[Initializing OST 286; Evernight's holy castle]
The sound of her shoes echoed in the hallway. Her body was dressed with freshly healed scars and battle wounds that had stopped bleeding. Yet, she kept running at her pace.
Situations like these had her wishing either teleportation or a high-speed movement technique would be useful. But no. Her Almighty had to design the royal palace to possess anti-teleportation and anti-high-speed movement technique properties engraved in it. Why sometimes—
'Sacrilegious! How can you possess such thoughts Neiferti!' Neiferti scolded herself. Up ahead, posted before the massive ruby door were two tall guards. Even with the light, neon pink light from the chandeliers and lanterns being casted, all it served was to be decorative. No majorly identifying features could be seen.
Of course, the darkness didn't prevent hearing of voices. "Halt! You can _not_ barge in the Lady's private court!" A closer look revealed them to be wearing the royal guards coat of arms on their left sleeves of their titan grey coats. Wait a second, was that a male?
The other guard aimed his spear at Neiferti. Expression hard. Both male guards? Either they are from a high ranking branch family or they showed expeditionary skill to have them be placed here. 'Praise the Lady. I hope she continues to favor you.'
Neiferti stopped. She lifted her hands in the air, nothing held by them. "I seek an audience with Lady Almighty. Open the doors and allow me passage. The information I have _needs_ to be delivered to "her" Lady Almighty. Immediately."
The two guards exchanged glances between themselves and the young woman before them. The senior guard between them responded first. "Lady Almighty has audience with the nobility and the royal family. Turn back and request for audience through the proper channels." His gaze seems to be more scrutinizing that his younger friend. Does he know or is remembering something? Hope not.
"Turn back! You've been warned! Turn back or we'll be forced to use force!" The younger guard leveled the spear with her head. The pink plasma spear head emitted a low hum. "Leave now and request an audience through the proper channels!" Neiferti could see the guards hands shake. He himself was trembling — and doing his best to stop.
'Lady Almighty, please forgive them. For I don't at the moment.' Neiferti contemplated her opinions. None the best. Expect for that one. . . "Lady of the Evernight, forgive my transgressions." Gauing their strength, they should be Ascension 6 at best. Being rendered unconscious is the most likely outcome. No. Take their supposed strength and minus two. Yeah. Now unconsciousness is the only thing to happen.
Neiferti brought down her Pressura essendi. Just enough that an Ascension 4 would be able to sense it. Both guards slammed onto the tiled floor, face first. Their figures, coated in purplish pink aura, rapidly sinking into it. Countless spiderwebs cracks formed in the tiles. A low rumbling in the ground could be felt. A heartbeat later, the aura disappeared.
*phew* They are unconscious. With a purposeful stride, Neiferti placed her hand on the chilling metal behemoth door. No feedback? Does that mean "Her" Lady Almighty foresaw her appearing? Oh damnation. Neiferti's heart began racing. Palms starting to sweat. 'Steel yourself, Neiferti! You have a mission to complete! Come on! Body! Move!'
Staring towards the floor, she took a deep breath before pushing the doors wide open. The low, deep rumbling shock her whole being. Just like it used to when she was younger. You'd think that 50 000 years of living would allow her to outgrow that childish fear. Guess she guessed wrong.
"Lady. . . Evernight. . ." Neiferti froze. The smell of copper and sulfur assaulted her nose. The placed reeked of it. What gas leak happened here? Why is the normally white titled floors stained red? What is she stepping on? Blood!
In the middle of the throneroom, cuddling the corpse Neiferti knew all to well, was the the sole diety of the Evernight Imperium. No mistaking the near white pink-purple hair that became the hallmark of every female related to "her". The progenitor of the race, on "her" knees, cradling something? What could it—
Too late... She was too late.
The God of Flames, craftsmanships, blacksmiths, has fallen in battle. No. . . Those wounds don't appear like battle wounds. What are they then. . . No. Why? "He" committed suicide. But why?
"Lady Evernig—"
"What have you wish to say before me?" Neiferti could hear the hoarseness in her Goddess' voice. Had she been crying? Is she hearing things? She stared on, fighting back tears as Evernight brought the corpse deeper into a hug. Dammit! Way couldn't she have been quicker!? "Speak now or I'll have your life." The hoarseness vanished. Maybe she did hear things.
Right now, she needs to what she came here for. "Lady Evernight, it is I, your Blessed, Neiferti—"
"Foolish wretch! What possessed you to taint these holy grounds with your presence? You dare say you are Lady Almighty's Blessed!?" Neiferti cocked her head towards the direction of the voice. Earles Mondos? What is she doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be dead? That fire. . .
Neiferti's train of thought is derailed when another, familiar voice cries out. "Guards, cease her!" Priestess Narvini? Hadn't she disappeared in the Lightless Zone off the Meriadd sector?
It doesn't matter how she survived. Right now, all that matters is delivering the message entrusted to her. "Lady Evernight! My apologies for my actions! I have to tell you this!" Neiferti flared her Pressura essendi, keeping the guards on their knees. "Lady Evernight! I beg! I have information of the snakes that wish for your death! Imperator Sollux has granted me the opportunity to seek an audience." Her words drew audible gasps from the crowd presented. Some began to shuffle and fidget about, while others had sweat rolling down their palms and foreheads. Few looked upon with keen interest.
As added proof to her claims, from her inventory, she materialized a gold and blue brooch, the very size of a woman's palm, shaped in the image of the sun. A bright, white light, lit up the room as if the very sun shined into it. Beads of sweat rolled down Neiferti's whole body. For a moment, she thanks herself for not wearing her white Reverend uniform. Purely psychological heat. But damn it feels real enough.
Evernight glanced over at Neiferti, gaze scrutinizing her. Then the sun brooch. Could "she" have known this was coming? By the very look of "her" gaze, that might be true. "You've been granted an audience. Speak." The words garnered outcry from the nervous people in the room. Their pleas and complaints sounding no different than the graiting noise of startled animals to Evernight. A wave of "her" hand hushed them.
"The Reverend Order is coming here to enact the act of genocide of your people, Lady Evernight." Neiferti said, placing the brooch back in her inventory. "And I know that there's snakes among the grass! Present right here, as we converse."
"Mother Evernight, please, I request that you don't entertain this cunning, deceptive, miserable fox!" Baroness Roose wiped the sweat off her forehead. "She had caused in her own clan's massacre! Why could a kin-killer be permitted the privilege to speak!?"
"Having my sins next to yours won't lessen neither of ours! Or need I tell the court that you have warmed the bed of the enemy! 9th prince to the Salvic Imperium! Baroness Rośe!" Baroness Roose bit her tounge, sinking back into the shadows. "Lady Evernight, from Baroness Roose' dealings with the Salvics, to the Countess Nahi's selling of classified information to the Pols! Half the nobility here need to be casted out to be wailing among the rats and mongrels of our world."
"The cursed speech she be yelling defamatory accusations of us! Mother Evernight, hear nothing more from her! All—"
Evernight said: "Silence." Countess Nahi bit her tounge. Everyone in the room held their tounge. Evernight gently placed "her" dear on the floor, looking into "his" eyes before closing them. Placing "his" arms over each other, resting serene on "his" chest. "She" caressed the side of "his" face, lost in thought before standing. Tap. Tap. Tap. The sounds of "her" heels echoed. Evernight stopped an arms distance away from Neiferti. Instincts took hold, Neiferti fell onto her knees. Looking at the floor. Head resting on it.
Stiff. Cold. The psychological heat from the sun brooch vanished; so true that Lady Evernight was one of the few, who is capable of drawing blood from Sun God Almight Sollux. The weight pressing down her shoulders. Sweat rolls down her face. The silence is killing her. Nawning away her mind. Neiferti never thought that she would be begging for death over her Goddess' lack of response. Please, say something! Anything! "Do you have any—
"I knew it! Thy tarred soul was you!" High pitched, but male. Everyone turned to look at the newcomer who barged in. Robes that were once white, dyed a desaturated hot pink. "Lord and Divine Yaldabaoth! Grant this servant of yours the power to rid the world of these coveting, wrenching, grasping, cunning sinners of the false deity that borne them!" Neiferti recognized that voice. Julian?! "The Great Julian Von White, has come to do some cleansing of the world! You, Harlot who walks around as if "she's" a god, will know what it means to go against the true God!"
'How? I made sure to. . . Stacy. . . I knew it. I should have put her down then and there. . .' Neiferti cursed under her breath. Footsteps echo through the room. Julian is running straight for her. Intent to kill.
"Fall." With a single word, the "great" Julian Von White crashed onto the tiled floor. Sinking deep into it as the invisible force pressed on. Sacred Relic De-materializing. Breathing rapid. And Shallow. The ground buckled as cracks formed. Julian's body, lying face first, sunk deeper into it. The air left their own lungs as the onlookers and Neiferti felt the weight of the world, triple.
The presence of one who's Ascension 7, 8, or 9 is one not what mortals can bare. If they could sense it. But, that weight, comparable to having to hold up the world and its sorrows, is no heavier than dust next to one at the peak of power.
Is this, is this weight of the presence of an Ascension 10?
Being as merciful as the scriptures say, Evernight withdrew "her" divine presence, allowing the lessers room to catch breath. Turning back to face Neiferti, Evernight took a moment to pause. On one knee, "she" lifted Neiferti's chin, forcing eye contact. Staring into Neiferti's soul. She hasn't been erased from existence. Does Lady Evernight believe her? "Reverend Yang, or, former Dutchess Neiferti, you have done well. For your actions, you shall be pardoned, title and property restored back to you." Said the Lady of the Eternal Night. Leaving Neiferti to her own devices, Evernight honed "her" focus to the real foxes and snakes among "her" servants.
"From this day onwards, and until the day that I resurrect and return, the traitors shall have all their titles and properties revoked from them. Any attempt to contact will result in an immediate execution. Enjoy your banishment and lament the actions that lead you to Al'nofrozt."
"Your Ma—" Their figures twisted and distorted. Melting with reality itself as if they were car oil mixing with water. *plop* They disappeared. No trace, what so ever. Even if there was, who would be foolish enough to find them? No plan that a mortal could spring into being could even attempt to invade Al'nofrozt. Such folly will only result in imprisonment in that accursed realm.
Grunts of pain fall on her ears. "Her" current though process halted. What would make such a infuriating noise? Ah! The insect still lives. Evernight glanced over at the now kneeling Julian. Odd. From his strength, he's only Ascension 6. So how does he still exist? "As for you. . .I'll send to such a place, where even your master shall fail to find you. Be it through divination or prophecy."
Julian spat on her face. "Wretched foul beast! Have you no idea who me and my people have been Blessed by!?" Ah. So he, and others by proxy, have garnered favor with a Outer Deity? Which one? Terrestrial Unworthy of Hell and Seas for Curses? No. If that was the case, then she would have felt some greater spiritual feedback. Could it be, Yaldabaoth? Sollux said "their" energy signature is this. . . Vile.
It doesn't matter now. "It is not Sollux, Lunaelux, Logitura or my Beloved. That is much I can tell." "She" said with voice flatter than a dead man's electro "Even if you screamed "its" name, I don't know nor care for it." A ritual circle appeared on the floor. A sacrificial ritual circle. "Enjoy your everlasting journey in torment. Believe me when I say it, this is the tamer punishments, unfit for a crime you had a hand in."
Julian was going to mutter. Only to find his throat crushed. No blood spewed from his mouth as he now had none. Blooming from where a mouth should be, like emerging from soil, sprouts of flowers, made from his very now teeth, grew. Muscles expanded and bloomed out from under his skin and clothes. Wiggling, writhing, worming maggots of his very bones, burst out open like pus from a ripe pimple. Eating away at his muscles and skin and hair. The silent screams of Julian polluted the minds of all but Evernight.
Melancholic pink-purple light shone from Julian, coming from inside him. Skin turned translucent. Jellyfish like. The light got brighter. Neiferti covered her eyes from the light. A heartbeat later, she uncovered them. Little sparkles danced in them, and it stung. Sensation similar to having lemon juice in your eyes.
Floating where Julian used to be, was a pale, pink-purple ball, no greater in size to a orange. Floating. Neiferti blinked. Maybe the light is playing tricks with her, with her stress playing support, but why? Why could she Julian's mug not reflecting off it, but seemingly coming from inside it?
She couldn't wonder no more as Lady Evernight cletched the floating orb, brought up to her open maw, placed it, then swallowed.
Bile marched towards her mouth. But Neiferti swallowed it back down. Why did she have such a reaction? She had seen mortals, deities and all other types of beasts eat not only the lessers, but even others of the same bracket. She, herself, is no stranger. But still. . . Wh—
Done with licking "her" lips, Lady Evernight spoke. "Her" voice firm, no room for discussion. "Dutchess Neiferti, Empress Nahudo." The two aformented woman turned their attention back to their Goddess-Queen, who immediately headed for the door. "Follow me. The ritual will be performed today. Let those turncoats invade! The Evernight Imperium shall not fall." "Her" voice was resolute.
Empress Nahudo practically melded with Evernight's shadow with how close behind she was. A good little mutt, following her master and owner. A heartbeat later, Neiferti collected herself, picked herself up and ran. Catching up with her Empress and her Goddess, Neiferti released a breath she never knew she held. She may have no been able to save the God of Flames, craftsmanships and blacksmiths, but she sure as hell ensure her people survive the apocalypse. Just as Sollux, Lunaelux and Logitura planned for.
'Sun God Almighty Sollux, shine your light on us. Moon Goddess Almighty Lunaelux, turn the dream into reality. Star Goddess Almighty Logitura, grant us glory.' Neiferti prayed in her heart.
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