?" the Brightmoor Emperor asked in a perfunctory manner. There was only silence.

"The Carnifex look like so." Surprisingly, one of the apes behind him raised his arm, touching the white bracer there and projecting an image above them all, completely visible and not some magical illusion. The reptilian figure, set next to a motionless image of Admiral Krikhel for scale, loomed over him, obviously humanoid, but tailed, scaled, and equal parts lizard and serpentine, somehow projecting an ancient and primal order of sinister intent and unrepentant evil without use of glamour or charm.

The image shrank down, keeping scale, and the image of the Trickster there was supplemented by armored Warriors and Voices, and the robed Magi, the last instantly focused on as the most sinister and dangerous of them all. The slitted eyes, probably. Not the wizard's robes, nope.

"The Carnifex are an ancient race of reptilian humanoids endowed with primal talents and gifts. Like dragons, they simply age into basic power. Every single Carnifex is the equivalent of an Eighteen when they reach physical maturity… you all do know the basic spiritual ladder, correct?" he asked offhandedly, and received hesitant confirmations that he could use such language.

"They advance in magical knowledge with ease and speed, the least of them able to employ advanced arcane magic outside the standard advancement paradigm, while the Magi who lead the race can both accelerate their climb to power with practice and research, or simply naturally evolve all the way to Overmagi in status.

"There are over one hundred Carnifex Elder Magi alive on this world, and over five hundred above the level of True Archmage," Emperor Thor went on grimly.

"That is down from over five hundred and three thousand, respectively," he continued, "when our war against them first started two thousand years ago." The Delphans this time had the grace to swallow at the implications.

"The Carnifex devour worlds. They consume the creatures of it in great feasts, they sacrifice the ecosystems for power and secrets from entities Beyond the multiverse, and when they have completed their Worldfeast, they move on to other worlds. Possibly after celebrating by offering the entire planet as a snack to a World-Ender and watching as it is torn apart or drawn into another plane to be devoured." He looked around at them, seeing the wisest could tell where this is going.

"They finally chose a world that was favored by the Immortals. The Immortals struck back against them, and hurled them into an everfalling realm for all eternity… or for when the Immortals wanted to release them again, to dispose of a problem."

"And they were released here," Admiral Krikhel whispered for all of the horrified Delphans.

"Yes, and they did exactly the job they were supposed to. They destroyed almost every single civilization upon this world, they have butchered and destroyed almost every single ecosystem here, they have Summoned in horrors from Beyond, cooperated with the most uncaring and malevolent Entities they could discover, sacrificed souls, warped bodies, shattered minds, devastated every land upon this world, and much of the seas.

"They are Overmagi without restraint or regret. Everything is permissible on the path to victory. They have tried to destroy the entire planet a dozen times to gain victory, attempted to bring in horrors the very Immortals would have to fight to have some hope of defeat, unleashed horrific plagues and tides of undead.

"And now, you have come here." He could clear see the despair and fear settle onto their faces.

"They can't leave this world easily, if at all. The only way they can do so is sneaking out among others who can find a path… or if they win this war.

"Now you have shown them a path to a new world. One filled with countless peoples and beasts, on worlds separated by great distances in a void of endless winds, isolated in an old and stagnant magocracy, not united, not focused, easily sliced apart and preyed upon when they arrive there.

"You came here seeking new life, Colonists of Delpha? You have only stumbled into doom," he ground out grimly, his expression completely unforgiving.

"You, you know of the Empire?" the admiral blurted out, shocked.

"We've known of Delpha for nearly three thousand years now, Admiral," Thor stated, almost amused as the mages there gawked at him in disbelief.

"We've been taking immigrants from your non-Casting populations for all that time. They make up the backbone of the Forsaken soldiers who the Carnifex despise the most. Of course we recognized the mages their ancestors left behind all those generations ago for a better life." He lifted his head to survey their stunned faces.

"If you haven't realized the fact, I will make it plain to you now. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"You aren't going home. If you head home, you will be taking the Carnifex with you. Only one needs to make the trip, and they will find a way to call the rest of them to themselves. At that point, your entire skyworld of Meandrel and the disparate skylands that orbit in the bands of light are doomed. While Delpha might indeed have the raw power needed to fight the Carnifex, they have not the belief, the discipline, or the will to do so.

The Carnifex will act together, rip your Empire apart, and then feast on the remains. Every skyworld in orbit of your white sun will fall, one after another.

"The Carnifex have done it before, and they will do it again. They will stand at the apex of all life, and they will devour anyone and anything that stands in the way of that position.

"I am not going to let you go home and bring that horror with you. I COULD." He leaned forward slightly, staring at the Admiral, who flushed white.

"Some of you are going to try to flee back home. It is as apparent as the horror on your faces now. You think you can do it slowly, slyly, subtly, and the Carnifex will not follow.

"I could let you go, and within a year, there will be no Carnifex left on my world. Two thousand years of war here will finally be over. They will be your problem, and you will doom everyone on your homeworld." I am sorely, sorely tempted to let you do so." His eyes speared them all, and those thinking the exact thoughts he had stated quavered as his eyes seemed to see too much, discern too much.

"But, no," he finally said, and the two words were like an iron door closing in on their choices in life.

"You are the harbingers of Doom. If you flee, you bring death to all you know. Your coming here has given them their next targets. If we fail to win this war, your world is next.

"Therefore, you will be fighting with the rest of us. Fighting us here, for as long as it will take. Your children and your children's children will serve for as many generations as is necessary.

"It took us over one thousand years to secure the continent of Oslo against the attacks of the Carnifex and the creatures they've brought to this world, and it will be many generations more before it is fully restored. It is still besieged on all sides, and Overmagi and all their powers and servants have served this throne and the people of Brightmoor for generations securing homes for themselves and their descendants. They are but one small aspect of the fighting going on here.

"You will be joining the fight, because I am not going to allow you to leech off our hard work without you contributing as much or more than any others.

"The one thing I will allow you to do is contact your home realm and let them know the danger of the situation here. If more want to arrive and help you fight and survive, that will be fine, we can process the volunteers there as we do the Forsaken who have left your Empire over the millennia." The Emperor paused, looking at the dread-filled, fearful, and sometimes shattered faces of these powerful men and women.

"Your choices have been taken from you, and you wonder if you can adapt, can even live, under these choices?" He laughed, low and cruel.

"It is worse than you realize. Admiral Krikhel, why is this so?" The Admiral's face wasn't visible to those behind him, but it had fallen the furthest of all.

"The Immortals released the Carnifex upon you…" he whispered, but the Delphans all heard it, and their expressions all changed for the worse.

"Yes. Very, very good." There was no humor in his praise.

"There will be no help from the Immortals in this fight. They want us to fail. The whole point of releasing the Carnifex is to kill us all.

"Every single Immortal follower on this world is now dead, either directly to or by the machinations of the Carnifex. Your Clerics will get their prayers answered, but there will be no other Immortal intervention. Is that not so, Immortal Mizanotha?" There was a shink sound, like a blade flicking into position, followed by the chuk sound of steel chopping bone.

Commodore Darleas Maniplaskur, a lovely and much-admired true Delphan beauty of great repute, jerked and shuddered as she was lifted off the ground, impaled upon a golden Blade and her entire body kicking and twitching with crawling, vinelike black energies. They burst out of every orifice on her body, erupted through cracks in what was instantly viewable as some sort of shell, and even as she tried to scream and twitch, a hundred blossoms opened in crimson blots of color, and then flared white with blinding speed.

There was a feeling, of immense power and energy moving past the magi there, around them, yet not harming them, even as a shriek of pain and rage and seething spite impressed itself firmly upon all their minds as something beyond human… Burned away and died. The staggering Delphans stared at the fiery-haired woman with luminous, pale green eyes, her quickjet armor framing a perfect figure, and bearing a Sword inscribed with Runes so hard and sharp they stabbed at the eyes…

a Sword that, if what they had just heard was true, had just slain an Avatar of the Thief of Destiny, one of the most-hated and subtle Immortals known to the powerful of the Delphan Empire! Around them now was a cloud of purest white mist nearly waist-high, filling the entire floor of the tent and streaming slowly out the entrances now pulled wide to let it out.

"I am Empress Sif," the woman declared, the nearest Delphans finding it hard to breathe. Her Aura wrapped her in magical stillness, and to powerful wizards like themselves, the sensation was akin to overwhelming pressure bearing down on them from all sides, making it impossible to flex and pull at the magic that was their lifeblood.

While the Emperor's presence burned away what they were reaching for, where the Empress stood the magic was so heavy it felt more like a prison to them than a field of magic they could weave and spin!

"If you go very carefully through your memories, I believe you will find that this Avatar of an Entropic Immortal was the single greatest force behind the organizing of this Colonial Fleet. She backed the strongest voices, she seduced or ridiculed into shame those who stood against it, she converted the reluctant, and most importantly, she picked out the Elemental Lords of Air you dealt with on your passage here." None of these archmages were dumb.

"We were set up," Sethos Lammafast, a Low Delphan who'd rised to Overmagus status in Water, blurted out.

"This entire Colonial Fleet was meant to come here… and in doing so, lure the Carnifex back home!" The Delphans all shuddered as they realized how they'd all been played most wonderfully by Immortal Powers. They had made their choices for hope and opportunity and glory… only to find they were to be instruments of doom and damnation!