Runt of the Litter - Tales from Alirast

Trillia sat atop the massive walls surrounding Kadessa. Kicking her feet over the edge and looking out over the endless horizon of the sea.

The eldritch would be upon them soon.

It was odd. They had known for a few weeks that it was close. Despite that, the night sky above the eternal fortress no longer had stars in it. It was unsettling.

Something was blocking the distant light from reaching Alirast.

"One or two days of terror, followed by peace." Brutus' voice was unexpected, but she offered him a smile and patted the stone next to her.

The old duelist took a seat with a smile. "You've grown a lot, little lady. Do you need to get anything off your chest before the fighting starts?"

"No. For some reason...the closer the day gets, the more calm I am. Maybe I'm just eager to hurt the bastards." She felt the mental nudge of approval from Leaf.

"Be careful out there, Uncle Brutus. I know all of you are strong..." She couldn't bring herself to say it. She was worried about any of them dying. They weren't sure if it meant oblivion or not.

"I have no one waiting for me. If duty calls for my death, so be it. As long as it keeps Alirast whole."

"You aren't worried about never seeing your family?"

Brutus shrugged and fished in his cloak for a flask that smelled of booze. "I got years with them. Got to see my kid born and take his first steps... I know that Lord Darktone will look after them for me. It's far more than a wretch like me deserves."

Trillia turned back to look at the ocean as the sun began to creep down, turning the endless blue expanse into crimson and gold.

"Alliyah gave her orders. All of us are going to gather at the Eternals. Not only to draw as many of the creatures to us as we can but also to concentrate our firepower. Here, I wanted to give you this."

Another fishing trip later, he pulled out a small diamond pendant hanging from a mithril chain. "It will add a small little notification to your [System]. That lets you know the general location of all of the Generals and our well-being."

She slipped it on, and as he mentioned, she could feel a thin thread reaching out across the realm to each of them. "This is like the rings my group has."

"Aye. Most of us generals had one. That's from a fallen comrade..." Brutus paused as he stared at the diamond around her neck. "He won't be needing it. Figured you're one of the better young fighters. I think old Stas gave one to his boy as well."

"I'll put it to good use, Uncle. We'll get through this." Trillia offered a big, bright smile, the man returned it.

There was something hollow about both.

-=====-

Trillia had never seen so many fighters in such a small space. The land around the Eternal Fortress had been cleared out.

Off in the distance, she could see even more camps with huge fires lit in their centers.

Up in the sky above them, several large floating islands had been positioned around the fortress. Each holding one of the dragon clans. A rare moment of peace between all of them.

Worse were all of the primordial spawned creatures roaming the land, ignoring the many warriors and waiting.

Trillia stood on the ramparts next to Alliyah and Amara. "I wish I had made time to see Tormash, Ralrouk, and Dad..."

She spoke softly as she stared up into the night sky. No stars to be seen, she didn't dare look into the Aether. Alliyah had already done so and warned her against it, at least until the fighting started and she had no choice.

"Make time after this fight. With any luck, the [Primordials] and their forces will take a beating as well, so we'll have time to recover." Amara softly rubbed Trillia's back as she reassured her.

"It's starting." Alliyah looked up into the sky. "A pod just hit the Storm citadel. Good luck, ladies. May we all live to drink another day."

Alliyah stepped up onto the wall, and in a flash of pearlescent light, the Valkyrie stood in her place. Light radiated from her, and as she took to the skies, horns began to sound all around them. Signaling the start of the fighting.

Trillia looked over to the gryphon riders. She knew her friends were over there. Most of her group had been relegated to healing and support. Even Dire and Ialu had been tasked with running into the fray and dragging the wounded back to the various tents set up around the fortress meant for healing.

"You'll do fine. Take a deep breath, think of your friends. Think of your future. Never let them fade from your mind." Amara offered her a warm and genuine smile as she also stood on the rampart. The flaming wings from her armor spread, and she took to the skies.

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"Right. We'll be fine." She said to the empty space around her.

Then she saw it.

The first 'small' pod. It stood the size of a house and slammed into the ground near where Uncle Cordaos was standing. Her skin crawled as thousands of tiny little eldritch creatures swarmed out of it.

These weren't nearly as debilitating as the ones that stayed in the Aether. The ones that she was meant to fight.

With another deep breath, she activated her bracers and stepped off the ramparts and into the Aetherian realms.

-=====-

It was blinding. More than she would have ever thought possible. While the physical realm was covered in darkness, with the rare explosion of light from magic, the Aether was as bright as she had ever seen it.

Dozens of brilliantly shining beacons of energy marked each of the Eternals.

Queen Alliyah was her own beacon, drawing the darkness of the void and the eldritch into it and purging them.

She could feel the eldritch peering down at the defenders, and she felt the uneasiness grow as another pod struck the ground. For every bright light she saw, a hundred flickering balls of darkness swarmed towards them.

Taking one more look around she phase stepped forward towards the nearest pod. Alliyah and the Professor had both told her not to linger too long in the empty Aether...but looking around? Whatever might take offense had plenty of targets. It seemed as if most of the Eternal Council planned to fight the eldritch in the Aether the entire time.

As she glided towards the pod, her horns discharged half the mana they held. Shrieking filled her ears, and several eldritch vanished into bursts of void mana. While she had watched Blossom's fight, being an observer could never compare.

Trillia slipped back into the physical world, instincts took over and she swung her rapier around to cleave through one of the small swarmlings that had launched at her.

The thing looked like some horrible amalgamation of insects with a dozen chittering mouths that screamed when it was cut into two.

As each half flopped on the ground it broke down into some dark ooze that sucked the life from the ground around it. Two of her hands grabbed onto Leaf, one onto her shield, and the last held her rapier.

"[Mighty Barrier]!" The familiar roar of her Uncle Cordaos brought her some peace as she watched a semi-translucent shield pass through her and repel the gnawing little creatures.

"Rally to me!" His voice grew deeper, and as Trillia turned to look, she was a bit surprised to see four of him, each wielding different weapons but speaking in unison.

Another horn sounded in the distance.

Trillia watched as another buff added itself to the ever-growing list.

"May the past push present to future. [Mass Haste]!" Arlyss' voice boomed out over the battlefield, and Trillia watched as everyone began to react just that little sliver faster than they had before.

Hits turned to glancing blows, glancing blows into misses.

She fell into the dance of battle herself, sheathing her rapier and raising the gauntlet that served as her crossbow. Interlacing shots from it with her own repetoire of spells.

-=====-

"They are doing well." Dawn remarked. She hadn't expected the Eternals to be so...efficient. Nor had she expected them to be so peaceful towards the surface races. Perhaps it was the threat of the eldritch that had urged them to be civil.

She glanced over to Kain, who stood there, his eyes barely paying attention to Alirast. She supposed that made sense, as he was probably commanding the guardian deities to strike quickly. He had to sit this eldritch out.

That was the bet.

"What are you playing at, Dawn?" The surprised universe core couldn't help but take a metaphorical step away from him. He was sharing part of her mind space to watch the battle, but his tone had been dripping with hostility.

"I've done nothing but follow the rules."

His manifestation finally turned angry eyes toward her before he raised a finger and pointed. "What the fuck is that? We agreed to one."

Instead of turning to 'look' at what he pointed at, she instead just invaded his mind.

"What?! How is that possible?" Her genuine disbelief caused his anger to turn to fear. There were three more eldritch that were launching attacks on Alirast.

"I give up. Whatever fucking deal or bet you were after, you win. Lift my punishment, Dawn. Do not make me lose all of them, please."

The fear in his voice was the most unnatural thing that she could remember hearing. Kain was never afraid. He was never doubtful.

"This isn't me, Kain. They shouldn't exist."

"They are because of me."

Dawn watched as the battle paused.

Watched as the entire universe slowed to a crawl.

"All-Father? What is the meaning of this?" Kain turned and kneeled to Dawn's creator. Dawn turned and bowed herself.

"I grew weary of your bet. Both of you. I placed them there."

Dawn could feel the anger and fury oozing from Kain, though the axle did nothing but remain kneeling.

"Do you wish for me to lift his restrictions?"

"I wish for the two of you to settle this like immortals. I wish for the two of you to settle this like my prodigies. I had hoped that the two of you would be ready to stand at my side and create universe cores of your own. Yet you are here, having a petty wager."

It wasn't often that the All-Father directly interfered with the universe. The whole reason that he created universe cores was so that they could run things for him.

"So, make your decision. Either the eldritch consumes Alirast and shatter the prisons that are holding in a very, very angry deity. Or the two of you come to a mutual understanding, and the axle is allowed to do his job."

Dawn glanced over at Kain. "I will lift your ban. Under the condition that you are no longer allowed to form new pacts with creatures on any of the prison worlds."

"What about the existing ones?" Kain didn't stand or even glance at her. Neither of them was keen to see what an angry creator would look like.

"My fifty-year time limit stands. However, I will allow them to ascend early if they wish. The exception being that they must survive this encounter with the eldritch."

"So any of my flock that survives this battle will be allowed to come to the hereafter? And I cannot form any new pacts?"

She nodded. "This battle was the real test, right? That Alirast could stand without you. I see no reason to keep punishing the many mortals on the realm if they succeed."

"Done. I will let them fight this battle on their own, I will only sweep away the newest arrivals, and I will not bolster my followers until this battle is over."

Dawn stood up straight and looked to the All-Father. "See? Not so difficult. You can pause the universe at your leisure, Dawn. In the future, do so. Do not let some of our best and brightest potentials go to waste because the two of you are stubborn. Next time something like this happens, I will eradicate the Darktones and replace you as Core. Am I clear?"

"Yes, All-Father." She bowed once more. As her creator vanished, she glanced at Kain. "Let's make sure we don't fuck up again, I'd rather not die."

"That makes two of us. May I go?"

As she nodded, his full presence vanished and appeared in the void near the three newest eldritch, who recoiled at the sight of him.