BECMI Chapter 409 – Immortal Plans Going Awry
“I think we should get his thoughts of messing with us as far away as possible,” Sama spoke up. “And that’s by doubling down on the ‘don’t fuck with us’ language.” She gave me a hard stare. “Can you take out Thanatos’ Avatar?” she asked me calmly.
Briggs clucked his tongue, looking between us. “Who, as I recall, is also the Archduke of Angru. Taking out the Imperial Consort and the Archduke is a crippling political blow that will send Siricil into a tailspin. It will not have anywhere near the will and muscle to start a war between empires while it is dealing with the fallout of that.”
“It is a massive proactive move,” I pointed out reasonably. “Furthermore, do you want it to be widely known you are responsible for it?” It was a given I wasn’t going to let Thanatos know I’d offed Him again… and this time would be the critical sixth time, giving me His last Truename.
“Yes,” Sama stated bluntly. “I’m going to kill her, I’m going to do it openly, I’m going to reveal her as an Avatar of Tenya, and Her Church isn’t going to like me at all anymore. I’m perfectly happy with that.”
I made an inquiry to certain people in Siricil. “Good news. He’s at the Ducal mansion in Angru. Yes, I can pop the prick… and reveal his nature to half the Duchy at the same time, I think.” It was very convenient that the Ducal mansion had been sitting in the same spot for five hundred years, no? And only had to be rebuilt once. “However, before you openly pop an Immortal Avatar, did you want to take that Big Step?”
Both of them blinked in tandem. “The Vault of Heaven is open?” Briggs hissed out. I inclined my head slightly. “Do we even need to use it?” he followed up.
“I think it will ease the weight of Karma you need. You’ve already satisfied at least three Paths, you can’t be held back. I think you should step into Eternity before killing the bastard off… and I think you should give birth to your son first.”
Even Briggs tilted his head at my second statement. “You’re going to duel her, and you’re going to beat her, none of us doubt that. But she’s an Immortal. I don’t think that Girdle is going to stop her blade, do you?”
Sama’s face twisted ferociously. She so, so wanted to declare that her child was in no danger, his mother would beat the shit out of that damn Avatar and all would be just peachy keen… but Wisdom was her strongest mental Stat, not Charisma, although it was close.
“Fine, the bitch gets to live one more month!” she huffed, sitting back and patting her rippling waist, which very much did not look like she was pregnant in the slightest. “But you go wipe the Archduke and give Siricil and Tenya something to think about that isn’t us, and give Delphax His own stupid distraction to worry about! Thanatos was His Immortal sponsor, so foiling His schemes should start some conniption fits in the Entropic Realms, I’m guessing.”
“And I’ll get His Sixth Name.” I had traipsed across a lot of years, and my Sims had put a lot of shit in place across those millennia to mess with the bastard who thought Himself the greatest agent of death and destruction in the cosmos.
One more step on the road to Oblivion for Himself!
“They are having a celebratory feast for the Archduke’s son’s birthday, of all things,” I informed them both. “I think we will make it particularly memorable for them both.”
Both of them nodded, and talk turned to lesser matters that still needed addressing.
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It was the biggest event of the year for the Duchy of Angru, very extremely no-shit-I’m-telling-you PROUD home of the Angru, who considered themselves the purest of the three Callidari Tribes of the Siricilan Empire, and of course the highest form of life as the greatest of humans alive, all other intelligent species just things to be enslaved and dominated by the matchless courage and strength of arms of Angru!
Their continued savage reverses in the North of the Teuthonic Knights was a bit of a pall overhanging everything, but the recent discovery of the Tomb of Tenya had yielded Artifacts that were enabling the rapid development of extra airships for the Teuthons and their supporters, which by extension meant Siricil. They had a long way to go to match Delphan mastery of the sky, but they had energy and drive, and above all, it didn’t take them a million in gold to make one of their ships with the Artifact-derived power source they’d found in the Tomb, definitely a gift from Tenya Herself!
Also, Gunther Eischler, son of the Archduke and his Heir Apparent as leader of the Blitzengard, the true elite of Angru, was still quite eligible and needed to find himself a wife.
There were many brawny men in uniforms, many subservient yet cold-eyed women in fine dresses and apparel, a great deal of subdued glitter, flash, posturing, a couple impromptu duels, the slaughter of some rebellious slaves for entertainment, and three gladiatorial bouts, one between a chimera and a manticore, one with slaves battling a troll, and one between two murderers, with the winner going free after a desperate bout involving sand in the eyes, testicle-crushing, and ripping an ear off with the teeth of the eventual winner, who limped out of the arena more dead than alive… and bound for the Hinterlands in exile, but alive.
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Archduke Helmud Eischler was smiling for a fine day as he lifted his golden goblet to toast his boy. He was an Avatar of the Immortal Thanatos, having killed the true Archduke mere months after his boy was born. He had raised the son in his own image, turning his veneration of Tenya into the subverted code that had destroyed three different civilizations that had venerated Her across the years, mandating male superiority over women instead of equality, a thirst for battle, racial superiority, xenophobia of all other nations and beliefs, and the idea they were The Chosen People.
It was a message that sold itself over and over again across the eons, and the Archduke’s smile was wide and benevolent as he beheld the success of his schemes. Tenya’s veneration of women had been subverted and was looked down upon, even while the same men paid lip service to Her place in the hearts of Siricil’s warriors. Any honor and glory of battle turned to slaughter of the undeserving and those who would not yield to Siricil’s manifest destiny. Zealotry instead of energy, disdain instead of empathy, fanaticism instead of understanding.
Just perfect. Even that annoying gender-swapping Curse was something He could easily break, using a minor Artifact reliquary as an excuse for its effectiveness, and thus ‘proving’ he still enjoyed Tenya’s favor.
He was about to offer a toast to his son, wishing him luck on selecting a bride, knowing he had the right, properly obedient woman already picked out for him. He couldn’t kill and replace the Archduke unless the boy was born, of course, and there was plenty of time for his Archduke disguise to die of old age and replace the grandson, as he had so many of the Eischler lineage over the years. That foolish tramp Tenya still had no idea…
His words stuck in his throat, coming out with a gargling rasp.
What?, he wanted to say, and something cracked inside of him.
The eyes all fixed on him began to grow wide as his skin began to split, and the Immortal Power binding him to this shell began to fluctuate violently out of control. Blackness oozed forth, dread power began to build in the air, and people began to scream as Immortal Power spilled forth with the Aura of an Immortal manifesting in all its dread power and glory.
The weak just rolled up their eyes and fell where they stood, overwhelmed. The stronger of mind screamed in soul-shattering fear and horror as first his skeletal wings burst forth from his back, tearing through his very proper uniform. Then his skin was sloughing off his face, his eyes falling out to reveal the true balefire orbs behind them as as his horns splurted through, spraying black blood over Baron Gulfeld and his wife, instantly poisoning them and turning their skin black as they convulsed and died.
His erstwhile son was gaping at his father in horror, backing away as the burning eyes rounded on him, realizing, understanding suddenly that he was looking at the true face of the man, the thing, that had raised him…
But he was no candidate for Immortality. He fled screaming with his guards, who were shaking in their boots as they backed away from the horror that their lord had become.
Waves of power came from below, and His power spilled out, a flash of necroic energy blowing apart the room as everything aged a thousand years in an instant, including the unfortunates who’d fallen unconscious, and those who’d not fled fast enough.
The Avatar of Thanatos tried to tear himself free of his shell, feeling something awful coming up from below, spearing into him with merciless precision… and he had a sudden inspiration.
This sort of thing had happened before. His Avatar had been trapped, cut off from his main body in thought and soul, and then annihilated somehow.
Now, it was happening again!
He roared as Immortal Power ruptured forth, black and horrid and screaming for the skies, and something far below ignited and chased it for the sky.
The Land below rebelled, and something ignited, just as a flash of magic like a razor plunged into his mind. It followed an unerring trail to the very end, images of five other previous deaths erupting in the mind of the Avatar. It flashed to the end of its course with irresistible force, and seized its target, to the Avatar’s horror and dismay.
All went white, and one more Avatar of Thanatos met its end.
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The explosion was quite devastating, taking out the entirety of the Duke’s mansion, much of the ancestral estate, and pretty much all of the party-goers who hadn’t fled far enough in time. A billowing cloud rose to the skies, and inside it, everyone for miles around saw the Archduke’s face split, tear, and fall away as he writhed and transformed into the very picture of one of the most despised beings in all of Creation.
The Illusion was True, a nice conundrum of magic that was only the more fun for it showing exactly what was going on. It was not showing a transformation, it was the removal of a disguise, and everyone viewing it knew it deep in their guts.
That would naturally include quite a few priestesses of Tenya, who would be rather urgently praying to Her and informing Her of these events. The implications should likewise be impressive, and maybe even shock Her to realize how badly Her religion had been infiltrated and corrupted.
The mansion was rotted and then blown to smithereens by the volcano that started rising from the pit collapsing as Entropic Immortal Power ate away at everything, vivus consumed it all, and it poured down into the Pyramid that had been sitting hundreds of feet below the Ducal Estate for five centuries building up power. Now it turned the revulsion of the Land for this creature and all it represented into a zit on its surface now being popped and consumed, wiping away the evidence of what had done this.
I watched it all from a couple miles away once I’d Nameripped the bastard, Duum on my shoulder and applauding politely at the show.
Three of Thanatos’ Names couldn’t even be pronounced correctly by human vocal cords, only Immortal speech-making organs or straight up auditory magic. But now I had the full ominously dark and powerful set of them, summing up everything He was… and where that could go, when it came time to kill a Hierarch Immortal of Entropy, was something to think about.
Fuck their version of Balance. Immortals were going to die for their sins and be held accountable for their deeds. This was just the first step…