To Exandria We Are Bound...

On Exandria three people stood near a teleportation circle, their forms shadowed and covered by the luminescent glow of the golden spell rune before them. This was one of many that has been placed in the days preceding this day. From Marquet, to Tal'dorei, to Wildemount, hundreds of temporary runes had been placed across barren landscape, deep in city walls and even on the highest peaks of Eiselcross. The spell on this side had been prepared, now all that there was to do, was to wait for the initiation of a connection.

"Silviana, are you sure that this will work?"

"100% sure...? No! 99% sure...? Yes!"

"That is reassuring..."

"You are getting better at humour Essek! I am happy for you."

The white haired pretty boy sighed deeply before running his hands through said hair and looking once again over the rune we had just completed a minute beforehand. Caleb was there also, but he had a distant look on him, as if there was something or someone that he was listening to. I recognised this as the sending spell in use, someone sending him information.

"Silviana... I am getting a message from a friend, I have some matters to attend to."

"Thank you both, I hope your business goes well. You shall always be welcome in Tempest if you so wish to come and visit or even move."

Essek, despite his rather logical countenance cracked a smile as he too began to look distant. Seeing that they both were getting messaged I figured that my best option now was to monitor the runes for any activity and keep wizards or other magical things away from them. Both of the men teleported away, Caleb grasping onto Essek's arm beforehand. It seemed their business was very urgent.

Unfortunately this was the exact moment that the runes began to explode in kaleidoscopic light. Space around said circles of runic magic began to freeze as the snow that drifted down into the top of the conical funnel of light melted within second, undergoing evaporation instantly. Wintery gloom slunk away into the crevices and cracks in terrain as radiance akin to that of a freshly lit sun began to proliferate into the environment for hundreds of kilometres. 

This form was merely a clone, one that would disappear when the spell was done. But, this clone form that was currently here held enough power to solo the connection if necessary. It was an investment from my brothers and sisters in the pantheon, in my return. The Betrayers were also in on this mission of mine, offering to keep any pesky mortals off of my back whilst I did what was needed. Although their tone may not have changed with regards to mortals, their newfound care certainly made me realise how much I had been holding everyone together before I 'faded'. 

'Get ready me! We're about to get this shit on the way...!'

A clone began to weave her hands out as the magical incantations were sung in ancient Elvish. Every circle and rune carved began to flare up more intensely as intense beacons of eldritch light began to shoot off into the atmosphere, into space above the planet, before halting and staying in place, perfectly. In my ears there was now a constant buzzing, one that droned on and on...

~Exandria, Tensura, Tether and Connect~

The message was simple but very powerful, the spatial patterns adjacent to the beacons becoming ordered and wave-like as it was transmitted through space-time, the luminal space...

"Good luck me!"

...

I floated down to the main square of Tempestus as the memories of killing hundreds of millions of people were burnt into my mind. Emotions of every kind snarled within my mind, but this was all quenched by the sight of Milim and Shuna who looked so happy to see me. A small grin coalesced onto my face. 

Madness... The sky... It Cracks... The entire stratosphere of Tensura began to crack malevolently as green gas slowly burnt away, snaked of the energy dripping from the sky in sorrowful display. Pink, Green, Purple, White, Blue, Red, Orange... All began to eat the sky. Clouds that once were, now became writhing pits of floating demonic cackling, faces pressing out from the interior. Pink balls of chaotic energy screamed, the souls of the damned and lost. Psychic energy and power on a scale that was beyond anything Paradox had ever shown flooded out from the abysmal tear in the sky. Gravity reversed in several places in the sky as clouds were yanked upwards. The wind itself became laden with a cacophony of screaming souls as the pinkish energy created torrents of malevolent thoughts.

Racing to the middle of the ritual site I didn't even acknowledge the presence of anyone else anymore. My singular tail of Molecular Power began to vibrate, phasing beyond visibility as my eyes began to glow egregiously. The small ember roared into an inferno as my magicules soared to the hum of reality itself supporting me. The Voice of the World was supporting me, I could feel it... This didn't even register to my logical side however as I purely pulled on the concept of Warping, Teleportation, Dimensions, wormholes and AOE. Sweat marred my face as the magic began to entwine the theoretical warp-engine from Earth and then to the ground below it. Through said ground the threads of my weave began to ensnare numerous of the magical wards that I had placed a long time ago, their usage now being focussed on allowing this nation and another to transfer. 

Nature began to cry out from the Jura Forest as the various defences of nature itself began to activate. Treants, Dryads and various other forms of natural guardian beginning to be summoned for the singular most important moment in Tensura's long spanning history. Ramiris flew around the square and began to channel all of the spirits of Tensura deep into the island above us, an item or something sucking up the total of all spiritual forms within Tensura and making a new shrine for them. Then came power, untold power. 

All the power of the ethereal realm in Tensura began to aid me. Infons and Essences all converging to my cause as the ritual thrummed into the next stage. This stage was the most perilous as it would take a truly ungodly amount of power that was on the cusp of being my max output before dying. A hand took my left arm as the ascended Shuna's magicules flared, wrapped around my own and yielded themselves over to my control. Milim's small hand was next as she took my other arm, pumping raw unfiltered power into my body as if she were trying to fill an ocean all at once. Rimuru, although despondent stepped forth and dropped to a singular knee, his hands touching the ground near the ritual and cementing his magic at the bottom of the ritual to give it more stability. Souei followed Rimuru's example and knelt but instead held his hands upwards and controlled every ounce of his power into the 'top' of the wormhole-like funnel now emanating from above the warp engine.

Railgun AA towers began to rattle off as the soldiers around the city also began to fire their weaponry. Magic was flung with reckless abandon towards the forces of chaos that began to appear in the skies above, fire wreathing their forms. Water drowning several of the cursed demons. Earth breaking the necks of many daemonic forms. All the while the air was manipulated to cut the wings from the enemy forces. 

A massive yell was heard in the next second as Leon Cromwell appeared in the ritual circle, his right hand dipping into the core of the burgeoning connection. Magicules flared powerfully as the core of the spell was forged amidst the blood of the man. With his left hand the other half of his power began to snipe out every demon that apparated in the sky above. The ritual was nearing completion, all that was needed now was time, or more power. Given that power was in short supply at the current moment time would have to be the way forwards... Or so I thought.

Guy Crimson stepped out from behind Cromwell as his eyes trailed up to the demons in the sky with mild intrigue. But his interest was quelled when he saw the ritual that was so close to being completed... A wince crossed his face before, with a snap of his fingers, the madness in the sky began to recede somewhat. Then came the torrential downpour of hundred of thousands of years of accumulated magic, straight into the edifice of the ritual, the warp-engine itself. Power was so intense here that the entire square looked as if a white room, the very fabric of what was considered the 3rd dimension of reality peeling back to reveal the fourth in a more primal way. All of my power coagulated over the top of everyone else's, my pathway emblazoned across the distant wall of this white room, wherein resided a diagonal crack within a proverbial wall. 

Beacons of the most stunning quality shone just beyond the sinuous and smooth cracked edges of said opening... Spatial connection with dimensionality broke down as the entire landscape of Dwargon and Tempest could be felt by me, but not seen, as if it was existing merely as an idea, a whisper of thought amidst the tumultuous seas of fate and time. All resided within me at this time, at this moment, at this exact period. Time was omnipresent and space was warping to conform to higher concepts that were foreign and baffling to me. Our efforts were not as precise and concentrated as we thought... No, these were the rattling of a child trying to break through a baby-gate. Our efforts, would work... No harm would be done to Exandria. But, the method which we used was only working due to the aid of the Voice of the World and the sheer immensity of magicules that we pierced through the veils between worlds, universes and multiverses. 

Pinkish hues began to appear in this space, thought superior to matter itself in this space as ideas and thoughts carried through time clearly. Psychic pressure began to descend on the connection before a distant crying out of eldritch laughter echoed. The crack began to falter as it slowly began to be filled with blue webbing, like that of a bird's skin beneath the feathers. Power flowed through me and burnt away at this webbing that was going to hold us back... At first it worked, then it began to become ineffective as magicules began to waft from the webbing itself.

"HHEHEHEHEHEHEHE.... Change, it is fun..."

"It is and is not!!!"

"You aren't going anywhere."

"You'll go everywhere...!!!"

"Change, it is a bitch."

"It's a lovely wife, so to speak...."

'Tzeentch!'

Fear, revulsion and utter hatred soared through my mind as the ember within me sparked even harder, the power of essences collecting over the form that represented me in this space; a relatively small ball of soul energy. 

"FUCK OFF AND DIE!"

All of the essences ever known to me began to radiate towards the membrane that blocked our way. Space shuddered and time scrunched as the membrane was simultaneously ripped into millions of little fetters and incinerated to ash. Cacophonous voices all became one as a murder-filled voice filled the inner parts of my soul that represented thought and logic.

"None can escape change. It is and is not, you will fall and rise again. Why? Because I will it. So... Stop resisting, fate...!"

"Eat a bag of dicks you confusing motherfucker!"

"If this is the case, then you shall receive that with which you wish. But there is a cost to everything. Why don't I take your, sight from you?"

Tendrils of blue ivy-like vines emerged and surrounded my soul as the area where the concepts of my vision were held began to alight in surging pain. The feeling of having my eyes seared from within my very soul brought a gut-wrenching pain that belied all previous thoughts of pain over the deaths of hundreds of millions.

"AHhhHHHHHhhhHHHHHHHHH......!"

"HAHHEEHEHEEHE... Wonderful. Do have a good trip, I hope to see you one day, although I do wonder what hope is... Goodbye."

I see nothing, the only way forwards caste in permanent shadow as my sight has been taken from me. The powers over time I held were affected massively, the very essence of being able to perceive was almost completely stripped away from me. The only thing I could feel at all was the pulling hand of someone attached to my own, or at least what I thought was my hand. Words were heard by me but the pain from the sundering of my sight distorted it.

"Co-... sist-... we mu-... go!"

All of Tempest roiled within me as the sensation of water being pulled over my skin caused shivers to tickle all over. Shots of pain sparked within my eyes, or what felt like them as all I could see were the swirling white and black patterns of time itself. A throne of similar make splaying out before my vacuous eyes, all an image within my mind. 

This vision returned back to the white and black spinning void. Sounds of shock and horror played out around me as the sensation of rumbling vibrated up my limbs. The land was shifting to accommodate both of the nations. No doubt workings of my siblings in the pantheon. The cawing of a raven perked my right ear but this was soon smothered by the feeling of being hugged very tightly by what I assumed was Shuna. Wetness draped my clothes in several places as on my right side the smaller breasts of what I assumed to be Milim wrapped my arm.

"Silviana!!! WHAT HAPPENED...!?" Sobs began to spread apparently as I heard hundreds of different voices. Whispers of disbelief were had and the slamming of spear on ground soon began.

"Who did this to you?"

A calm but icy voice questioned me from not far away, by my reckoning. This voice reminded me of many times in my past where I had had conversations with a stunning woman of arcane pursuits. 

"Do you wish me to call you Raven Queen?"

"Call me whatever you wish, but I'd prefer if you called me Lilia."

"Lilia... I like the name you have chosen..."

"Who did this to you???!"

"A vindictive god, one who took a toll, for me to be able to save Tempest and Dwargon."

"I will carve out its heart and have the ravens consume the entirety of its being. Death will pale ion comparison to the suffering that this being will go through..."

"... He is too powerful for any of you to handle. Even the entire family would barely be able to confront him. The only reason I got out alive is because he is extremely unique and does things at random..."

Silence hung in the air as the swirls slowed and then increased, slowed then increased. A never ending cycle of maddening patterns. Touch, Smell and Hearing was all that was left and most of those were half ineffective now as a gaping hole in my soul was weeping blue essence. 

'Blue essence is my only hope... I have to bathe in it an spend time repairing myself...'

[This could take a long time, are you sure you don't wish to ask your parents?]

'They are not on the same level as Tzeentch. From what I remember, they were scared of having me run into the warp, which suggests that they were fearful of fighting things within... If they remove this affliction, it will bring his wrath down upon them or even people who believe in them.'

[Sounds like some fucked up logic to make yourself hurt more...]

I gave no response as I couldn't even gaze at the beauty that was the city, the island above, or the world that we were in now... I was left truly in the dark, my sense of victory obliterated by the overwhelming sense of loss. Much was lost today, the eyes I cherished, Tensura and being able to look upon my wives.

' ...I deserve this... '

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