NPF Avatars IV, Chapter VIII: At the Fountains of Madness

[Arhra]

Inbred's furious onslaught ended with him managing to grab a hold and hurl her into the air, breaking her contact with the ground. Skyshot seized the opportunity and cast a float spell upon her.

It could not overcome the Imposition of Law that the Caryatid's elemental power imposed, but it was far from useless. The Caryatid drifted downards slowly, leaving her vulnerable.

Summoning up some of the last of his mana, he took out his jar of dirt. "Hey, look here! I've got a jar of dirt! I've got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!" Its uncertain what was going through the Caryatid's head at this moment. Possibly she thought he was the worst pirate she'd ever seen. Assuming, of course, that she thought he was a pirate for some reason.

Casting his earthquake spell, Skyshot hurled the jar. Still suspended in midair, the Caryatid could hardly dodge. She raised an arm to block it, the jar shattering on her arm. The earthquake spell rippled through her, fine cracks running through her stony facade. Green fire ran over her as she called up her power, stones pulling out of the ground and the ceiling.

As Skyshot charged towards where she would land, Steel also attacked, clubbing the Caryatid with his blunted blade. Mauve's redirected shot struck her full in the ribs, seeding instability throughout her damaged frame.

She contacted the ground again, a great flare of mana racing over her. The Seal was visible on her chest - a tracery of green light. Her vine hair writhed like a snake's nest, the veins of magic that threaded through her form were visible, engorged from the power that coursed through them. Whatever passed for her bones shone through her skin, lit with the overload of energy. The same power leaked out of the hair-thin cracks in her body. Jerkily rasing arms up into a summoning gesture, her gimlet eyes glared at them with the same relentless determination.

"Get back!" Arhra yelled, running into the fray, "She's going to -"

BOOM

* * *

In a place of darkness, lights blinked on, revealing a number of figures garbed in bulky, identical white robes. They sat at desks, slabs of marble, a seemingly anachronistic array of papers and holographic glyphs neatly arranged on top of them.

"We have lost contact with the Caryatid of Earth. We believe it has been destroyed."

One of the figures neatly signed a Declaration of Intent to Verbalise Profanities and immediately did so.

"Instability in the Temples has been rising." another said, "Is it possible this is just a communication breakdown? I suggest we commence feasibility studies at once."

The first speaker continued, "Also, the Portents Advisory Comitee has submitted their preliminary report. The Invisible Moon has been sighted by several reliable sources. Barrier monitoring displays a significant power spike in the last 24 hours, indicating possible penetration by the Chaos prime mover. They do not believe this is another false alarm. Further investigations are proceeding."

"Risk factor to universal integrity is above acceptable levels." The man at the largest and presumably most important desk said. "We will default to emergency protocols as defined in Sodality operating procedures. Dispatch a strike team immediately." The lights blinked out, leaving nothing but shadows.

* * *

Beyond a barrier that transcended time itself, the wind blew mournfully over the ancient landscape contained within. The eye draws inwards to its center, where a great pit descends to endless darkness. Things of twisted shape mill about its edges. A finger of rock stabs out into the abyss. At its end, alone, a single figure kneels, garbed in heavy cloak and palpable menace. One armoured arm emerges from the cloak, gauntleted hand grasping a metal staff of the same make as the armour and holding it vertical, butt resting on the ground. Even the Seal of Time had not been enough to stop them from coming here, to this place.

As they knelt there, contemplating the end, there was a stir of activity amongst the ragged masses gathered about the pit. They pushed one of their number forwards, to bring tidings. At the moment the Caryatid of Earth was destroyed, a portion of the barrier had flickered, originating from one of the five points that anchored it.

The creature edged warily outwards along the stone span to where the figure waited. Cautiously it spoke, "Great One, it appears the Seal of Earth has been destroyed... What should we do?"

The Herald of the End Times just laughed.

* * *

Arhra lay unmoving on the soft sand, the dissipating tendrils of her spell net partially wrapped about her, waving gently as they throbbed, slowly subsiding into nothingness. She'd hurled her spell-net just in time to contain the explosion.

After a dramatically appropriate period of lying like one dead, Arhra stirred, rising onto hands and knees. She took a moment to cough, hacking up what looked like gemstones. Looking at them critically, she put them in a pocket and then unsteadily stood up, running a hand through hair that had leaves in it.

"Sorry, my mind was elsewhere." Arhra paused for a moment. "Elemental backlash," she added by way of explaination for her appearance, plucking one of the leaves out of her hair and looking at it critically, "Should wear off in a few hours. Now, I suppose we should get out of here before the place -"

Something much like an alarm klaxon went off. You could almost heard suddenly dramatic music.

"Decides to explode on us." Arhra finished lamely, "Quick! Get everyone together and we'll go out through the emergency escape tunnel!" Getting blank looks at this, she sighed, "Of course there will be an emegency escape tunnel. It should be on the opposite side of the room to the way we came in." Surprisingly enough, she was right - a long, spiralling tunnel leading back up to the surface was located there.

OOC: I believe this is the end of my current titling trend. I just felt this one was good enough to try and maintain it through to the end of the Earth Temple. For ease of timing, I'm assuming Flare's last post happened just after the Caryatid was destroyed.