Nyx's chosen

[aipsylon]

Vio watched as Tirza began to pull more power from the gateway, her strength growing as Nyx poured her energy into the new vessel, one he knew well, and one whos weaknesses were known to him After all he had helped her escape an ancient bond once before. He felt the darkness and chaos pushing away the order and as it did he took the time to draw the strength from the earth. His face as stoic as ever as he pulled more and more of the forests energy into himself, working to channel the energies from the edges of it to the center. As he did the trees would moan and seem to move, to come alive, to turn toward the black stain upon them. Nyx had chosen the hearth of his domain to enter, a poor choice indeed. He held the front, though he knew he could not stop the force coming out of the gate instead he slowed it, made it work to expand. And even as he did he called upon gaia pulling her into him, gaining more strength from her energies as well.
He would watch as the girl began the horrid transformation into the being of chaos, not pay much heed at all to what precisely what was happening, only noting that she was mending herself with chaotic magic in a manner he found most unenlightened. Possession in that manner was something his matron had never tried. She was wise in her guidance of his development a mage of tens of thousands of years aged a vessel of might, and of indomitable mortal will. Gaia’s touch upon him was light, though it was what formed the link between him and the forest.
Vio stood fast not moving a muscle as Tirza approached, her blood the first key as it lay frozen in time upon the ground. Vio focused upon it, allowing the imagio of a bond of chain to form between the two, holding the image in his mind as he continued to focus on it, pulling more and more power from the earth beneath him, holding its strength for later when he may need it.
Tirza’s giggling was nothing that interested him, barely more than a random noise of the forest, just the howling of another primate in the cold night. He watched her transformation, and more watched what was happening before her. He could see it easily the events that would unfold in the moments to come. His eyes looked up as he met Tirza’s eyes, their magic colliding as it did, the effect not exactly what he expected as it seemed only he saw his future. He then heard Nyx’s voice echoing through him, his mind invaded as it had not been in an eon. The man focusing in on himself as he drew yet more strength from the wood, and from gaia, the forest seeming to loom over the cold frozen patch as he did.
“If you wisshhhh.. to ssseeee.. your.. deattthhhh.. sssso be.. it”
Her words were heard, but what he saw behind her had him hold any response as he delved into the vision, locking in on its progress, watching for its conclusion. Knowing when it was done he would see it again. The end was one he had often thought of, one of his power one that could poison his link, not just him. He watched it with interest as he focused on the knight, the forest was rotting around him, but he would curse the one that brought death upon him with one like none had seen. A magus may live to be a few hundred years, or if they became a lych far older, but no magus had reached his age. He was born from among the first men, and his death curse would be swift and terrible. He would use it if he needed, and in his last breaths then he would see the use of it. He would focus on finding who to use it on should this future come to pass.
He felt as Tirza changed more and more, the Ancient Nyx pulling herself further and further into the vessel she had chosen a flaw that he would exploit soon Her body coiled about him, but it did little for the man appeared as stone for the wind itself breathed for him. Encircled by the serpents wings the darkness would surround him, and still he stood there, unmoving as I it would do him no good to do so. He knew what would happen, for gaia was not the only force that stood in his way now. Behind Nyx stood the key to salvation, an avatar of God.

He saw nothing Of Leelea’s heroic move to grab the blade, to wrest the light from the frozen earth, but when she had he felt its effect in the one that had been tormenting him and saw the moment of weakness. Hisleft hand toched the body of the snake as the ring on his left hand glowed silver, His form began its own transformation, his hairs becoming as small vines, weaving their way between the body of the serpent and his own flesh, each growing thicker as they grew longer. His form covered in the vines began to gain girth and height. The staff still cluched in his right hand growing out from the live looking knarred wood to a full-fledged sapling, roots growing from one end as branches pulled from the other. He knew the effect that it would have on Tirza, now that she could not command this power, and he assumed that Nyx would know as well. “Elder Mine, you are lost without your vessel here. Go back to the chaos whence you came and await another chance to pull through. A drop of chaos spilt will not break loose the chains that any piece of life will hold.” He let loose the image in his mind, turning the blood to stone, not much more than a parlor trick aimed at the blood Tirza had left upon the ground. The effect was far more. Life was fragile and weak, but more it was known. The blood becoming stone on the groung, but also in Tirza’s body linked to it. The blood as stone locking her in place, locking her eyes on him and forcing her to suffer death over and over. “Abandon your host Nyx or perish with it.”
He knew he had her, and more he knew he held upon his left hand the key to imprisoning the titan that was within, to forcing it to wait once more in eternity for a chance to be free.

[Neava13]

The sound of cracking permeated through the air as the world seemed to shiver between chaos with death and order with light. Leelea’s hand wrenched the blade free of its prison as the bell like tone sounded shattering the earth around it and causing Leelea’s blackened form to crack. Her skin turning gray, her wings began to smolder, and her eyes grew dark as if a strong gust had come through and snuffed out the purple fire that illuminated them. The cracking however was not from the light cast by the blade and rosary joining, it was in fact from the black rotten beast that had once been the small tan skinned girl. Her snake like hair writhed as she held firm to the Druid’s body, the tendrils of roots coiling around her hands and up her arms as she held the man firm, her body turning to stone from the bottom up as cracks slid up her black flesh. Instead of the rotten black skin her snake like lower half had before, it now held a smooth gray almost concrete look as her body began to crack after the slow advance of the stone. Her form irrupted in purple flame as ice tried to freeze the advance of the stone, yet it was a spell that even her beloved cold could not pause. The druid’s breath would steam as the world around him began to freeze; the staff that grew in his grasp would feel the cold bite, as would the roots that coated his form.

Tirza screamed out in agony as the fire burned brighter around them her body wracked with the pain of the Goddess’s displeasure, the pain of the death she saw for the druid, as well as the pain of her flesh turning to stone slowly but surely. The death knight was seen again, if he watched the image, the creature was not a man at all but a twisted mixture between races, a half-breed of sorts, in the vision he knew the creatures name as Ezix Thull, someone he did not know now, but a creature known in the future to work as an assassin for others. The image had been black and white the first time this time it was still black and white yet held more detail showing that this future took place many many years from now. As the blackened blade cut into the heart tree Tirza screamed out in agony the first blade marks showing on her skin from both the stab to the stomach but also the stab through the heart of the link between the forest. The blood that flowed down her blackened skin only aided the spread of the stone across her flesh. He felt Nyx flex against him he felt her power pull from the body of the avatar she was using. The tendrils from the gate began to pull up into the heavens as the stone encased the viper before the druid entirely. The tendrils still linked to Triza’s stone form arched up even more as the stone back of the girl shattered as if something was breaking from the dyeing flesh.

From the stone tomb wriggled what could be only described as liquid night, it reflected light, sending odd vibrations over its pool as the thing shivered and shrank away from the stone form trapped by the druid’s magic. Chaos was the only way to explain the dark refractive surface as it rippled like haphazard waves connected to the gateway. The light at the gate from the connected holy artifacts caused the darkness to shrink back the gateway beginning to close as the chaotic form of Nyx pulled away. As if there was a leash on the pool of darkness it stopped abruptly seeming to be stretched between the ever shrinking gateway and something the druid held. A high pitched scream echoed through the area, the sound harsh enough to shatter ear drums as the chaos began to fight against the power the druid held trying to retreat through the gateway but being held aloft by the ring. The fluid fluxed and trembled as the world turned to black ice. Everything froze solid around the seething mass as it retaliated against the voice of Gaia. It would freeze the life from Gaia’s disciple Nyx would freeze the very magic he wielded if she had to, the darkness contracting and trembling against the magic of the ring, though slowly the ring was drawing her closer, despite her struggle.

[aipsylon]

Locked in a struggle of will, both knew the end of one to be the only escape from the other. His will growing stronger as he came so close to imprisoning Chaos, to locking her away. Beings like Nyx could not be killed, the gods and primordials of old knew that and designed elaborate prisons, just as the one he held around his finger, a prison for Power and Power alone.

Her Power was what was being drawn in, and he knew that she would not let it go, yet as she struggled against it, she could feel it pulling away from her. Even as his ear’s began dto bleed at the sound of the screech, the cry that left him deaf to the sounds of the world. The howling and pulling vanishing from around him, the whole world now easily blocked out as his focus was on the titan alone.

Gaia too was there the spirit of nature, its placid serenity broken, the order of things shattered. All that was left was its fury, the storms that had been building overhead a testament to that. The world, a his hill was rebelling against the chaos, adapting changing. The life near the edge of the chaos drawing on the chaos to survive the cold that as they ventured into it. There was nothing to feed on but will, and nothing to survive but cold, and that was what they were built to do. The cold more than anything nature had known here the creatures, once birds and squirrels came. They changed and grew in all manners, thick coats of fur, heavy skin, hibernation. None of the changes worked, They all froze, unable to change enough to survive the cold. he plants dormant beneath the ground changed to sprouting up minerals taking root in them to keep them from freezing. They too froze solid, their forms frozen still and solid. Evolution even sped by chaos nothing against the complete cold Nyx was giving. All but one seed in the ground frozen solid.

That seed beneath then erupted in growth, it used the temperature difference to drive its growth, drawing it toward the chaos as it grew preying on the will around it, magic and will transforming it into a crystalline plant, chiming as it grew. Vio was kept safe from it as his body froze, the essence of heart tree preserving him from the cold, forests that stretched over many worlds stretching forth all dropping in temperature, chilling a little, pulling the cold from his body, and to keep it alive, white hot flame surrounding the hand that drew in Nyx.

She would hear Gaia’s voice. “Too long you have been locked away. You have forgotten the lessons of the past. Somewhere in there you have the potential to freeze magic solid, but if you do that you will be frozen yourself. Either way you will be trapped, and he will be free. Give in.”

[Neava13]

The scream deepened in pitch as the ice grew colder, the plant slowed its advance despite its abilities as light itself seemed to have problems moving in the ever cooling air. The sound of cracking ice deepened and slowed as the cracks seemed to move slower and slower across the ground. The cracks along the empty husk of Tirza’s battered form slowed as well. Leelea’s body froze still as the light left the area from the rosary and blade, the bell like chime slowed and deepened in pitch before disappearing all together. The sound of the screams stopped as sound, air, light, and time paused for what seemed like the briefest as moments. Gaia was after all right, she could freeze herself as well as magic as the ring’s power froze, the flames around his hands stopped turning; seeming lifeless against his hand everything within a hundred feet of the battle stopped. Then suddenly as if the power wavered the pause in movement relented and the world began to move again the cracks slowly started to advance sound once again touched the air in slow deep tones before returning to their previous pitch and resonance.

Suddenly the liquid black form rippled in the air as the screams grew all the more pronounced the ice sucked back into the black mass as the creature lashed out at the world in an attempt to grab onto anything for support. The cold disappearing as the natural world once again sped at its normal pace within the area. The portal flickered contracted and closed with a powerful pulse of air that shattered the form of Leelea into hundreds of broken pieces. The blast sent the altered form of Tirza tumbling forward and crumbling more as the loud boom extended and then suddenly a back draft sucked in, the world around the portal flexed towards it as the gateway into the ever hungry void wavered and flickered. Suddenly just as soon as the horrible implosion began it ended and the world fell to silence. The ring in Vio’s hand sizzled with black energy the black liquid form of the primordial darkness no longer hovered in the air but instead writhed within the ring turning and thrashing within its confines attempting to find freedom.

The device had once been used to only house power instead now held the full essence of the darkest night, of the deepest chaos, and the timeless cold. Veins of black laced his hand that held the ring as if the very contact with the now corrupted device poisoned the flesh. As the ice fell from around them, sunlight poured in, without them even noticing a dome of ice had formed about them, and as it fell away an amazing twisted sight bombarded their vision. A massive floating city graced the sky, hovering transports whizzed through the heavens as the trees grew three times the size they had been seeming moments before. The world was lush and green, yet thrived with vastly advanced cities that loomed in the heavens. As a gentle warm breeze blew through the towering trees the black soot and crumbled glass of Tirza’s and Leelea’s forms began to tumble away. Leelea seemed to have been completely obliterated in the horrible implosion of the gateway, only the blade and rosary rested in the sap like black earth, the golden staff poked from the black earth and a small glimmer of steal at its point. As the wind tumbled the soot from the mound where Tirza had once been tan skin suddenly showed.

The black dead flesh was blown away to reveal the youthful scared body of the seer, her form curled into a tight ball as her black hair fluttered in the breeze against her nude form. Not far to Vio’s back was the lifeless pale body of the once vampires as she laid in the darkened earth blood stagnant at the gaping hole through her upper stomach and lower chest. Ribs curved from the open wound as blood dripped soaking into the earth. The sun set in the western skies sending beautiful hues of red and pink across the floating metal city not far away. Glimmering streaks of red and gold slid through the sky as the flying vehicles continued upon their pre-chattered courses not noticing the fact something happened in the dense forests below. One hundred years had passed until Nyx’s power finally gave in, one hundred years had spanned what seemed like mere seconds as time stood still. The attempt had been made in the hopes that man would ruin what they were gifted with.. in the hopes that when a hundred years passed Gaia would be forgotten and washed away with the power of fire and weapons as human history had so far shown. However Nyx’s gamble had been lost, where there had once been disorder order reigned, where chaos, lust, hatred, and greed fed humanity, now calm, discovery, peace, and hope held firm. The cost of the lost bet had been freedom, for Nyx as she writhed within the prison upon the Acolytes finger.