Re: The Grand Battle [Round Six: Library of Lies!]
03-06-2010, 02:33 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.
If there had been any other way, Amethyst would have taken it. If she could have put it off until the last minute, she would have. But as things were, there was no choice.
Even if she would fail, she had to try. Even if she couldn't kill the Director, she could kill the Gentlemen. Even if she couldn't kill the Gentlemen, she could ruin their plans. And even if she couldn't ruin their plans.
She could rip reality a new one.
With the last of her mana, black crystals braced her feet, and pushed her into the air. She was carried up, and up, until at last a rapid beeping signaled her mana reserves had run dry. So she cast it. At first with a whisper...
"Load... Preset..."
And then shouting, black oily tears running down her face.
"NEXUS BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"
Greenish runes shot from the armband, forming an intricate network. Through that network, a bright violet light rushed out and quickly filled the library.
Objective 1: Achieve 90% conversion with minimal mana loss
A series of programs on the armband calculated the scenario, and found the best way to store the mana was to crystallize it. So the velvet light spread out, and the library became a massive field of black icicles.
From his display, the Director could hardly see anything through the dense field. But he could sense one thing; Amethyst was dieing. No, it could be that he thought she was already dead. Whatever it was, something compelled him- tricked him into believing the round was over. A white light spread over Aeon and Eximo.
And now it was Amethyst and the Gentlemen left in the library.
Objective 2: Focus all mana onto a single point
The armband moved to achieve its next objective. Strings of mana manipulated Amethyst, and commanded the crystals all to aim towards the ceiling. As each one struck, it detonated back into the purple light, and another struck right through it.
From a Euclidean three dimensional perspective, nothing was happening. But outside, in Null Space, the membrane of the library was bending. It wasn't going to break, but it didn't have to. It needed only collide with the membrane of an adjacent universe.
As the membranes impacted, the melted together. The difference in pressure between the two worlds led to a massive decompression. The two universes stretched out from the sheer force, and soon the differences between the two couldn't be seen.
A corridor, several infinities in length, but only a few meters in height and width. At one end, was the puppet Amethyst in the ruins of the Library of Lies.
At the other, the Director and last three Gentlemen stared on, in the stretched Holding Cell.
But in this fake world, with no such rules as air pressure or wind resistance, distance meant nothing. Soon, the true nature of the attack was made apparent.
Two ends of a completely linear space. If she could break past the Director's defenses, there could be...
Nowhere...
In the universe...
To dodge!
The violet light spilled forward, filling the corridor. Between it and the Director, the eight barriers of the Grand Battle reformed themselves.
The first barrier, cognitive, was shattered by the sheer confidence to break it.
The remains of countless books that had survived the decompression were swiftly vaporized by the flow of pure mana.
The second barrier was made of some strange ethereal force, perhaps hoping to deflect material attacks. But the pure mana wasn't material, and so it tore right through it.
The Gentlemen looked at each other, but the Director simply floated, his arms crossed.
The third barrier was offensive, firing a wave of yellow lasers towards the blast. The energy melted into the mana, and was simply assimilated. The attack continued.
If I can, just let me hold on...
The fourth barrier became an army of spectral knights, each one charging to intercept the attack. But they were all simply torn to shreds, as the blast ripped through their immaterial bodies.
To these three pieces...
The fifth barrier was another mental attack. But Amethyst couldn't even reason what it would do.
All I have left...
The blast approached the sixth barrier, but the Director had given up on those defenses. As it was effortlessly shattered, the final barrier prepared itself. The Director himself moved forward, and grabbed the blast in his hands.
He could feel it ripping at him. Not his physical body, but somehow the lines of existence that held him together...
With all this power... it was unwinding...
But in spite of this... the barrier... the Director himself... held!
Let me keep these three memories...
please...
Eximo...
Aeon...
Midnara...
With a final scream, the last three pieces of Amethyst's soul joined the light. The velvet color became a brilliant light, and surged throughout the universe. The final barrier... fell...
***
His barriers unraveled, the shields that had held his existence together were gone. But the Director himself, the entity that all that power had contained, stood back up.
For a brief second, the Gentlemen thought they might have seen the black smoke gone, and the face of the Director... scared...
But that memory was gone as he laughed out loud.
The group walked down the infinite hallway, and made it back to where Amethyst sat. Her black, empty, now even soulless eyes stared off into nothing.
"Is it sad... to die...?"
Came a subtle whisper. But Amethyst no longer understood sadness, no longer understood anything. It wasn't even Amethyst, just some empty shell of something that even with a soul would still be less than human.
The Director placed his hand on her forehead, and pushed. There was a grotesque cracking noise, as Amethyst's waist snapped in two. The upper half of her body fell back, and the lower half fell forward. From each half, some black goo flowed.
"This is the existence that is destined for all who try to kill me. Not simply dead. Erased."
But those words did nothing to prevent the hot steel katana from being held to his neck.
"I beg to differ. When magical attacks collide, their energy is lost and becomes ambient. In the amount of time since you blocked that attack, there's no way you could have recovered all your power. In short, your time to die is now."
The words were spoke by what appeared to be Drake Eon. But as the Director spun around, the illusion faded, and the real Drake- still unable to protest due to the gag of ice- was caught in a sudden eruption of solid black smoke.
The smoke lifted the real Drake, as at last he was permitted to speak.
"Wait! That wasn't-!"
"I've had enough of you Drake Eon."
The smoke tightened, and at last Drake's mask of fell off. The surprisingly handsome man beneath looked on in something resembling fear.
"You've been subtly manipulating probability in not just this game, but at least one other. Quite frankly, I'm sick of you. Especially after your performance in the Library."
"Dumbass."
Drake's expression turned from fear, to something more of a sadistic smile.
"You really honestly truly believe that I'll die like this? Well how about I let you in on a little secret. Right now, I'm guarding something horrible. This something is so horrible, that the universe will conspire to keep it locked away. So as long as I'm it's guard, I won't die just on some mortal's whim."
"The bluff of a dieing man."
The black smoke compressed, and Drake's entire body was pushed onto a single point. Clearly dead.
"Don't think I'm satisfied with you two either. You stepped well beyond 'pushing the contestants to fight' back there in the Library. You're lucky both your contestants are still alive."
At last the universes began to sort themselves out, and slowly the holding cell returned to its original state.
"It's time for the final round."
If there had been any other way, Amethyst would have taken it. If she could have put it off until the last minute, she would have. But as things were, there was no choice.
Even if she would fail, she had to try. Even if she couldn't kill the Director, she could kill the Gentlemen. Even if she couldn't kill the Gentlemen, she could ruin their plans. And even if she couldn't ruin their plans.
She could rip reality a new one.
With the last of her mana, black crystals braced her feet, and pushed her into the air. She was carried up, and up, until at last a rapid beeping signaled her mana reserves had run dry. So she cast it. At first with a whisper...
"Load... Preset..."
And then shouting, black oily tears running down her face.
"NEXUS BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"
Greenish runes shot from the armband, forming an intricate network. Through that network, a bright violet light rushed out and quickly filled the library.
Objective 1: Achieve 90% conversion with minimal mana loss
A series of programs on the armband calculated the scenario, and found the best way to store the mana was to crystallize it. So the velvet light spread out, and the library became a massive field of black icicles.
From his display, the Director could hardly see anything through the dense field. But he could sense one thing; Amethyst was dieing. No, it could be that he thought she was already dead. Whatever it was, something compelled him- tricked him into believing the round was over. A white light spread over Aeon and Eximo.
And now it was Amethyst and the Gentlemen left in the library.
Objective 2: Focus all mana onto a single point
The armband moved to achieve its next objective. Strings of mana manipulated Amethyst, and commanded the crystals all to aim towards the ceiling. As each one struck, it detonated back into the purple light, and another struck right through it.
From a Euclidean three dimensional perspective, nothing was happening. But outside, in Null Space, the membrane of the library was bending. It wasn't going to break, but it didn't have to. It needed only collide with the membrane of an adjacent universe.
As the membranes impacted, the melted together. The difference in pressure between the two worlds led to a massive decompression. The two universes stretched out from the sheer force, and soon the differences between the two couldn't be seen.
A corridor, several infinities in length, but only a few meters in height and width. At one end, was the puppet Amethyst in the ruins of the Library of Lies.
At the other, the Director and last three Gentlemen stared on, in the stretched Holding Cell.
But in this fake world, with no such rules as air pressure or wind resistance, distance meant nothing. Soon, the true nature of the attack was made apparent.
Two ends of a completely linear space. If she could break past the Director's defenses, there could be...
Nowhere...
In the universe...
To dodge!
The violet light spilled forward, filling the corridor. Between it and the Director, the eight barriers of the Grand Battle reformed themselves.
The first barrier, cognitive, was shattered by the sheer confidence to break it.
The remains of countless books that had survived the decompression were swiftly vaporized by the flow of pure mana.
The second barrier was made of some strange ethereal force, perhaps hoping to deflect material attacks. But the pure mana wasn't material, and so it tore right through it.
The Gentlemen looked at each other, but the Director simply floated, his arms crossed.
The third barrier was offensive, firing a wave of yellow lasers towards the blast. The energy melted into the mana, and was simply assimilated. The attack continued.
If I can, just let me hold on...
The fourth barrier became an army of spectral knights, each one charging to intercept the attack. But they were all simply torn to shreds, as the blast ripped through their immaterial bodies.
To these three pieces...
The fifth barrier was another mental attack. But Amethyst couldn't even reason what it would do.
All I have left...
The blast approached the sixth barrier, but the Director had given up on those defenses. As it was effortlessly shattered, the final barrier prepared itself. The Director himself moved forward, and grabbed the blast in his hands.
He could feel it ripping at him. Not his physical body, but somehow the lines of existence that held him together...
With all this power... it was unwinding...
But in spite of this... the barrier... the Director himself... held!
Let me keep these three memories...
please...
Eximo...
Aeon...
Midnara...
With a final scream, the last three pieces of Amethyst's soul joined the light. The velvet color became a brilliant light, and surged throughout the universe. The final barrier... fell...
***
His barriers unraveled, the shields that had held his existence together were gone. But the Director himself, the entity that all that power had contained, stood back up.
For a brief second, the Gentlemen thought they might have seen the black smoke gone, and the face of the Director... scared...
But that memory was gone as he laughed out loud.
The group walked down the infinite hallway, and made it back to where Amethyst sat. Her black, empty, now even soulless eyes stared off into nothing.
"Is it sad... to die...?"
Came a subtle whisper. But Amethyst no longer understood sadness, no longer understood anything. It wasn't even Amethyst, just some empty shell of something that even with a soul would still be less than human.
The Director placed his hand on her forehead, and pushed. There was a grotesque cracking noise, as Amethyst's waist snapped in two. The upper half of her body fell back, and the lower half fell forward. From each half, some black goo flowed.
"This is the existence that is destined for all who try to kill me. Not simply dead. Erased."
But those words did nothing to prevent the hot steel katana from being held to his neck.
"I beg to differ. When magical attacks collide, their energy is lost and becomes ambient. In the amount of time since you blocked that attack, there's no way you could have recovered all your power. In short, your time to die is now."
The words were spoke by what appeared to be Drake Eon. But as the Director spun around, the illusion faded, and the real Drake- still unable to protest due to the gag of ice- was caught in a sudden eruption of solid black smoke.
The smoke lifted the real Drake, as at last he was permitted to speak.
"Wait! That wasn't-!"
"I've had enough of you Drake Eon."
The smoke tightened, and at last Drake's mask of fell off. The surprisingly handsome man beneath looked on in something resembling fear.
"You've been subtly manipulating probability in not just this game, but at least one other. Quite frankly, I'm sick of you. Especially after your performance in the Library."
"Dumbass."
Drake's expression turned from fear, to something more of a sadistic smile.
"You really honestly truly believe that I'll die like this? Well how about I let you in on a little secret. Right now, I'm guarding something horrible. This something is so horrible, that the universe will conspire to keep it locked away. So as long as I'm it's guard, I won't die just on some mortal's whim."
"The bluff of a dieing man."
The black smoke compressed, and Drake's entire body was pushed onto a single point. Clearly dead.
"Don't think I'm satisfied with you two either. You stepped well beyond 'pushing the contestants to fight' back there in the Library. You're lucky both your contestants are still alive."
At last the universes began to sort themselves out, and slowly the holding cell returned to its original state.
"It's time for the final round."