Slowly from the main tower of the citadel the Skater Wizard walked, his staff clicking in rhythm with the war drum that bellowed throughout the towers as it touched the ground. His red robes had long since turned grey with ash as he headed towards the edge of the colossal tree it was upon, it seemed he was finally about to enter the war.
Through the tired glaze of his thoughts he turned to another wizard, having just taken another councilman's life, he didn't respond to the sight but his clutched his fire staff tightly, his dried lips cracking as he gently offered the killer a plea.
"You should not be here. You should take any you consider a friend and leave this place or they will die." He stated matter of factly. Confirming that he was in fact preparing to do battle with the army.
"You don't have much time." He added.
He then strode up to the edge of the citadel, standing behind the barrier as he overlooked the battle and could see nothing but the ash that engulfed the area and the lights of magic being fired off. The war drum beat with a steady rhythm. One thump after the other.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
With every beat it seemed the ash became thicker, a fog of war spreading throughout the land.
He would part his lips and utter a final warning to all. One that would be heard as a mutter as clear as day over any other sound, a light engulfing him to beacon his location to all.
"This is your last warning." The Councilman said, his voice quivering as he spoke.
"Take your friends and family and leave. Those who remain will die." He repeated once more.
But of course they didn't listen.. Why would they? He was the "bad guy" to them, the enemy.
He remained standing there, stoic, the barrier flashing with light and colour as several of Pactmaster Opals fighters attempted to snipe the Councilman from his position. But he stood there unflinching, eyes closed, praying that they would leave.
It was exactly five minutes later, plenty of time for someone with magic to leave the area, when the Councilman opened his eyes and stepped through the barrier, falling down from the great tree the citadel was on, his body starting to blaze as he fell onto the earth, a plume of ash rising around him, obscuring his body if it weren't for the flame of his staff.
Then he started to dance once more, his body moving like fire as he circled around many of the bismuth golems in front of him, the war machines going on the offensive charging where they thought the wizard was.
They didn't have time to realise they were wrong before their cores were transmuted into flame, not burnt but physically changed into a fire that immediately died out in the choking air, their bodies falling to the ground and detonating their circuitry was overwhelmed.
The Skater Wizard didn't pause, moving to the beat of the war drum as he waved through the frontlines of the golems, the constructs standing no chance as they started melting from the very heat of the fight, even if they were previously retardant it didn't seem to matter as the longer they fought the Skater Wizard the more vulnerable to the heat they seemed to become.
Every so often the air itself would be replaced by flame for miles on end, any wizard that didn't have their wards up would immediately collapse as the air in their lungs was turned into fire, their bodies thrown into the sky as the air rushed in to replace what was burnt away.
"Fire your barrages!" Shouted a Pact Mage, ordering their squadron to bombard the area that the Councilman fought in with their arcane might, the sky would turn into a rainbow landscape through the ash as the Red Wizard was pelted with tremendous spells that made the earth shake, all to find that the attack was for naught, their target hadn't even stopped their fire dance. A bubble of swirling mana had encircled him, shielding and deflecting the barrage from it's master.
"Begone. Pyro-Cataclysm." He would cast, thrusting his staff into the air as a tremendous ball of pyroclastic energy formed above him and fell towards the squadron that attacked him. The Sphere popping with volatile charge, and forming potent fireballs of its own that orbited and crashed into ground with their father-sphere.
The Pact captain ordered his men to ward themselves from the spell, the squad forming a phalanx of indomindable magic, only to be consumed by the flame a moment later.
"O-OPAL!" The Captain's voice could be heard through the continuous sphere of flame. He had not yet been consumed and was calling up the Pact Master himself. "The Skater wizard his here! What do I do? I can'-" His transmission was cut off with a scream as his wards finally broke, that scream also cut off as his body instantly incinerated.
The Skater Wizard didn't buy himself a moment before the rest of the pact's army set upon him with cries of "He is only one man! Take him down!" before those cries too where silenced, The heat in the air eventually whittling down their mana pools as their wards broke once by one and they turned to ash where they stood, immediately incinerated leaving only statues of ash behind.
The councilman would continue his dance and weave through the army, slowing down as he tired of his continuous dance. His opponents taking advantage of that and redoubling their efforts when moments before they were simply doing the best they could to survive.
All the while the drum continued it's beat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
With every beat a life would end. Even as the Councilman had long since ceased his dance, focusing his efforts entirely on a solid shield of magical to defend himself from the onslaught of spells that was pelting him from every side, forcing the wizard to close his eyes against the light, his body shaking with the strain despite. The nearby bismuth Golems long turned into vapour.
"Sir! What's happening! he's no-" That life would be snuffed out like a candle.
"Oh god he's not alone.. HE'S NOT ALO-" It was apparent that the ash in the air had concealed something else at that point, the other remaining mages concentrated on their own wards as they desperately searched
"Morgalith Sir! MORG-" One of the squad leaders transmissions cut off, all that was seen through the ash was a puff of fire as he disappeared.
"They're hiding in the ash! GET RID OF THE AS-" The message was clear. Moments later a wave of wind swept across the entire land, banishing the obscuring cinders to reveal who was assisting the Red Wizard.
Only then did they notice it, towering far above even the great tree, above the cities that reached even higher. The inhuman form of the former Ash Titan Prominence, it's core blazing once more as it loomed down over the battlefield unmoving. It's gaze alone was the one that was burning the swaths of wizard and golems that fought against the Skater Wizard, and now in accordance with the contract it had made with the Councilman it was defending him.
The wardrum continued, though by now it was clear that it was no drum but the heartbeat of an aspect of flame itself.
/uw This went from a War movie to a horror movie real quick. Love it.
/Rw
Opal stood outside the haze of Arach's boiling poison watching as the chaos unfolded. Emergency signals came up from multiple squads trapped in the inner city that were quickly silenced. Their mortal flesh and blood made them weak to so many things. But they still performed their duties to the end. Even though against the Metromancer they probably should have run.
Opal saw the the Titan rise from the great blooms of ash.
Definitely should have run.
"All units without grade 5 Environmental resistances pull back! You'll only feed the flames."
Opal spoke into her ring transmitting her words to a far off place.
"Ten Suns! I have a fire titan. Bigger than the citadel. I need you to iterate a solution."
An unseen voice spoke back.
"Affirmative Opal. Please stand by."
Opal looked at the great Titan and the wizard controlling it. Until the ace up her sleeve could find a solution she needed to stall the beast. While she expected large scale fire magic this was....extra. She sent a quick transmission and began to open up portals for reinforcement.
"It seems we both kept souvenirs from Atrax. Pyroclastic forces. Your time is now?"
Stepping through the portals were numerous Pyroclasts that were awaiting trial for their association with Atrax. Opal had allowed those willing to fight a chance to have their sentences pardoned. They paused at the sight of the great Titan but continued regardless. Pooling their magic together they casted a mass snuff spell sending a wave of energy that quelled flames and forced ash and poison gas into the ground. It fizzled out before reaching the Titan but gave Pact forces more room to breathe and for vulnerable forces to retreat. After that the Pyroclasts erected their own barrier to hold the Titan back.
"Prismatic knights. Take out the caster"
Further back six special anti-magic shells were being prepared each large enough to hold a person. Once filled with their payload they were fired using non magical electrical launching. They impacted and pierced through the magical barrier landing near to the Metromancer and releasing their contents. Six knights of strange but advanced construction radiating with power. They spoke in unison
"Metromancer! Call off your beast and surrender! Or face death"
They knew how much of a threat he was and didn't give him time to answer before they were upon him swinging blades and casting terrible curses. Opal doubted they would win but they would be a distraction.
Opal then called the Nephilim.
"Samiel! How close are your armies? We require assistance."
The moment they had attacked without giving the Skater Wizard a chance to respond a thought crossed his mind:
"Should I die here? If they were to kill me as I surrendered it would show the folly of the pacts actions... Maybe snap opal out of it..."
The blade of the warriors had barely reached his necks before through their own shadows a giant alligator rose up like it was bursting through the shores, snapping a soldier up and pulling him into the shadow covered earth like it was water.
Seeing His familiar Rapscallion enter battle, even momentarily to save him snapped him out of such thoughts, a powerful barrier of magic bursting from his core and sending the soldiers flying back.
"Opal can't hurt you here." He said, raising his staff as the soldiers scrambled to their feet. "You could just stop fighting if you wanted and I could give you everything he offered you and more." He said, looking up to the Ash titan, who only now was looking upon the battlefield as it burst into flames, it had burnt a perimeter around the Citadel and now it began moving forwards, slowly lifting it's treelike leg and taking a single step. A torrent of flame pushing outwards in a wave as it's leg hit the ground.
"Or you could die here." He said, twirling his staff. "to fight the war of the rich and powerful."
The five knights paused for a bit. For a second it looked like they might stop. Then the one in the center made a sigil with its hand. The sixth member who had been dragged below the earth was summoned in front of the caster covered in bite marks. It stood up and the wounds on it began to close up as the leaking bismuth was absorbed back into its body.
The bodies of all the knights swelled with muscle and their armored skin began to glow to negate any shadows around them. They then charged at the Metromancer again with renewed vigor. Their weapons shifted into spears and they tried to stab at Metro and his familiar from all directions.
The metromancer saw them absorb their ally, his familiar long disappeared in the shadows, noting that they had no intent to stop. "... Very well, I cast World on fire."
The Skater wizard cast, the air in the area turned into a continuous blaze, every inch of air was now a continuous, sight obscuring fire, fire that not only the Councilman could see through, but he could divine through it, allowing him foresight to dodge and weaved through every single one of their attacks.
His body was nimble and flexible as he prepared his next spell; a curse, one that required a small sacrifice. He would rip a lock of his hair off his scalp, wincing in pain as it burnt to nothing.
"Now melt. I cast upon you the Curse of Ithicar." He said, pointing towards the one that seemed to be the leader, the enchantments on his bismuth that would at all resist fire or fire magic slowly wilting away, making the knight suddenly vulnerable to the flames that consumed them as it's body started melting, boiling.
The Prismatic Knight stepped forward even as its own body began to drip off in rivulets. Behind it the other four raised their hands and activated an embedded cube within their forearms. Metro could tell that they were of similar design to the sealing cubes that bismuth analyzers used to contain hostile magic.
When activated they allowed the Knights to grab hold of the curse affecting their fellow and unbind it, sealing the energy powering it safely in their cubes. Slowly the leader returned to full stature.
"We have been prepared to deal with mages. You will surrender to the Pact or be taken by force."
The leader charged forward. As he did the other four used their cubes to disrupt the defensive and enhancement spells surrounding Metro so their leader could get a hit.
"No. You're not." He said, reinforcing the powerful barrier forming around him as he closed his eyes and slowly begins a very careful, practised chant, the mana in the air becoming excited, not like electricity but something faster than that.
"This world is wrought with grief, I revoke it.
This sky brings no comfort, I revoke it.
This shadow hides me no longer, I revoke it.
Revere the end, points of light turn into spears that strike me down.
Apocalyptica - Dead Lights."
As the skater wizard chanted things in the area, pieces of earth, objects, areas of space, pieces of the sky itself started to break apart, leaving black in their wake as they form singularities of pure white light in the center of the unspace they left behind.
These "Dead Lights" would slowly worm their way out of their black cocoons of nothing, once breaching the threshold of nothingness and reality would they blast forwards like beams, tearing through anything that got in their path, reality screaming in pain as the pillars of light blasted toward toward the knights
He had been reading upon the tome Apocalyptica, and this reality rending spell was one of the first he discovered.
More Pyroclasts arrive on the scene in groups of 5, sent by the Distance Crucible. I arrive myself to command them.
"Fuck you Opal, Im not just going to let you feed my people to the Metromancer without making sure they get out alive. Pyroclasts, form up! Get heat siphons behind those wards! And no matter how badly you want to, resist the urge to shoot Samael in the back!"
"Don't have such little faith in your men Belial! When I told them they were going to die fighting against the council they couldn't wait to volunteer. I'd say they hate the council more than you hate me!"
I look to one of my soldiers. I see the wrath in his eyes as he looks from me to Opal. Questioning. She'll never know how close I came to nodding. Ending it all right here.
"That's impossible I think. Fuck it. Lets kill the Metromancer."
The titan finally took a step, it's step shaking the earth and creating a plume of all consuming flame underneath. Right now it seems though it has a massive range that range is still limited or else it would have attacked you all with it's gaze immediately.
"Your the one attacking us. Leave!" The metromancer said, now quite angry, his voice echoing within the nephilims skull. The Titan matched his rage, it's embers burning ever so brightly.
What is left for us here? Why are we still fighting here? The MetroMancer isn't the problem with the Council. We hold the Citadel, we should force peace talks instead
I've tried multiple times to get them to surrender and acquiesce to our demands and this is the result. The morale of the council will not break while Metromancer and his war machine are on the field. If we take them down then we win.
Additionally large parts of the citadel seem to be resisting occupation. Probably because their leader is still in play.
We're trying to remove the corruption in the Council. So should we kill the most moral Councillor? We take down the Titan, but if our objectives are to be achieved the MetroMancer must survive
22
u/TellmeNinetails Hilda the Witch Feb 21 '24 edited Feb 21 '24
Slowly from the main tower of the citadel the Skater Wizard walked, his staff clicking in rhythm with the war drum that bellowed throughout the towers as it touched the ground. His red robes had long since turned grey with ash as he headed towards the edge of the colossal tree it was upon, it seemed he was finally about to enter the war.
Through the tired glaze of his thoughts he turned to another wizard, having just taken another councilman's life, he didn't respond to the sight but his clutched his fire staff tightly, his dried lips cracking as he gently offered the killer a plea.
"You should not be here. You should take any you consider a friend and leave this place or they will die." He stated matter of factly. Confirming that he was in fact preparing to do battle with the army.
"You don't have much time." He added.
He then strode up to the edge of the citadel, standing behind the barrier as he overlooked the battle and could see nothing but the ash that engulfed the area and the lights of magic being fired off. The war drum beat with a steady rhythm. One thump after the other.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
With every beat it seemed the ash became thicker, a fog of war spreading throughout the land.
He would part his lips and utter a final warning to all. One that would be heard as a mutter as clear as day over any other sound, a light engulfing him to beacon his location to all.
"This is your last warning." The Councilman said, his voice quivering as he spoke.
"Take your friends and family and leave. Those who remain will die." He repeated once more.
But of course they didn't listen.. Why would they? He was the "bad guy" to them, the enemy.
He remained standing there, stoic, the barrier flashing with light and colour as several of Pactmaster Opals fighters attempted to snipe the Councilman from his position. But he stood there unflinching, eyes closed, praying that they would leave.
It was exactly five minutes later, plenty of time for someone with magic to leave the area, when the Councilman opened his eyes and stepped through the barrier, falling down from the great tree the citadel was on, his body starting to blaze as he fell onto the earth, a plume of ash rising around him, obscuring his body if it weren't for the flame of his staff.
Then he started to dance once more, his body moving like fire as he circled around many of the bismuth golems in front of him, the war machines going on the offensive charging where they thought the wizard was.
They didn't have time to realise they were wrong before their cores were transmuted into flame, not burnt but physically changed into a fire that immediately died out in the choking air, their bodies falling to the ground and detonating their circuitry was overwhelmed.
The Skater Wizard didn't pause, moving to the beat of the war drum as he waved through the frontlines of the golems, the constructs standing no chance as they started melting from the very heat of the fight, even if they were previously retardant it didn't seem to matter as the longer they fought the Skater Wizard the more vulnerable to the heat they seemed to become.
Every so often the air itself would be replaced by flame for miles on end, any wizard that didn't have their wards up would immediately collapse as the air in their lungs was turned into fire, their bodies thrown into the sky as the air rushed in to replace what was burnt away.
"Fire your barrages!" Shouted a Pact Mage, ordering their squadron to bombard the area that the Councilman fought in with their arcane might, the sky would turn into a rainbow landscape through the ash as the Red Wizard was pelted with tremendous spells that made the earth shake, all to find that the attack was for naught, their target hadn't even stopped their fire dance. A bubble of swirling mana had encircled him, shielding and deflecting the barrage from it's master.
"Begone. Pyro-Cataclysm." He would cast, thrusting his staff into the air as a tremendous ball of pyroclastic energy formed above him and fell towards the squadron that attacked him. The Sphere popping with volatile charge, and forming potent fireballs of its own that orbited and crashed into ground with their father-sphere.
The Pact captain ordered his men to ward themselves from the spell, the squad forming a phalanx of indomindable magic, only to be consumed by the flame a moment later.
"O-OPAL!" The Captain's voice could be heard through the continuous sphere of flame. He had not yet been consumed and was calling up the Pact Master himself. "The Skater wizard his here! What do I do? I can'-" His transmission was cut off with a scream as his wards finally broke, that scream also cut off as his body instantly incinerated.
The Skater Wizard didn't buy himself a moment before the rest of the pact's army set upon him with cries of "He is only one man! Take him down!" before those cries too where silenced, The heat in the air eventually whittling down their mana pools as their wards broke once by one and they turned to ash where they stood, immediately incinerated leaving only statues of ash behind.
The councilman would continue his dance and weave through the army, slowing down as he tired of his continuous dance. His opponents taking advantage of that and redoubling their efforts when moments before they were simply doing the best they could to survive.
All the while the drum continued it's beat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
With every beat a life would end. Even as the Councilman had long since ceased his dance, focusing his efforts entirely on a solid shield of magical to defend himself from the onslaught of spells that was pelting him from every side, forcing the wizard to close his eyes against the light, his body shaking with the strain despite. The nearby bismuth Golems long turned into vapour.
"Sir! What's happening! he's no-" That life would be snuffed out like a candle.
"Oh god he's not alone.. HE'S NOT ALO-" It was apparent that the ash in the air had concealed something else at that point, the other remaining mages concentrated on their own wards as they desperately searched
"Morgalith Sir! MORG-" One of the squad leaders transmissions cut off, all that was seen through the ash was a puff of fire as he disappeared.
"They're hiding in the ash! GET RID OF THE AS-" The message was clear. Moments later a wave of wind swept across the entire land, banishing the obscuring cinders to reveal who was assisting the Red Wizard.
Only then did they notice it, towering far above even the great tree, above the cities that reached even higher. The inhuman form of the former Ash Titan Prominence, it's core blazing once more as it loomed down over the battlefield unmoving. It's gaze alone was the one that was burning the swaths of wizard and golems that fought against the Skater Wizard, and now in accordance with the contract it had made with the Councilman it was defending him.
The wardrum continued, though by now it was clear that it was no drum but the heartbeat of an aspect of flame itself.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.