UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune
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Chapter 143: A Subtle Entrance
🕑 Added 2024-05-14 17:26:31 +0000 UTCThe gates to the inner chamber opened and the four of us were greeted with the sight of a conclave of old aliens dressed in plain robes. There were seven of them, all seated on high chairs slightly raised from where we stood by the entrance. The chamber itself was oddly plain, which was quite the contrast to all the art and mason work that adorned the chambers just outside, and that minimalist aesthetic extended to the people gathered.
Each council member wore a simple cloth robe with the only other adornment was a metal necklace of an all-seeing eye, even their expressions looked worn out and unassuming. If it weren’t for the air of authority that each projected, I’d have thought them to be menials. These aliens were an odd sight… Now that I thought about it, I really did need to figure out what this race was called, but since they were not affiliated with Central at all, my Rookie Arbiter abilities were completely worthless.
“Greetings!” the lead council member said, her voice surprisingly soothing, “I welcome you to the Chamber of Fate, and I thank you for making the long journey to our humble home, fellow devotees.”
“We are glad to be here,” I answered back, “My party and I are more than ready to assist the aversion of the coming crisis.”
The smile on the counselor's face brightened considerably, in no small part because I had manipulated her emotions quite a bit, but I like to think it was because of my natural charm as well. I made sure that I was keeping the emotions relatively stable since I wasn’t sure what they wanted from us yet, and having them too enthused might backfire on me.
“Your help will surely be needed,” she said, “Exalted individuals such as yourself are a rare commodity, but it gladens my heart to see so many gathered for the sake of our God.”
I nodded, “Sorry, but we’ve been isolated from the main cities for a long time, and have only heard rumors of the situation, can you tell us what is going on in more detail first? We’re not even sure of a proper timeline of events.”
“Of course,” the lead woman said, “We can understand how rumors can get exaggerated, especially over great distances, although I fear that most of what is being spread is the truth.”
I gestured for her to continue.
The woman shook her head and sighed, “The late Chief Oracle’s final prophecy occurred almost exactly one year ago today, and it foretold of the arrival of what you now know as the End Bringers. They are four beings of unimaginable destruction… One is said to house a universe unto itself, two of the beings blot the sun with their sheer might and magnitude, while the last is said to devour the very space and stars. I fear that their arrival is imminent.”
Xalla, Q, and Molly all looked at each other nervously. I don’t think it took a genius to understand who those four beings were, even with the vague description… which begs the question, how did they know of our arrival so early? Well, she didn’t technically say it was a year, once again, Noe’s ability to translate languages put the timeframes into its rough English approximations, and a more accurate interpretation was that the prophecy happened something like 13 and a half months ago.
Even still, the council member said the prophecy or whatever it was happened about a year ago, which made sense given the scale of their preparations, but it also meant that this god of fate had some serious predictive power. It was one thing to know the fate and lives of the mortals under their direct command and control, but it was another matter to predict the movements of beings like Xalla or Q. Add on the fact that this dimension was in the middle of nowhere, and completely cut off from multiversal civilization, and the abilities of that god were no joke.
“I see,” I continued, “That does line up with the rumors that we heard. And you say that the day of these… entities' arrival is imminent, do you know when exactly?”
The woman nodded, “The Oracle did not give us an exact date and time before her passing, but the remaining Blessed here have divined a rough timeline. The arrival is set to be within the next week.”
I nodded slowly. Once again, they were remarkably accurate. They were off by a few days since we were here now, but that kind of margin of error was to be envied by the other fate tellers around the greater universe.
“That is most disturbing…” I muttered.
“And it is why we need your assistance,” she continued, “We need to buy time for the gods to act, and our priority now is to secure this city.”
“What’s so important about this city?” I asked, “Um, aside from its cultural and spiritual significance that is. I don’t mean to offend, but it’s rare to see so many talented warriors gathered all at once. We only heard that our help was needed here.”
The woman chuckled, “It seems that very little news has spread to the far south.”
I gave her a grin and a shrug. It’s a good thing that communication didn’t seem to have evolved too far in this world, otherwise my story would have a lot of holes in it.
“But this city, while serving primarily as the conduit to the God, also serves as a prison for an ancient Calamity.”
I frowned and extended my senses deep below the surface of this cathedral. I saw a minor presence deep below the surface of this city, and while I couldn’t risk probing too much further down without risking being noticed, there was definitely something lurking there.
“And that is where you and the others are needed,” the councilor added, “We are not sure how the entities will affect our world, but all of our prophecies tell of the need to strengthen the wards securing the imprisoned beast. It will be a grand undertaking that must be finished before their arrival, and I fear that we have already delayed it too long getting the necessary preparations finished.”
“I see,” I said slowly, “And what would you have us do?”
“Every guest is responsible for guarding the civilians and ensuring that the city remains stable in these trying times,” The lady explained with a smile, “I am sure that you have already seen the increase in crime and the various doomsday cults that have sprung up lately, and I fear that they have infected even the heart of this sacred city.”
I nodded again, so far what she was saying made sense. There would always be those who were weak of will or were overly ambitious to take advantage of times of unrest, and it seemed that this race was no different. Coupled with a prophecy that spelled doom, it wasn’t hard to imagine how bad the current situation was.
The counselor continued, “But that is the general role that all devotees must fulfill. You are Exalted, and thus you four will be needed for more. Each individual is fated for a role here, and that is why you are here. We shall divine your task.”
Something changed then, and the tone of the room got serious as each council member turned to gaze at us. It was eerie.
The lead woman who had addressed us raised her hands and turned her attention to her silent brethren, “Come. Let us See the role that our guests are to play.”
A strange surge of tangible power and faith gathered in the room as whatever it was that they were doing started. Before I could even ask what was happening, the ritual that they were conducting had already finished and a wave of energy washed over the four of us.
“We See!” they said as one, “We See…”
“We… we…”
And they screamed as the energies that were focused on the four of us reverberated and were sent straight back into the gathered mystics. Their eyes, the conduit of whatever ritual they were conducting, started to melt from their very sockets and they howled in pain and despair.
Q was the first to act. He immediately isolated the room from the outside to keep whatever was occurring from leaking out, but that slight expenditure of power set off a cascade of repercussions. Now in hindsight, I should have anticipated something like this happening, but their ritual was so practiced and quick that I didn’t even see what they were doing before it was too late. Thus, for the second time in my short stay in Central, I saw with excruciating detail another set of individuals explode.
On reflex, the four of us shielded ourselves from the expanding energy, which, in hindsight once again, was our second mistake. Q wove a second barrier around himself, which was harmless enough, but the rest of us didn’t use quite so subtle of a means. Molly ripped a hole in reality and sent the energy into whatever vortex she put all the things she ate, while I made a small puddle of void to eat up the pieces of exploded aliens. Xalla simply swiped a feeler and evaporated the debris with sheer force.
The huge expenditure of energy all but broke the fragile reality and cracks formed in the spacetime around us. Q quickly set up another barrier separating the now ruined council chambers from the rest of the city, although it would only be a temporary measure at best.
“Well,” Q muttered once he was done, “That didn’t go as planned…”
Molly gave us one of her signature sighs, “And it only took a few hours as well. I’m impressed.”
Xalla gave me a comforting pat on the back, “Um, I don’t think any of us could have predicted that happening. Maybe we can still salvage this situation somehow?”
I grimaced, but tried to stay positive, “Yeah… look, I can alter the perceptions of the people here to a limited degree, so maybe if we could contain what happened here and just pretend to be-”
I didn’t have time to finish my thought when the ground underneath our feet started to crumble and a massive fissure expanded outwards. The four of us had to move close to the end of the room, and I could see that whatever wards were in place holding this so-called “Calamity” had been destroyed from our earlier actions.
The marble tiles cracked, sending the foundation of the cathedral, and the city itself, threatened to collapse under the strain. I could hear the screams and sounds of panic even through Q’s barrier, and in a matter of moments, the entire city was engulfed in pandemonium. And in the center of it all were the four of us, still relatively safe due to Q’s interventions.
“Ah,” I managed to say as I looked at the dust and debris all around us, “Well…”
Molly pressed a hand against her head and gave us a deep sigh, “Ah indeed, Walter. I don’t think we can pretend none of this happened unless your perception ability can extend to the entire world.”
I winced, “No…”
“Then I think it’s safe to say that our cover is blown, or at least our arrival to this world,” Q added, “Let’s try to at least minimize the damage here. I don’t know how we’ll start friendly relations with the gods after this, but it can’t hurt to be mindful. We can only hope that they’ll listen to us before deciding on extreme measures.”
I don’t think any of them believed that for a second, but like Q said, it couldn’t hurt to be careful. I felt the earth beneath me rumble as something massive started to dig its way to the surface.
“Let’s take our new friend somewhere quiet while we’re at it,” I added, pointing to the ground, “There’s no way we’ll have any chance of peaceful negotiations if we allow that thing loose.”
“As if we had a chance after destroying their holy city,” Molly muttered, “But you’re right. Let’s go before we’re noticed.”
Molly got rid of her disguise and extended some of her hair tendrils into the ground. I could hear a horrible howling sound as the newly freed beast was trapped again. After a few more seconds of an unseen struggle, Molly nodded at us to indicate that she had the thing secured. Q opened up a new portal, a rather large one this time to fit our new guest, and we plunged into the opening.
The last thing I saw was Q’s bubble disperse and the last remnants of the one beautiful cathedral crashing down onto the ground. Great, what a wonderful way to start our expedition to this new dimension…
Comments
Flash Red
Damn this is good stuff.
Sebastian Forst
the true calamities were the friends we made along the way (literally)
