Lament of the Fallen

Umbra had been waiting patiently for the right time to launch the attack and her patience was now being rewarded. The realm of the primary God of Order was not looking good. As partially conceptual places, the realms of the deities could be affected by the weirdest of things. Usually, that was a positive for the deity involved but not in this case. In this case, the results were quite bad and Umbra was quite gleefully waiting for the last blow to land. She was keeping an eye on Dee’s battle and knew what was coming.

The first blow had been the destruction of the Grand Temple of Nasir-Sin at the hands of the Fallen. An enormous temple was a testament to the magnificence of a deity and could instill faith and fervor in believers. In some cases, even those that served other deities were affected. These kinds of temples were also very effective focal points for gathering the power of faith before channeling it forwards to the deity the temple was dedicated to. The downside was, of course, that should such a temple be defiled or worse destroyed, the effects would be rather dire. That’s why such temples were usually well protected.

Some of the Fallen were aware of this connection and they were all too happy to destroy the woefully under-protected temple while they were passing by. These Fallen happened to mostly be those that carried a grudge against the angels even before the purge and the following imprisonment, and their recent suffering had not exactly endeared them to their cousins either. An opportunity to strike at the god that was the symbol of their oppression was simply too good to pass up on. The temple had been destroyed almost on pure principle.

The destruction of the temple had rocked Nasir-Sin’s realm. Some cracks had formed in the spells and fields protecting it, but it was not enough to give the advantage definitively to Umbra’s side. The act made the realm somewhat vulnerable and Umbra could’ve lead her side to victory, but it would have been a costly victory. So Umbra let the opportunity pass and waited. She knew there was more to come. And she was right. The next blow was the death of Nasir-Sin’s Champion.

Some Champions were more important than others. The gods that had thrown the angels they had taken as temporary Champions at Dee during the repeated challenges didn’t really lose much. Empyrean was different, however. Nasir-Sin had invested quite a lot of power in this Champion expecting great things. Empyrean had also been the Champion for a long time. A bond of sorts formed between a god and their Champion when enough time passed, growing stronger over time. It allowed a closer connection between the two and allowed for the deity's interference in things more strongly, but it also meant that the deity would face certain repercussions once that bond was broken.

The gathered gods all knew about the death of Empyrean as soon as it happened, and they also knew it had been at the hands of the Champion of Umbra and Lumen. Some of them had already been aware of the attack on Paradisia, though most methods of communication had been cut by Umbra once they surrounded Nasir-Sin’s realm. By now even the slowest gods were realizing something big was going on in Paradisia. In addition to being a blow to Nasir-Sin’s realm, it also invigorated his opposition. Finally they knew Umbra had an actual plan. They had been guessing as much, but assaulting a realm of a deity of this level was still a dangerous proposal. It was nice to get some confirmation that they would not be pushed into the role of cannon fodder. That's why they followed Umbra though. She always had a plan.

Umbra’s grin grew wider as the cracks in the realm grew larger. “Can you feel it Order? That’s the bell tolling the demise of you and your people.”

Nasir-Sin elected to stay silent. Normally he would be happy to engage his old enemy in a battle of words, but he knew the situation wasn’t looking good. In fact, it looked downright rotten the more he thought about it. With the second blow, the defenses around his realm had weakened to a point where Umbra already had a clear advantage. Yet she was still waiting, which meant that there was more to come. Likely something worse. How much worse could it get? They had already done pretty much everything aside from actually killing all his servants. Even if the crisis within Paradisia turned really bad, destroying the home of the angels would only remove a large portion of his servants. A severe blow for sure, but still not enough to cripple him entirely.

Unfortunately his lack of imagination became his undoing. He had considered the possibility of Lumen taking her realm away, that’s why he wanted Lumen replaced, and had even speculated on what would happen if that came to pass. He just didn’t realize all the implications in the moment. The gods operated as concepts and followed certain rules that didn’t always make perfect sense. Still, the laws of the universe were what they were, imperfections and all. Luckily the universe had ways of correcting for any mistakes and problems that crept up with such rules, but such corrections didn’t always happen instantly. It sometimes took a bit of time and certain actions on the part of the gods to correct for any such problems. And in this case, that time was the problem and made all the difference.

Once the separation of Lumen’s realm happened and nearly all angels not following Lumen became Fallen, something rather unexpected also happened. Something that had been anticipated by one particular goddess and no one else. While angels were beings of light and order, Fallen were not. They could theoretically serve Lumen or Nasir-Sin, but nearly none of them did before now. They had a natural aversion towards light and order. Fallen in general were considered to be beings of darkness and chaos, at least in theory and concept, and as such came under the purview of Umbra. So, in the eyes of the universe, the newly Fallen that used to be faithful angels were not servants of Nasir-Sin or Lumen anymore. Instead, they were servants of Umbra, at least until they re-established their worship of Nasir-Sin, usually with a prayer and a small, almost unconscious action on the part of the deity himself, accepting them as his followers.

As a people who had just faced and were currently facing a dire crisis, they were bound to seek the assistance of their chosen deity rather quickly. As such, it would take a few days at most to establish the connection again. Most of the lost followers would be reclaimed in less than a day. But for a very short time, Nasir-Sin had lost almost ninety percent of all angels that served him, and those same angels were now counted as followers of Umbra. And the timing could not have been worse.

As the shift happened, Nasir-Sin collapsed on the ground, overwhelmed by the sudden blow. He looked in horror as the realm around him shattered almost completely and he felt weaker than he had ever been since becoming the primary God of Order. Alone any of the previous blows would have been bad but could have been handled. Even the last one could have been dealt with since he had plenty of other servants beyond just the angels, even though the angels did form the majority of his power base. But the combination of the three blows had literally brought him to his knees, and the darkness and chaos chose this moment to waltz right in.

“Well, wasn’t that exciting.” Umbra stated as she stood over the kneeling Nasir-Sin, looking extremely smug and pleased with herself. Any and all defenses of the realm had deactivated and most of the familiars and protectors were severely weakened and confused. “Burn everything to the ground! Leave nothing standing! Let the next prime God of Order inherit the ruined remains of a once glorious realm, now turned to nothing but ashes and dust!” Umbra commanded the gods following her.

She didn’t need to tell the gathered gods twice. One would think a battle between deities would be a grand showing of powers and skill, but unfortunately they usually degenerated into a simple measuring contest between the powers of the gods involved. There were strategies and tactics involved before and sometimes even during smaller fights, but large fights usually just became a contest of pure power. And with a disparity this large between the two sides, even that contest became mostly a quick defeat, followed by a frenzied rout. Many of the gods that had followed Nasir-Sin tried to escape if they survived the first contact. Some might even succeed as many of the dark gods chased them in an effort to hunt them down. Most were cut down as they ran.

“And that’s the importance of picking the right people to support.” Umbra stated in a self-satisfied tone. She loved it when a plan came together.

“You say that as if I didn’t come close to succeeding.” Nasir-Sin stated defensively. He knew he had lost and would not survive. That didn’t mean he had to grovel.

“You really didn’t come as close as you think. Had I not picked the right seedling, I would’ve found another way. Though I have to admit that my Champion performed above even my most hopeful expectations. Still, it was only a matter of time. The reason you did so well against Lumen is because we were playing the waiting game while our Champion grew up. Had we not found such a great Champion, we would have taken a more active stance. You might have had a chance against just her, but you never had a chance against me.” Umbra countered Nasir-Sin’s thinking.

“Bah, as if the two of you would have become allies in the first place! I may not be familiar with all of your schemes, but I do know it was mostly your little Champion that brought the two of you together.” Nasir-Sin shot down Umbra’s reasoning. Not entirely without merit.

“Haven’t you heard? We are the fated pair of star-crossed lovers. The rumors are spreading everywhere. The pair of sisters that have been kept apart by cruel fate and circumstance!” Umbra was quite happy to play along with Dee’s little revenge. She found the thought rather amusing in fact. “But I digress. We are where we are. I’m simply savoring my victory just a bit. That’s one of the problems with my Champion. She doesn’t know how to appreciate the moment of victory. So quick to finish things off. Still, she does have a point. Wouldn’t want to slip up and give you the chance to recover. For instance, it would be rather unfortunate if some deity, say the Goddess of the Sun for example tried to take advantage of the situation and attack me.”

At her words, Umbra turned to watch as a particular deity that had been watching the two of them made a small bow and moved on. Sol-Invictus had been contemplating just what Umbra had suggested, though she had judged that the odds of success were not good enough to take the risk. Now having been seen through, the odds turned decisively against such an attempt, so she abandoned the idea. It had been a fleeting thought anyway. With Nasir-Sin gone she would become the number five deity. And with Lumen’s current weakness she could make an argument about being number four. Still, she knew her limits. The current Umbra was beyond her reach and had joined Death and Eternity on the list of deities not to make an enemy of.

“Well then. It is time to finish this.” Umbra turned back to the God of Order. A sudden string of words came from her mouth and the universe moved to accommodate her words of power. “The God of Order Nasir-Sin is dead and beyond any recovery, and his realm will be ruined beyond recovery with his passing.”

Her method was rather inefficient, taking much more power than a simple attack would have, but she could afford the expenditure and it was better to be sure. Thus the God of Order disappeared in a cloud of rapidly dispersing dust, and his realm gave its last death throes. Umbra, in turn, gave a small shiver of pleasure. Her victory was complete. Unlike her Champion, she could appreciate victory. There would be other battles, but that didn’t diminish the joy from such a grand victory.

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Dee stared at the painting while her allies finished their last preparations. She had fished the painting out of Hassan-i-Sabbah’s spatial ring, and it had been the only thing inside aside from the device the two had used to communicate a couple of times. The painting depicted a fox-eared knight with nine flaming tails plunging a lance into the chest of a golden-winged Archangel that bore a close resemblance to Empyrean. The ground below the two figures was littered with the corpses of other angels. As a magical painting, the figures were moving ever so slightly.

“That’s a rather gruesome painting. Well done though. When did you have time to have that made?” Aurelie spoke from behind Dee.

“I didn’t. Apparently, Hassan-i-Sabbah painted it while I was just a child.” Dee had to admire the man’s foresight. He wasn’t a seer, so all this was something he had to orchestrate personally. And while the number of tails and her choice of weapon were inaccurate, the rest were not that far off.

“Huh. Didn’t know he had that kind of talent. Doesn’t surprise me though. Most high ranking immortals pick up a hobby or two. I personally play a dozen or so musical instruments. How about you?” Aurelie found the timing of the painting curious, but that’s all.

Dee perked up at the thought of Aurelie having musical talent. She still quite admired those that had the ability to play music, despite the fact that she had managed to learn a bit as well. She was planning on spending several years doing nothing but listening to music and learning to play better now that she didn’t have to care about other things. “Oh, you play music? I dabble a bit as well, though I haven’t really had the time to truly dedicate to learning. Something I hope to rectify. I wonder if you have the time to give me some pointers?”

Dee was rather honest in her request, though Aurelie read something a bit more into the words. She wasn’t averse to the idea. Not at all. “I’m sure we can arrange somethiiiiing?!” Her tone started off as a bit saucy, but got a bit high-pitched at the end and turned to an alarmed question. “Why the hells are you suddenly glowing?”

“Son of a…” Dee cursed as the power of light from Paradisia started rushing into her. She was familiar with the sensation as she had already experienced something similar when becoming the focus of chaos. This time the power was rushing at her all at once instead of building up over weeks. The amount of power also seemed larger. Much larger. It seemed that the power of light had been building up for much longer.

“Dee? I don’t want to alarm you, but you’re turning translucent! Nope, scratch that, you’re turning fully transparent!” Aurelie was actually starting to panic.

Dee was less worried. This was just the ultimate expression of what she had been feeling for a while. She had been feeling like she was turning into energy and leaving behind her body. The more power she gained, the more obvious the feeling became. It seemed the moment of truth had come. She actually wasn’t sure what would happen once she crossed the threshold. It was possible that the energy that she was turning into simply scattered with nothing holding it together. Well, too late to worry now. It did strike her as somewhat slightly annoying that the change came right after she reached her goal, but didn’t have the time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

Aurelie ran out of the room, yelling for help but she didn’t get far before she felt an enormous explosion of power. Not the kind of explosion that destroyed things, but the kind of explosion that shook one to their very core and could be felt everywhere. In this case the explosion of power was felt literally everywhere all over the universe. The explosion felt almost omnipresent and wasn’t any stronger closer to the source. Everyone with enough power to be counted as an immortal felt a wave of power pass by and they knew something had happened. They also got the feeling of something new being born. Something new, and at the same time something extremely old.

Umbra was the only one of the younger gods that realized the significance. This was something she had considered when she had suggested the use of Tiamat’s blood when making Dee. Lumen had a hunch as well but didn’t know enough to be sure. Death and Eternity knew of course. The goddess grimaced. Dee was early. Her plans were not yet finished. “Do you need to act?” She asked Eternity.

“I do. I don’t want to, but you know I have to. The Old Ones were imprisoned for a reason. She is not a threat by herself, but where there is one, there will eventually be more.” Eternity stated and disappeared from his campsite.

He appeared again within Lumen’s realm where everything seemed to slow down to a crawl. Everything except a faint form of a woman slowly regaining her old shape, though made of pure power. For a small moment, Dee had felt that she would be scattered all over the universe and lose herself, but it wasn’t too difficult to hold on to the energy that was part of her. She had no body though and the feeling was decidedly odd, to say the least. ‘Huh, this reminds me of the Solarians. I wonder if this is why they are so strong? They are already by nature beings of energy.’

“You’re right.” Eternity suddenly spoke, answering Dee’s unspoken question. Her mere thoughts were affecting the surroundings and could be felt and understood. “But they also pay a price of sorts. The energy within them is less pure. It is a power of a single element, whereas you are now a being of pure power of all sorts. A slight difference, but very important. They are closer to being a very refined elemental, while you are now something else entirely.”

Only now Dee noticed the presence of the god and her changed surroundings. Her senses seemed to have changed quite a bit, not having a body anymore and all. She could at the same time sense everything within Lumen’s realm and far beyond, yet it was a little difficult to focus on single things. That said, she was a psion and she was used to dealing with floods of information. She was adjusting rather quickly. “Eternity. I’m guessing this isn’t just a social call.” At the same time, she was observing space and time. It was weird being able to ‘see’ them. Perhaps sensing them would be more accurate? Tasting them? What did time taste like? Incidentally, space seemed to taste like neon purple strawberry. Colors also had a taste for some reason.

“No, I’m afraid not. Your new status is…inconvenient.” He explained slowly. The universe around them was still crawling at the pace of a particularly slow and lazy snail.

“My new status. Speaking of, what is my new status?” Dee asked. She hadn’t heard anything about this before now. Her focus was finally starting to return. She wasn’t entirely sure if they had spent only seconds in this moment between seconds or if they had spent a thousand years here.

“You are now what some call Nakshatra. Most know your kind as the Old Ones. You can imagine it as being rank fourteen if that makes things easier.” Eternity told her without rushing things.

“Old Ones? I have a distinct impression that they are all imprisoned. Is that what this visit is about? Is that why we don’t see any rank fourteen beings around?” Dee was full of questions while also dreading the answers. If the god wanted to imprison her, she would not go quietly. She wasn’t used to her new existence, far from it, but she had a feeling it would be a rather even fight.

“In part. We have placed some limitations that stop most from reaching the rank. Without help that is. Unfortunately my daughters and Death provided you with a bit too much help. I’m not here to imprison you. Unlike the Old Ones, you have not done anything to earn that imprisonment. However, your new status is still a problem. A problem that needs to be solved.” Eternity stated.

“Solved, huh? And how did you intend to go about solving this problem? I should warn you that I do not intend to go down quietly if that was your plan. Besides, you contributed to the problem with your blessing.” Dee pointed out a bit accusingly.

“I’m aware. The good thing is that the problem really comes from the existence of more of your kind. I’m aware of your aversion towards being forced into anything by others. Your Domain is a rather clear hint after all. So I’ll make you a deal. I was planning on sending you to another universe better equipped to deal with someone of your level. Do not worry, even there you will be a rather singular existence. However, I’m not in a rush. We both know you’re the type who will get bored of the quiet life eventually, so I can give you time. Provided some conditions are followed.” Eternity also wasn’t happy about the prospect of trying to convince the Guardian of this universe and the destination universe to go along with things.

“So what kind of timeframe are we talking about? As far as I know, there haven’t been more of my kind in…well forever. And what kind of conditions?” Dee questioned.

“Three conditions. You have to agree not to try and train more of your kind. You also have to agree not to go along with any of Umbra’s harebrained ideas about overthrowing me and Death. These I think you would go along with anyway, but I must insist. The last thing is that you have to agree to not go close to where the Old Ones are imprisoned. Be assured that I would be able to banish you faster than you would be able to free them. As for a time frame? Well, as you said, there haven’t been new beings of your kind in a long time. I’d say I could easily give you a nice cushion of five thousand years. For beings like me it will be a blink of an eye, but for you, that should be a long time. We can negotiate a few thousand years either way if the situation calls for it. I’m pretty sure you’ll get bored much earlier than that though.” Eternity didn’t mention that five thousand years would be a blink of an eye for the future Dee as well. That was something she had to find out herself.

“You can always leave at your own time through the Astral Plane before the time is up. Who knows, it could be a new adventure. You know how to reach me if you want to renegotiate some part of this deal.” Eternity added after a moment.

He had some insight into Dee’s character and was correct. Dee was not the type to hang around doing nothing. She would get bored of the peace and quiet sooner or later. The odds were that Dee would leave long before the five thousand years was up. Dee also knew that. Still, simply agreeing would go against her newfound freedom, so she hedged things a bit, even though she would likely go along with it when the time came. “We shall see, though I suspect you are correct. Now help me form a new body. This whole vacation will be worth nothing if I can’t enjoy it properly. And for that, I need taste buds. And ears that don’t think music sounds like the space-time is having a sneezing fit.”