Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Thirty-Six)
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Map of Kaldriel: https://i.gyazo.com/332b0c0172dcc60acb46
Rough map of Hatu: https://i.gyazo.com/ea4f9f51b9dc7b9d8b86
Chapter Thirty-Six
Coronation
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 15, 2277. Time instance 842N.
This had to be one of the worst things that could have happened, Nine thought.
Nathan was already out of commission, so they’d lost a good amount of their power, and now with Tanadin in critical condition… He shivered and watched the eight thousand unit descend from the sky, opening its doors and urging them to board quickly. It looked just like an air vehicle, sure, but Nine knew that the eight thousand units were just as intelligent and brilliant as any other cyborg and tended to have an attitude about them that was all their own.
He stood back, feeling out of place as Clash and Solace lifted Tanadin up and carried her inside, leaving a trail of molten flame behind them. Everex followed, swaying slightly, as he continued to pour energy into her, to try to keep her alive in any way possible. He wouldn’t be able to last much longer like that...
As Twelve walked past him, Nine’s hand shot out and landed on her shoulder. She turned, eyebrow raised, and he said quietly, “Don’t let her die. Please. We need her. Seven doesn’t realize it, but losing her would probably unhinge him, and I know it would devastate the old revolutionaries.”
Twelve’s gaze softened, expression ringing so strongly of Tanadin that it was only the gray of one eye and the glow of the other that reminded him that it wasn’t. “I won’t. Don’t worry.”
Nine nodded and let her go, watching as the eight thousand unit shut its doors and took off. He felt a shiver go through him and he forced himself to turn away, back towards the carnage of the battle and the heaps of corpses, more allied than not.
They’d suffered a lot more this battle than he had ever anticipated. They hadn’t been prepared and they had paid the price for it.
He shook off the guilt that always accompanied losses and sought out Talmarian, scanning for the familiar form of Shaadhun in the crowd. Surprisingly, he located Talmarian first, still in his full demon form. He looked bothered, looking up at the hidden gate above with a frown.
Shaadhun caught sight of Nine first and grunted to alert Talmarian, waving slightly. Talmarian snapped out of his trance and turned to face Nine, stepped forward to greet him. “We lost too many today.”
“I know. We didn’t expect them to attack here. The cyborgs were all diverted.”
“The demons aren’t unified,” Talmarian added. “They don’t have a leader out here and they won’t listen to anyone without monarch or Archdemon status, and the Archdemons aren’t willing to come onto the battlefield.”
The glow in Nine’s mechanical eye brightened and he ground his teeth. “Why?”
Talmarian crossed his arms. “If one of them were to die, they wouldn’t be able to choose a new Archdemon in a timely manner. Not without a ruling monarch, and as you know, we flat-out don’t have one.”
Nine groaned. “You guys need to figure something out, then, because I don’t think Hell can withstand these kinds of casualties for very long.”
“No,” Talmarian agreed, sighing. “No, we can’t. We have a solution on the horizon, but we just need more time…”
~~~
“You need to take us to the Crown,” Vel’kex snarled.
Geek was standing in her main room, arms crossed with the Nethernomicon floating alongside her. Her eyes were narrowed and glowing, but dimmer than usual, and she seemed slightly unstable as she stood. Zag’mon waited behind her, standing in the doorway between the main room and where Jimmy was still acclimating to Hell, and his body glowed faintly blue in warning. Vel’kex looked far too hostile for either of their liking, and Geek’s spread wings indicated how unhappy she was with the situation.
“I told you, doing that could weaken me too much to be Jimmy’s benefactor and could end in her death. I am not-”
“It’s your fault we lost so many today!” Vel’kex roared, baring his teeth and forcing his magma patterns to glow brightly. “We have no leader out on the battlefield! Without a ruler-”
“Oh, and where were you, huh?” Geek snarled. “Cowering in your council chambers because you’re too scared of a few feathery wings!”
“Choosing a new Archdemon-”
“You’re a coward and you know it, Vel’kex. You’ve always been a coward.”
“I’m not-”
“You are,” Geek said fiercely, taking a step forward. “Now get out of my house.”
Vel’kex took a half-step back, but didn’t lower the aggressive position of his wings. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“What you’re trying to do is illegal and I guarantee the next monarch won’t overlook it.”
“We need the Crown!”
“And you will get it!” Zag’mon barked, drawing Vel’kex’s attention. “Leave her alone! What would the late Queen think about you harassing her sister? The Crown has waited five hundred years, it can wait a day or two more.”
“It should only be a few hours,” Geek added tiredly. “I think Jimmy will awaken late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Go back to worrying over maps and numbers if it’ll make you feel better until then.”
Vel’kex growled at her but folded his wings and stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him.
Geek sighed in relief and fell back into her seat. “Thank you, Zag’mon.”
“Hey, no problem. He’s a dick. Why’d you ever-”
“I don’t know. He didn’t used to be this bad.” Geek shut her eyes and leaned back, subconsciously taking hold of the Nethernomicon and running her fingers across its familiar surface. “What time and strife does to a person…”
Zag’mon peeked into the room behind him and the forms that served as his eyebrows shot up. “You may want to deal with this. She’s about to enter the final stage.”
“Finally.” Geek got to her feet. “I was afraid it would take all week.”
~~~
It was nearing midnight, as close as Zag’mon could figure, when Geek poked her head out of the room and asked him to go find Gali.
He had complied after getting a description of what Gali looked like, slipping out through the Akrar hellgate and into the night. The decrease in ambient demonic energy unnerved him, as it always did, but he shook it off in favor of searching. He scanned the faces on the street, looking for a girl in a purple mask, but he just couldn’t find her. He started to worry, wondering if she’d been killed in the most recent assault, and was relieved to run into Talmarian and Shaadhun.
“Talmarian! Geek sent me to find Gali, as Jimmy is almost awake, but I don’t know where to find her!”
Talmarian’s lips twitched into a slight smile. His human form always baffled Zag’mon, as well, but he seemed to enjoy it. “I know where she is. Come on.”
He led the way down several streets and into a warehouse. Zag’mon looked around nervously- this place rang of inorganic and unnatural components- and Talmarian’s shout of Gali’s name did nothing for his nerves, nor did the echo.
He yelped and almost turned into smoke when a form made of shadow dropped from the ceiling, morphing out of proportion as it hit the ground and reforming into a humanoid shape. “Yes?” The voice was eerie, unnatural, the voice of a nevtir.
“Jimmy’s almost awake.”
The black eyes of the nevtir brightened and color spread across its features, transforming it into a human with cheerful brown eyes. “Really?” Her voice was more normal, now, with an unfamiliar accent but human enough.
“Yes. Geek, um, wanted you there.” Zag’mon quietly decided that he didn’t like nevtir very much.
Gali grinned broadly. “Lead the way!”
He nodded slightly and looked at Talmarian expectantly. Talmarian rolled his eyes but led the way outside, through the city, and through the hellgate. Gali shivered and looked sufficiently uncomfortable with the ambient energy in Hell, but a shadow elemental would be fine as long as they didn’t stay for several weeks. Zag’mon took the lead once they were through, getting them to Geek’s home fairly quickly. It more more of a lair than anything else, situated in a cave with an unassuming front door.
Zag’mon knocked and opened the door at Geek’s call of ‘come in’, ghosting in and letting the others enter the room.
“Gali!”
The previously-unconscious form of Jimmy was now awake, and threw herself at Gali the moment she was through the door. They laughed and hugged, remarking about differences in Jimmy’s appearance and thanking everything that she was okay.
The most notable difference from before was definitely the purple batlike wings that folded along her back and moved to express different emotions, wings that almost all humanoid demons had. Zag’mon lacked wings entirely, and his shoulders twitched in slight jealousy that even a human turned demon had them. A purple tail similar to Geek’s swayed behind Jimmy, curling to show happiness, and short purple horns curved up from her head. Interestingly, her eyes had barely changed, the pupils just slightly more reptilian than before.
Geek watched this all with a dull sense of pride and joy. Jimmy hadn’t had any complications and had turned fairly quickly and easily, and she was glad that she was slowly recovering from the loss of a sliver of her essence. Technically, by demon law, she and Jimmy were now related, but she didn’t put much thought into it. It wasn’t like the family trees could get any more confusing than the labkids had already made them.
Eventually, she cleared her throat, getting to her feet. “Jimmy, before you do much of anything, I’ll need to teach you how to use your powers.” She placed a hand on her chest, feeling stirring within that she hadn’t felt for five hundred years. “But, first, I have a promise to the Archdemons, and to my sister, to keep.”
She stepped past them, out the door, and looked over her shoulder. “Follow.”
This is what she did for every demon they came across on the way to the council chambers of the Archdemons. “Follow.” They were uncertain, but Talmarian’s nod convinced them.
Even when she stepped inside, pushing open the doors to the surprised and confused gazes of the six Archdemons, all she would say was, “Follow.”
She answered no questions, leading the way through Hell to the old royal palace, kept in repair by loyal servants awaiting a new ruler. She drew the attention of one of them and told him to find the others, and to follow.
She made her way to the hill near the palace, the one graced by dozens of monarchs’ coronations before. A quiet hum filled the air, cooling the blazing heat and sending the thrums of magic deep into their bones. Geek felt the power of rulers of old, here, even her sister, like watching eyes awaiting their next sibling in power.
I’m sorry it took so long, Vyora. It’s been a journey to get here.
The crowds of demons stopped at the base of the hill, but Geek, the Archdemons, and Talmarian, the previous Queen’s advisor, kept going. The Archdemons stopped near the top, as did Talmarian, but Geek jerked her head for him to follow her all the way to the crest. She spread her wings and cast her eyes at the expectant and confused crowd of demons, and took a deep breath.
There’s no going back.
“I am Ryvera Qor’maskar, sister of the late Queen. And, today, we get a new monarch, for the first time in five hundred years. I have the Crown.”
Gasps and murmurs ran through the crowd, but Geek ignored them, focusing inward, focusing on magic she’d never dared to try before. The Nethernomicon glowed, she glowed, and the stirring in her chest increased and built into a thrum, the thrum of ancient hearts and ancient minds.
She whispered the incantation, and hoping that this wouldn’t kill her, reached into her chest.
Glowing hands and claws passed through cloth, through skin, through flesh and bone. Glowing fingers wrapped around cold humming metal and, as the assembled demons watched, Geek pulled the Crown of Hell straight from her chest. She broke the protective bubble around it and its power washed over them, the hum of the Crown strong enough to be felt all the way down the hill.
Geek’s heart pounded in her chest and it felt like she could barely breath as the gems on the Crown’s surface glowed faintly white and it brought itself to hover a few inches above her hands. This is it. This is it. This is it.
“My sister gave the Crown to me when Curse first appeared, ordering me to hide it until he was gone. I was only to remove the Crown once I found someone worthy of ruling.” Her eyes locked with Talmarian’s, and with shaking hands, she held out the Crown. “I have found him.”
Talmarian watched her, curiously, without nearly as much surprise as she’d anticipated. He carefully took the crown from her, watching the light in the gems flicker and pulse. He watched it, for several seconds, before a smile pulled across his face. He shifted into his full demon form and towered over her, but a kind smile remained.
“Your sister gave me an order, as well. While you thought that no one knew of the Crown’s location, I did, and she told me one thing: if you were to ever give the Crown to me, it meant you were ready.” His wings twitched and he moved, he moved the Crown over her and-
“You were ready to be Queen after her.”
Talmarian set the Crown on her head.
For a moment, for one brief heartbeat of a moment, nothing happened.
Then, the gems on the Crown lit up in green flames and power surged through her, power and shock and the realization that the Crown had accepted her, that she was Queen even though she’d never considered-
“Well...done.”
Her voice. Her sister’s voice.
The Crown hummed and its power rocketed outward in a shockwave, a burst of thunder through Hell. The ley lines trembled and every inch of Hell rumbled.
The demons dropped to a kneel, even the Archdemons and Talmarian. Black lightning crackled in the sky, high above, and every angel, every demon, every being in Heaven and Hell alike knew.
Hell had a new Queen.
Queen Ryvera “Geek” Qor’maskar spread her wings and took off, flames pouring from her as she flew a single circuit around the hill. She landed, directly in front of Vel’kex, feeling more powerful than she ever had and fueled with shock and confidence but knowing that this had been her sister’s plan all along.
“Gather your forces and be ready for the next attack. I want all Archdemons out on the battlefield anytime there’s even rumors of an Archangel out there, you hear me?”
Vel’kex refused to meet her gaze. “Yes...my Queen.”
“Good. Now go.” She turned back to Talmarian, hearing the stunned Archdemons leave, and grabbed his hand, pulling him closer and hissing in a whisper, “Why?”
“Vyora wanted it,” Talmarian answered, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “And I knew the Crown would accept you. It wouldn’t let you carry it around for five hundred years otherwise.”
Geek shivered. “I don’t feel ready for this. I never… I never considered-”
Talmarian smiled and patted her shoulder reassuringly. “I know. Will you be taking me as your advisor, or do you want someone else?”
“Don’t even joke about that. I need you and you know it. I don’t… I don’t even know what I’m doing.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll figure it out. But first…” Talmarian grinned wolfishly. “I believe you have a crowd of subjects to greet.”
Geek glared at him. “You planned this.”
“Perhaps a little.”
~~~
Meanwhile, in Heaven, the skies darkened and black lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled through the usually-bright skies and the angels all shivered, looking fearfully upwards and feeling a horrible pit open up deep within.
“Archangel!” one of the rank five Guardians shouted. “What’s going on?!”
Hau’rah’s white eyes narrowed and his face twisted in distaste.
“Hell has a new ruler,” he growled quietly, “and our job just got a whole lot harder.”
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Date: 2017-03-14 07:16 pm (UTC)“Oh, and where were you, huh?” Geek snarled. “Cowering in your council chambers because you’re too scared of a few feathery wings!”
“Choosing a new Archdemon-”
“You’re a coward and you know it, Vel’kex. You’ve always been a coward.”
“I’m not-”
“You are,” Geek said fiercely, taking a step forward. “Now get out of my house.”
Vel’kex took a half-step back, but didn’t lower the aggressive position of his wings. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
Well Vel'kex I believe she just did, now calm your tits and either go out onto the battlefield or go sulk in a corner, either way leave Geek and Jimmy alone.
Gasps and murmurs ran through the crowd, but Geek ignored them, focusing inward, focusing on magic she’d never dared to try before. The Nethernomicon glowed, she glowed, and the stirring in her chest increased and built into a thrum, the thrum of ancient hearts and ancient minds.
She whispered the incantation, and hoping that this wouldn’t kill her, reached into her chest.
Glowing hands and claws passed through cloth, through skin, through flesh and bone. Glowing fingers wrapped around cold humming metal and, as the assembled demons watched, Geek pulled the Crown of Hell straight from her chest. She broke the protective bubble around it and its power washed over them, the hum of the Crown strong enough to be felt all the way down the hill.
I KNEW THE CROWN WOULD BE IN GEEK'S CHEST! Don't ask me how, but I knew that's where it would be XD
“My sister gave the Crown to me when Curse first appeared, ordering me to hide it until he was gone. I was only to remove the Crown once I found someone worthy of ruling.” Her eyes locked with Talmarian’s, and with shaking hands, she held out the Crown. “I have found him.”
Talmarian watched her, curiously, without nearly as much surprise as she’d anticipated. He carefully took the crown from her, watching the light in the gems flicker and pulse. He watched it, for several seconds, before a smile pulled across his face. He shifted into his full demon form and towered over her, but a kind smile remained.
“Your sister gave me an order, as well. While you thought that no one knew of the Crown’s location, I did, and she told me one thing: if you were to ever give the Crown to me, it meant you were ready.” His wings twitched and he moved, he moved the Crown over her and-
“You were ready to be Queen after her.”
Talmarian set the Crown on her head.
WOOHOO! I knew that somehow Geek would end up Queen, but I did not expect this that Talmarian knew and had been told that if Geek tried to crown him he was to crown her instead XD
ALL BOW TO QUEEN GEEK! *bows*
Meanwhile, in Heaven, the skies darkened and black lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled through the usually-bright skies and the angels all shivered, looking fearfully upwards and feeling a horrible pit open up deep within.
“Archangel!” one of the rank five Guardians shouted. “What’s going on?!”
Hau’rah’s white eyes narrowed and his face twisted in distaste.
“Hell has a new ruler,” he growled quietly, “and our job just got a whole lot harder.”
START QUAKING IN YOUR BOOTS ANGELS YOU'VE GOT A HELL OF A BATTLE AHEAD! XD
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Date: 2017-03-14 10:34 pm (UTC)HAIL, RYVERA!
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Date: 2017-03-14 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-16 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-16 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-17 04:36 am (UTC)Isn't that a little extreme?
Nonsense!
-Observing Anon
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Date: 2017-03-17 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 03:27 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2017-03-17 04:31 am (UTC)-Observing Anon