Chương 558: BECMI Chapter 557 – A Rose by Any Other Name…

"The Lady Edge!" burst out Corellin instantly, the first Elven Immortal recognizing the elfin who had been so influential among his followers, despite not following him and never having spoken with her directly… even though her own Shaden mother was a Treekeeper!

"What is she doing out in space? She but runs a small nation of my people on Nown called Eistree!"

"She is a technologist?" his rival elven Immortal Mealyn promptly piped up, having little but disdain for any elf who didn't follow himself.

"She is her own woman…" Corellin snapped back, trailing off as great mouths larger than mountains on the ends of tentacles miles wide lunged towards her. She raised her hand, the world seemed to shimmer. A lot of the world. And suddenly, it was raining roses. Out in space. The dozens of tentacles snapping towards her writhed as the first black and silver blossoms fell upon them. They twisted, blackened, and stiffened up as, impossibly, they began to transform!

Gaping maws erupted in crimson and black, teeth becoming petals, vastlips becoming supporting leaves. The connecting tentacles became vines, thorns erupting out of them, winding and twisting and suddenly befouling and tying up the other tentacles, plunging into them and locking them tight as more and more blossoms the size of mountains erupted over the draeden's suddenly-writhing limbs. The rain of roses fell upon the brain-like center of the draeden.

Only seconds had passed, and only now was the draeden realizing that it might have to flee, but it was given no time. The roses fell upon it, and the brain-like appearance and matter of its central body darkened in patters of silver and black droplets, staining it rapidly, and seeming to raise great shudders from it as they did so. With shocking speed, vegetation with a black and silver theme to it rippled and spread across the surface…

no, the very surface matter of the draeden was transforming into a carpet of flowers rising across its surface with terrifying speed, miles of area transforming in seconds. And they were growing. Growing with all-consuming speed! The draeden started to back off and turn away, but faltered abruptly, as if unable to do so.

Instead, the rest of its tentacles began to transform, curling back upon it, plunging themselves and their hill-sized thorns into its body, ink and silver rippling over its surface and hiding it away from sight as flowers taller than great trees burst upwards from its hide.

The Immortals there watched in complete fascination and horrified awe as the draeden was transformed into a floating ball of blooming jetsilver and crimson blossoms of exquisite beauty, crystalline tints to the flowers gleaming like diamonds in the void as the creature was completely buried from sight. There was a ripple of a Portal opening up in the sky, one large enough to admit even the great rosebush that the draeden had become.

At orbital velocities, it only took a handful of seconds for the great mass to clear the edges of it, and then the draeden was gone. Then the image snapped back down to the white-skinned elfin in her colors of black and scarlet, and every Immortal understood that the recollection of this Scrying magic had just been wrenched from their control, and SHE was now looking at THEM. Here. Now!

The illusion shattered as eyes of ruby in black flared, and Numzael himself staggered back in shock at what he'd just shown them, as this certainly hadn't happened back then!

"Did she just kill a draeden with one spell?" Mistress Nifl, the Lady of Death and the new High Hierarch of Entropy, asked pointedly, her tone very interested.

"Yes," spoke up misty and ancient Paras, now the Hierarch of Time after the sudden retirement of his predecessor Ococulum, reputedly from failures to predict the catastrophes of the last few years even in vague terms destroying his confidence and that of his Sphere in following him.

"I was able to survey the temporal aftermath of the spell." He hesitated for a moment, as if debating his next words, then sighed.

"It is not a magic that Immortal Power can emulate." There was a collective roar from the assembly of Eternals, Empyreals, and Hierarchs. The very idea that such magicks could exist challenged the very foundation of Immortal might! Paras simply raised his hand, his Will radiating out, and there was quick silence.

"The spell was cast in the past, the present, and the future. Immortal Power acts in the now, even if it can reach into the past, present, and future. That spell was akin to one of us standing out and casting the magic dozens of times at the same point in time, equally balanced before and after the draeden arrived. If you know of a means to do so, I, and all else here, are willing to listen to it." There was silence at the very idea of such magic.

Certainly, Rituals could be repeated to compounding effect, but before, during, and after the time it was needed? If one could lock down the place and time, certainly, but how was one to do that in combat? Especially against a draeden?

"That certainly makes this elfin more powerful and important than a mere dominion lord," Clangyr spoke up gruffly from his seat.

"But… she is not that old. Is she the Avatar of someone far more powerful than we believe?"

"No." Everyone blinked at Corellin's instant and absolute denial.

"That was her, not an Avatar, not a projection, not an illusion, not a reproduction. Think back and you will realize the same. The Lady Edge is who she is, and nothing can successfully imitate her without being obvious that it is not her. It is a a minor fact I realized when several of Mealyn's agents attempted to replicate her distinctive appearance and were instantly discovered and apprehended in various locations.

No one would believe they were her, they were unmasked, interrogated magically, and executed for espionage, as I recall." Amused eyes turned on the trickster elven god, who looked considerably less than amused at hearing those words.

"That was a faithful recollection of the Lady Edge, and no other." Heads began to nod as Immortal memories verified the fact. Yes, they were absolutely certain it was her, in an oddly mystical way. And the fact it was more than a recollection stayed quite silent... The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Then it seems we need an explanation from her on how she managed to do such a thing," Quarizon remarked somberly.

"Such magic is beyond the scope of any that I know. I fought the draeden before, long ago, and the thought of being able to bring one down so swiftly is beyond anything I am capable of. The ramifications of such power are… dire," he reminded them firmly. If she could do such a thing to a draeden, could she not do the same to an Immortal?

"I believe I may have word relevant to this, my fellow Immortals," a quiet voice carried among them. All eyes turned on the standing form of Anubin, the jackal-headed Immortal risen to speak.

"Proceed, Hierarch," Terra nodded to him, reminding others that this Judge of the Dead was old, mighty, and well-established. Anubin launched into his tale smoothly.

"Less than a moon ago, it came to my attention that the flow of just, merciful, valiant, and heroic souls coming to my judgment had tapered off considerably. I immediately conferred with my fellow Judges who were doing their duties, and confirmed that they were also experiencing a dearth of righteous and moral souls coming forth to be judged. Indeed, it was like seeing the fall of an entire people to Entropy's machinations, except now it was affecting all the world of Nown and beyond!"

The Entropics there only smiled proudly at the compliment, while the other Immortals winced.

"We sent some of our psychopomps forth to see what was happening to those noble souls. They soon discovered that the souls were being drawn away, escorted by a number of unaffiliated psychopomps of glowing and luminous nature whose type they had never seen before. They followed these other escorts of the dead to an expanse of the Astral Plane, where the souls entered a broad astral Barrier there through which our servants could not pass.

"Attempts were made to block or reclaim the souls being guided, which were answered with aggressive force of great zeal. The survivors of our minions fled to us with the news, and we moved to intercept those who would challenge us in our duties.

"The psychopomps we came across fanatically held to their duties, and tried to flee our approach, which also served to lead us more quickly to their destination. We had little difficulty in destroying those whose might we tested, although there were escalating levels of power among them.

"We came across the Barrier in the Astral Plane, a thing of size and expansiveness we had no idea existed there, larger than any Portal we had ever come across. We could not see beyond the illumination of it, and when we tried to force it open, it denied our efforts as if we were not there.

"Then Hojaekli intercepted a party of souls being led to the portal. She recognized several Onchiwai among them, a people she was responsible for and venerated among, and was most incensed at this circumvention of her authority. She destroyed the glowing, winged being escorting them, intending to take the souls back for proper judgment.

"In the next instant, she was destroyed utterly." Anubin took a deep breath into the startled silence, the images of the glittering celestial beings serving as psychopomps lingering about him.

"She was Smote by a force far beyond anything I have ever perceived, obliterated instantly, body and soul. I am a Judge of the Dead, and there can be no challenge to this. Hojaekli is gone.

"A glowing white hand reached out, gathered the confused souls in, and gently brought them across the Barrier in welcome. My fellow Judges and I felt a great eye turn upon us, and then a single Word thundered around us.

"Begone." He paused again, letting the moment echo with that word.

"We awoke very suddenly in our places of judgment, with no memory of how we had been placed there so smoothly, and no sign that any force had intruded into our Spheres at all. Our minions did not even realize we had returned." The jackal-headed Judge turned to look slowly about at the assembly of Immortals.

"Hojaekli was a High Eternal, yet she was obliterated in an instant for daring to stop a psychopomp and its escorted souls on the step of their destination. What force is drawing away the noble and moral souls I do not know of, nor do I know the criteria by which they are being judged.

"I did observe, however, that souls were flowing into that expanse in broad, great numbers, coming from innumerable worlds and realms, not just the world of Nown and those attached to it among our interests.

"This place, this destination of moral souls, is serving as a destination for what we would call noble and worthy souls on what I daresay might be a galactic scale!"

"A force enough to kill a High Eternal absolutely and completely, in an instant?" Paras repeated for the benefit of everyone, as Anubin stepped back, plainly done relating his tale.

"Yes. Hojaekli is absolutely gone. We have been forced to take on her duty of judgment with her death. It is not excessive, although Hojaekli's joy of punishing even the most modest of sins with time in the Hells is perhaps not so well represented among the rest of us," Anubin answered, not even bothering to glance at the Entropics who had happily dealt with her for the worst of her judged souls to use and elevate as minions, or burn in soul cauldrons for the darkest of magicks.

The afterlife could be just as false and duplicitous as the living world among Immortals, one reason the Judges of the Sphere of Death attempted to remain largely aloof from them. =============================== Spell: XV – An Ascendance of Roses: Required: Arcane/Primal Caster level 100, Intellect 50, Wisdom 50, Exalted Good, Spellcraft 30 Ranks, XV or higher Valences (Eternal Magic) Area: Targeted being, +1 Mile radius Save: Fortitude to negate transformation, Will to negate Wisdom damage.

Duration: Permanent on targets and 1 rd/Caster Level in Area of Effect. This powerful Exalted spell bypasses all immunities to transformation and polymorphing, transforming its target into a massive rosebush of whatever hues are appropriate to itself and the Caster, while removing any other natural abilities. At the same time, it inflicts the target with 15d4 of Wisdom damage if applicable, also bypassing immunities.

Other non-Good creatures within a mile of the target must also save or take the Wisdom damage (at the will of the Caster) and are at -4 on any die rolls against any Good opponent while within that area regardless as glowing rose petals fall from the sky for one round per Caster Level. Edge Cast this spell, boosted with 70 points of Radiance to offset the draeden's Saves, in addition to her own -20 to its Saves with Spell Potency, Zealotry, and Dread's Enhancement.

She Topped the Wisdom damage, Energized it, and Consecrated the Energizing, for 105 points of Wisdom damage, and had Resonance active so it could not be Spellturned/reflected. The transformed draeden has the thinking capacity and self-awareness of a rock now. In its transformed state, it has lost all magical powers, and is basically being used like an Immortal Power battery. Notably, the diamond boulders in its gut were not transformed, and are being harvested by the gods for other purposes.

This spell can instead be cast on unliving items, such as a mountain or desert, and can transform such areas up to 1 mile in diameter per Caster Level, transforming it all into a massive field of dangerously large rosebushes. This is a heavily boosted form of the Rain of Roses Exalted spell. This spell must be Cast fifteen times before it can actually be used on a target. After it is Cast, the spell must then be Cast another fifteen times before the Slot can be re-used for any other purpose (i. e., the spell must be Cast both ahead of time and after the fact). If Metas are applied to the spell, they must also be applied ahead of time, although Radiance boosting does not need to do so. This before-and-after payment cost for Casting Eternal Magic is a hallmark of higher Valences, with the spell that strikes the target hitting it from the past, present, and future at one time, allowing effects that could not be possible with just one Casting or without the use of a full Ritual.