The Grand Battle II! [Happy End!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

---

The Faceless finally found a dead end, the doorway it had slithered through filling partway with an ominous rumble and a shower of rocks. For a moment, nothing else stirred in the crypt save for the persistent noiseless hum of deep magic. The rough-hewn stone floor Vyrm’n slid over was hatched with the deep gouges of some monstrous machine that had sunk its teeth into the bedrock, at odds with the smoother, worn floors in the less auxiliary caverns the shadow had slunk through. The furrowed stone was curiously devoid of darkened valleys; but the whole surface appeared lit as though basking under a clear, moonless sky, instead of however many miles of stone sealed this temple away from such light.

One ridge rose a little, a craggy dome protruding from the rock. Something that might’ve been a face were it not so featureless emerged, unimpeded, and uttered the tiniest crooning noise as it surveyed the pile of rubble. The discontent little tone could’ve easily stemmed from the stone around it, strangely akin to the creak of one great boulder leaning upon another. Its squat, lumbering form rising fully from the bedrock, the beast shambled silently over to the blockage; the little boulders of its feet didn’t fully protrude from the ground it was so seamlessly one with.

A seam zig-zagged its way into existence along the front of the creature’s head, before splitting into a pair of stony jaws. The lower hung loosely, as if on an invisible pivot, bumping dully against its chest. Nestled within the cavernous maw were, what logic would duly deny and declare, as eyes; they were a pair of blank, pale circles staring out of its own mouth.

The beast took one glance back at the motionless Faceless, before digging its claws into the rubble and raising a sizeable pile of rocks to its face. The chamber echoed dully with the sound of gravel on rock for quite some time, followed by a sharper scraping noise as the whatever-it-was scrabbled about for the last of the fallen pebbles. A final scree-slip sigh indicated the stone thing had completed its task, and it turned to affix Vyrm’n’s pinprick pattern with its misplaced gaze. It raised a claw, then stopped, instead electing to utter a commanding grit-growl to the temple around it. The rock by the shadow shifted, and a smaller duplicate of the first creature rose from the floor, duly placing its sandstone palm upon the gently trembling surface.

With the moan of a boulder keeling over to finally settle at the foot of a valley, the golem fell apart as whatever weak concept of self it had was discarded in favour of staring at the vastness of the universe. The first made a cracking noise and slowly approached the unresponsive Faceless, stooping as it walked to pick up its compatriot’s lower jaw and mutely devour it. Then, a little more thoughtfully (or so the casual observer in the gloom had to assume), one stony slab of a hand drifted just above Vyrm’n’s hide, knowing well enough not to touch it. In turn, from the sleek black surface, dust and blood and a battleload of detritus wormed its way upward, diffusing out of the shadow and collecting in a grimy swirl in the stone beast’s palm. She shifted a little beneath it, the void sloping away from its position of external control as the noise was drawn out.

Vyrm’n struggled her way out, the creature withdrawing its hand and shambling backwards a little as it brought its hand to its face to examine the mess it had collected, before deciding not to ingest it. The Faceless was rising slowly, trying get her bearings - her movements were slower as she came to terms with how much matter of hers had been ripped apart in the fiasco of last round.

A new place. Then... who was killed? She couldn’t remember anything beyond assaulting Samuel’s mind with her power to comprehend the song of existence, but to her considerable relief Conscience was nowhere to be found, within or without-

Vyrm’n froze. Her precursory glance around to locate the others had found something else - a slow, sonorous, yet richly complex tone. It lacked the chattering complexity of life, but something about it seemed constantly threatening to crash against itself into something more chaotic. What’s more, it was all around - the stone sang with it, lighting up the cave in Vyrm’n’s eyes with an unnatural glow, streaked with these shifting instances of something, barely alive, not quite sentient, but tantalisingly close. If pressed, she would’ve found its tone closest to... Gestalt.

The creature was still standing, now bathed in a swirling congregation only Vyrm’n could see. It had the sizable mass of dust and other burrs which had pierced the darkness hovering slightly above its lumpy hand, offered towards the Faceless as though asking for her to take it.

Thank you. The energy permeating the stone didn’t respond in any perceptible way, but the agglom in front of Vyrm’n made a quiet little noise, like a pile of gravel settling.