Lament of the Fallen

Moirai looked towards the imposing doorway leading towards the heart of the sanctum. The temple was a large and foreboding building, but it had very few ways to enter for reasons of security and for setting the correct mood. As a result, Moirai didn’t have all that many options if she wanted to get inside. After using the portal to get closer to her goal, she hadn’t run into all that much resistance, partly because Dee had already created a path. Most Death Lords were also busy fighting other enemies. However, it seemed the Avatar of the Spider Goddess had called for some reinforcements, as several Death Lords had gathered near the door, and were preparing to rush in.

“I can’t fight that many Death Lords by myself.” Moirai cursed to herself. Yet this was exactly the reason she had rushed to come here. While Dee dealt with the avatar, she would try to make sure no one interfered. “Well, luckily I don’t actually have to defeat them. I only need to stall them. Even if I distract only some of them, that’s better than letting all of them rush inside.”

She took a deep breath and mentally encouraged herself. Just as she was preparing to launch an attack, she sensed a presence behind her. That presence seemed to grab her by the neck of her collar and pull her backwards. For a moment she thought someone had snuck up on her and attacked her, but the pull was not violent, just forceful. After the sudden movement seemed to drag her back several dozen mel, she managed to round on that presence and was shocked to see the Crimson Witch Teresa.

“What…” She wanted to demand an explanation, but was interrupted as the area behind her seemed to suddenly turn into an inferno of black flames. Usually, a large explosion like this came with a loud noise, a shockwave of power and a great deal of heat and light, but not this time. The black flames simply seemed to expand outwards from the heart of the sanctum and consume everything. The flames didn’t even behave like normal flames. They almost seemed like a living thing as they reached some invisible line and simply stopped.

There was some noise of course, an explosion of this size could never be entirely silent, but the sound was much more subdued. The largest effect seemed to be mental. It seemed as if something very important that had been there earlier was suddenly gone, and the holy power abundant in the city seemed to become erratic. The Death Lords Moirai had seen earlier were within the radius of the explosion, but on the edge of the affected area. Most of them had turned into grey ash, but some of the stronger ones seemed to have survived thanks to immortals being hard to kill. Still, the damage done to them was horrific enough that they probably wished they had died. Yet they weren’t really screaming from pain. They seemed to be suffering from a shock of some sort, as if having lost something important.

Moirai noticed that her previous position was barely within the radius of the flames. She most likely could have used her powers to defend herself. Except these were Dee’s flames. Moirai knew that trying to use power to block them might hurt more than help. “Ouch, that was close.” Teresa said with a cheery tone. She knew that the signs pointed at the death of the goddess, but that didn’t affect her mood negatively. In fact, it made her feel glad.

“Thanks for the save. You can be pretty stealthy when you want to.” Moirai’s tone was a bit questioning. She was used to stealthy thanks to Dee, but Teresa had still surprised her.

“I get that a lot. It’s an aura thing. You people all seem to leak out a bit of your power everywhere you go. I don’t see the point so I keep it all inside.” Teresa replied. Many people underestimated her thanks to the fact that her power was so well hidden, and she liked things that way. “Also no problem. Dee would have been pissed if you got caught in those flames. I get the feeling the results of her attack were a bit more than she assumed.”

Teresa was correct on that front as most of Dee’s attack had been contained inside her Domain, but the spillover had been more than Dee had expected. It was her first time trying an attack like that, so the error in judgement was actually fairly miniscule all things considered. The only problem was Moirai’s proximity to the explosion and the fact that she had come close faster than Dee had assumed. If Dee had not tried containing the explosion inside her Domain, then the entire sanctum would have been affected.

The black flames were now dying down, revealing the complete devastation of the heart of the sanctum. There wasn’t a wall left standing, and everything seemed to have turned into nothing but the same grey dust that the corpses of the Death Lords had left behind. All of the holy power in the surroundings suddenly started rushing towards the center of the devastated area, forming a vortex of power. The power seemed to be disappearing somewhere when it reached the center.

Moirai and Teresa very carefully made their way towards that spot as well and found Dee standing there with her eyes closed. Unlike everything else, the two avatars had left behind parts of two dried husks, while large portions of the corpses had faced the same fate as the surroundings. As the two people approached, they suddenly saw a twelfth tail appear behind Dee’s back and it seemed like some walls that had been hiding Dee’s power before had suddenly broken down. They could both now feel the Domain inside Dee, though it was covered soon after as Dee figured out how to replace the protective barrier Xinglong had left behind. That barrier had run its course, and now she had to do that herself. Luckily she had figured out a way to do it long ago.

The aura around Dee had also changed. She now felt much calmer and almost like a holy figure. Light and shadow seemed to be competing for position around her, as both seemed to try and become the dominant force in her aura. Finally, a third force seemed to interfere and suppress the two energies, pushing them into obedience. The duo realized something important was happening to Dee, so they didn’t dare to interfere. They weren’t really worried about an attack either, as it seemed the death of the goddess had suddenly cut down the resistance the Spider Cult had offered, and even the giant portal above had disappeared.

Inside Dee’s domain, many changes were taking place. The Domain itself was filling with the power of light and shadow, though what changes that would bring was still an open question. The skull from the goddess had completed her totem, and every skull in the totem was glowing with power. The completed totem looked like a tiered pyramid with ten levels, with stairs leading from the bottom to the top, where a throne made from Xinglong’s skull stood waiting. The four tiers below the throne had skeletal serpentine dragons reaching out from the totem, holding the symbols of the four gods that had blessed her in their mouths. The bottom tier suddenly seemed to grow a fifth serpentine dragon, and it was holding the symbol of the Spider Goddess. This time however, it was not holding the symbol in its mouth, instead, it was pushing the symbol into the ground, stepping on it and seemingly roaring towards the sky in victory.

Something inside Dee knew that there would be certain benefits to this that she would need to explore later. She also suddenly felt a huge rush of power. She had already been close to growing her twelfth tail, and the totem being completed had pushed her over that edge. The tail came with a rush of increased power flowing through her and strengthening her body in many ways. That wasn’t the only thing. She had just devoured the soul of the Spider Goddess, and as usual, that allowed Dee to gain a portion of the power the soul had possessed before death. The surrounding city was filled with the goddess’ power, and that was now rather forcefully being recalled, stripping away many of the spells that had protected the place.

The thing with deities was that they were basically large concentrations of power. The deities had wildly differing levels of skill at using said power, but even the weakest gods had a lot of it compared to other beings. The deities all gained a lot of power from the faithful, as that was the main reason they took any part in the affairs of mortals. Power of faith was an amazing thing. The gods, of course, gave a fraction of that power back in the form of blessings, miracles, and divine gifts, but that didn’t come close to what they gained. There was a reason the most common method of problem-solving among gods was to throw more power at the problem. Power was what they were, and power was what they had. And now a large chunk of that power was flowing into Dee.

If it had been the Dee a few years in the past, she would have suffered a fate much worse than when she devoured the Tree of Life. Now she was much more used to handling large amounts of power. She also happened to be low on power as she had just wasted quite a lot to kill the goddess and her servants before that. The amount of power she could hold had also just increased thanks to becoming a rank twelve immortal. Still, the amount of power the Spider Goddess had was excessive, to say the least. Luckily, even though Dee’s technique of eating souls was a very effective form of Sengir, the majority of that power still dissipated and went to waste.

‘Still, it seems like killing a god is a very effective means of gaining power.’ She thought to herself. She already had strong techniques, but she was lacking in power to use them repeatedly. Slowly but surely that problem was being fixed. As she adapted to that power, her ability to channel the excessive amounts of holy power inside her also grew.

Both Moirai and Teresa could sense the sudden increase in power inside Dee, and at least Moirai was worried and alarmed. “Are you alright?” She asked, sounding worried.

Dee felt like she was bloated and ready to pop, but she was managing it. “I will be. It might be a good idea to leave though. I’ll have to spend a few days taking all this in. In any case, my part is already done.”

“With the avatar gone, and apparently the goddess dead, the cult won’t be able to mount an effective resistance anyway.” Teresa agreed. There was no need for Dee and Moirai to stick around. The coalition forces could handle the rest. The Crimson Witches could also return as their presence was now more of a hindrance.

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The gods were in a furor. The news of one of the highest ranking gods dying at the hands of the Champions of Lumen and Umbra had caused a pandemonium for several reasons, and a general assembly of the council of the gods had been called. Even Eternity was in attendance, something that by itself would have caused waves among both lesser and greater gods. The council room looked like an amphitheater with rows of seats radiating outwards from the central stage. Behind and above the stage were seats reserved for the highest ranking gods, with the height and prominence of the seats rising as the ranks did.

On the stage, Order was already in the middle of a scathing tirade about the two goddesses using their Champions to upset the established order of the universe and endangering the peace between them. He was already preparing to transition into a judgmental condemnation of their actions in general but was suddenly interrupted by Umbra. Her voice was not as loud as Orders in the middle of his speech, but carried a lot more weight and drew everyone’s attention.

“I think you’re mistaking something extremely important here. Why would I care about the so-called ‘established order’ of the universe? That’s your job. I would argue that upsetting the order of things is my purpose. Beyond that, why exactly would I care about your condemnations? Let’s not mince words here. You are my enemy. The more difficult I can make things for you, the better. All this prattle only proves that I did a good job.” Umbra ended her words with a contemptuous sneer.

“For a supposed light god, you’re awfully disturbed by the death of a dark god.” Lumen also interjected. The mortals had used the separation between the three factions of deities for so long that even the gods had adopted them, although they worked outside their so-called faction much more often than the mortals. Especially the neutral gods were all too happy to cross lines. It wasn’t openly admitted though. “Don’t tell me you and her had something, you know, going on.” Her implication was made clear thanks to the obscene gesture she made.

That brought out general mirth, albeit subdued due to the serious situation, from the other gods. The Spider Goddess’ appearance and nature were well known among them, so the thought of Order having anything going on with the goddess was rather absurd. “What about you? You seem to be awfully close with the Goddess that is supposed to be your antithesis. And your sister no less.” The rather indecent implication in his voice was clear as well.

“What about me?” Lumen shot back without getting flustered. “It’s a little rich that you try to judge us for attacking another deity, when you’ve been attacking me for who knows how long. Everyone here knows who is behind all those challenges directed my way.”

“Challenges being the key word here. You would lose your position, sure, but you just had another god killed. And you joined hands with your worst enemy to do so, betraying all the principles of the good gods.” Order stated with an accusing tone.

“And so what if I did have her killed? Just because we deem it none of your business, doesn’t mean there weren’t good reasons for our actions. You play games, but start balking when your own life might be at stake. Gods die. That’s the way of things. As for my sister, who says light and dark have to be enemies just because we are opposites. In fact, as we’ve just seen, we seem to be rather compatible. On the other hand, my supposed main ally has tried to overthrow me, and my other supposed allies seem to have abandoned me, happy standing by and watching it all play out. So I’m taking matters into my own hands. Perhaps it is time to remind everyone why my statue is in every major temple of light.” Lumen declared, while Order proceeded to reply with more accusations and insinuations.

Sol Invictus shook her head. Order was losing. For a god that was so meticulous at times, he could be very shortsighted on some occasions when blinded by his emotions. The words of Lumen and Umbra had been logical and to the point, while Order was mainly using his position, emotional arguments and the fears of the other gods. One of the most powerful gods had just died, and the others thought they could be next. Because of those fears, Order would most likely succeed in his plan this time, but he was losing the long game. More gods would turn away from him once the fear abated and they realized who they were turning against. Besides, no one had been all that fond of the Spider Goddess, as undead were the common enemies of all living. Her death had been shocking, but she would not be missed. And once the other gods found out they had been fooled, they would turn against Order.

Order finally got to his main point. “I move to have Lumen and Umbra removed from the council for a period of ten thousand years, and I move that the light gods ask their servants to remove Lumen’s statues from the temples of the light gods.”

The second motion was unlikely to pass, but it would drastically reduce the power and prestige of Lumen, so it was worth a shot. The first one was more likely to pass and it would allow Order to dictate many of the council’s actions during this time with his biggest enemies gone. Eternity and Death usually didn’t bother taking part, and the others usually didn’t care enough to vigorously object. They could be talked into most things when necessary. They were already content to just observe as Order pressured Lumen. And ten thousand years was enough for Order to force Lumen out of her position. With both the realms of light and order under his control, he would be in a much stronger position to oppose Umbra. The theory was ok, but wouldn’t work in practice.

Many of the gods looked towards the highest ranking gods. They could all vote but realistically the top gods were the ones who actually decided things. The number of gods considered ‘high ranking’ changed a bit according to the number of gods worthy of that title. Currently, that number sat at twenty. Most of them looked rather undecided. They were not as easily frightened and were weighing the future possibilities more carefully. They could see things were not that simple.

Surprisingly Death was the first one to rise. That got everyone’s attention as she almost never took an active part in the machinations of other gods. From her perspective, such things were all too transitory and thus beneath her attention. Even when she was present, she usually abstained from any votes, knowing that her vote would usually decide the whole matter as her power was so much beyond the other gods. “I object.”

This brought a wave of murmurs among the gods and even the other high ranked gods looked ready to go along with Death now that she had made her position clear. Sol sighed in frustration. It seemed Lumen and Umbra had played their cards right with Death. She had known something was going on with those three. She too rose. “I object as well.” This was almost as surprising as Sol was a frequent ally of Order, so her vote basically sealed the deal. She knew that the vote would fail, so might as well keep friendly relations with the other side.

“It doesn’t matter in any case.” The ancient, but surprisingly crotchety sounding voice of Eternity suddenly drowned all other discussions. “I’m vetoing the whole thing anyway. Wasting my time with such useless drivel.” The last part was mostly muttered to himself, but everyone heard anyway. The words ‘wasting my time’ was ironic coming from the most ancient being in the universe. His position as the head of the council allowed him to veto any and all motions. Not that he used that power more than once in an eon or two.

“You’re vetoing the motion?” Order sputtered. Things were not going his way today.

“I am. This is ridiculous. When did the council become a bunch of cowards afraid of a bit of struggle? Order, you picked this fight, now deal with the consequences. If someone has a problem with my decision, they can go ahead and create their own council.” Eternity declared and suddenly vanished, signaling that this discussion was now over.

“Oh, and one more thing.” Lumen called to Order and the other gods. “I would like to remind you all of a certain rule. When someone challenges another god, that god is allowed to put forth their Champion as their representative instead. So I’d like to inform you that any and all challenges to me will henceforth be handled by my Champion instead. The Champion that just killed one of the strongest gods around. And I doubt my Champion will be all that happy to be bothered with frivolous challenges and will be ready to show their displeasure violently.” Lumen gave a wide grin.

Of course, this was something of a bluff on Lumen’s part, as she could not command Dee to fight for her and it might take some convincing to get her to agree. The other gods didn’t need to know that though. Most Champions would be more than happy to fight in their god’s name. This was one of those minor details Lumen and Umbra had ‘forgotten’ to mention to Dee before she took the position, as they knew they couldn’t command her to take part anyway. They could bring the possibility up later on if necessary. Umbra even assumed Dee might be glad of the opportunity as it would allow her to kill the Champions of some light gods, thus helping her secure the spot as the focus of chaos.