Eyes snapping wide with unspeakable horror, a now fully awake Jera began to scream and squeeze a now stumbling Alex tightly, shivering in a frenzy of uncontrollable fear. Alex forced himself to behold the living nightmare even then striding towards them, for all that his foolish glimpses into what lay just beyond the perilously thin fabric of reality had already burned his psyche beyond repair, even as the hideous truths of this terrible place slowly revealed themselves to his haunted gaze.
Eyes flooding with burning tears, a low cry escaped him, overwhelmed by the awful majesty of the being that approached the crimson circle guarding them even then, radiating the dread power of a dark avatar summoned by hideous magics to stand triumphant upon the face of Dawn. Alex moaned with mindless horror, knowing he had no hope at all against a queen of Hell.
And then he heard the low guttural growl of the terrible beast locked in the shape of a massive hound, five feet at the shoulder, padding softly by his queen's side, covered with luminous twisting crimson runes that made Alex queasy even to glance upon them. The hound itself seemed strangely unhostile, gazing at the prostrate Alex and Jera curiously as they slowly strode through the clearing, before the nightmare hound abruptly howled out such a sound as to send the very hills shuddering, its red eyes suddenly blazing with unspeakable fury.
The ground seemed to groan and crack beneath their steps, and Alex's eyes widened in disbelief as the very skies began to boil and churn, the shrieking winds of the Abyss now storming through the grove even as the terrible pristine beauty of the dark queen took Alex's breath away, his eyes seeing at last beyond the corona of dread power enveloping her, even as she approached them and smiled, eyes closing in ecstatic bliss.
Alex shuddered in horror as his gifts sensed of a sudden the howling winds blasting through the increasingly alien skies above shift direction, all of them now roaring into the terrible queen gazing so curiously at Alex, as if she were now the focal point of existence itself. And in that moment Alex shrieked with such despair even as he felt his sense of balance twist and bend, suddenly feeling like the flat ground had become a slope, downwards slowly turning toward the awful creature of nightmare grinning so brilliantly at him. Alex felt his lungs ache in his chest as he writhed with the horror of what his piercing vision had been forced to glimpse, understanding the terrible implications at once.
For he had caught dreadful sight of all the massive chords of life and power of this entire realm. They were unspeakably gigantic, storm-flooded rivers of power compared to the tiny trickles of magic that wizards could manipulate. And the entire fragile fabric of life and rebirth that maintained their fragile planet, all the flows of renewal and existence, had suddenly shifted direction, pouring into this queen of Hell like a man hemorrhaging away his life's-blood upon hot desert sands forever thirsty. A nightmare of doom beyond compare.
The terrible toad-like creature that had but moments before been taking such delight in Jera's terror suddenly squealed in panic. Quailing in unspeakable horror, it blubbered like a young child caught red-handed stealing sweetmeats by a most stern task-mistress. The trembling beast wiped the ground with its pustulent head and ruptured eyes, slamming its face repeatedly into the ground so hard Alex could swear he heard its skull cracking even as the creature dragged itself toward the terrible queen striding towards them, resplendent as she was in all her dark glory.
“Mistress! My Queen!” The creature blubbered through its shattered jaw. “The rapture of seeing you. At last. In the flesh. My Nightmare Mistress… How may this lowly one serve you?”
At that the terrible figure wreathed in darkness, caressed by the howling voidal winds swirling about her, laughed. Her chuckle was one of mocking contempt, crimson lips curling into a smirking grin. “Ah. The worm dares to speak. How amusing! How very entertaining! Isn’t he entertaining, my dear Midnight?”
At that Alex gazed in transfixed awe, his eyes captivated by the sight of a feline he had seen only a few times before, and never had he looked quite so much like a panther before, but his brilliant sapphire eyes were unmistakable.
“Really, Jezabelle. As if a creature that lowly could possibly be worthy of our amusement. Hardly worth more than consideration as a quick snack, I would say.”
“Now now, dear kitty. No need for us to rush. You know how I like to play with my food.” At that the terrible queen smiled brightly even as her left hand abruptly lashed out with blinding speed, grasping the creature by its throat. Never mind that it was more massive than she, the hideously wailing demon seemed to bend and warp in space, as if the dark queen's hand had grown massive in unspeakable dimensions as the hideous creature was dragged helplessly toward her, squealing and choking, futilely trying to pry itself free of her steely grip, the air alive with the sickening crackle of ruptured gristle as the demoness slowly, mercilessly, crushed its throat to pulp.
"I am displeased by your boasts, pathetic worm!" she hissed. "As if a creature like you could possibly drag any soul into any realm of Hell beyond the third. Your prizes would be torn from your grip, and you would have no choice but to revel in the delight of serving your betters as they tormented you endlessly for their own amusement, you wretched, unworthy thing!"
She laughed discordantly for some moments before her mocking chuckle stopped cold and she gazed at the creature with such icy hatred that it shrieked and squirmed in terror, even as she continued to throttle it with implacable force. "But far worse; far, far worse than your presumption of significance, your unforgivable arrogance in even daring to address one such as I, as if you actually mattered, was that you dared, you dared! To threaten that which belongs to me! And for that crime you shall suffer unspeakable delights. Let me share with you the lessons of the Void."
And with that the terrible avatar of destruction, eyes blazing with unfathomable hatred, implacably drew the creature's frantically squirming skull towards her ruby red lips, and slowly began to whisper words of such terrible knowing, of such horror that the leprous frog creature froze stock still and began to scream. It screamed endlessly, horribly, even through its shattered throat, as if to drown out the howl of the dark winds slowly enveloping him, a shriek of such utter despair that Alex couldn't help but to overhear the terrible whisper of unmaking that promised the death of its very soul as it was slowly pulled in unspeakable dimensions, torn to nothing in a thousand directions, ground to agony and dust within the shrieking winds of the Void.
And instantly, the howling winds stopped. Though the terrible red lightning still flashed from the riven skies overhead, the air was utterly still. Despite that, Alex could still feel the land slowly dying under the terrible weight of the fallen goddess striding ever closer to him.
The cat sighed. “Was such a worm truly worthy of sending to final Oblivion?”
The nightmare queen shrugged. "He threatened my friends. I didn't like him, and I don't tolerate anyone threatening that which is mine!" Her eyes blazed a moment before calming back down to a bright red. She picked up her unhappy looking kitty and snuggled her face in his warm, soft fur. "You know how I love you, Midnight. You are the best cat there ever was in all the abyssal planes."
Her cat looked unbearably smug. "Probably because I was the only cat in the abyssal planes. One of a kind. Unique, really. There may be a thousand thousand demonlords in all the planes of Hell, but there is only one cat of my caliber."
Her fierce looking hound howled.
“Ah, Rage. My nightmare commander whose hideous howl once sent abyssal moons spinning into darkest orbit, and our enemies fleeing in despair.” The terrible beast began to pant happily as the queen bent down to scratch his ears.
“So,” she said, turning at last to smile at Alex and his shaking lover. “How are you lovebirds doing?”
“By all the gods. It’s you, Jess. It’s really… you!” Alex gazed in awe at the terrible countenance before him, a face of such inhuman beauty, sweet as the most innocent of angels, terrible as the sharpest of blades, it resonated with a seduct
ive allure that Alex felt roaring through his blood, for all that he clamped down on his will and held a shivering Jera close. He squeezed his eyes shut and saw, overlaying that inhumanly perfect countenance, the far more familiar features that could only be Jess, the free-spirited girl he had known since his first days at Highrock, and save for one hot summer day during their first year together that Jera really didn't need to know about, had never seen as more than a beloved friend.
Jess looked at him with surprise. "Well, of course it's me, silly, who else would I be?"
Jera spoke into Alex’s naked chest, though her voice was muffled.
Jess tilted her head in puzzlement. "What did you say, Jera?"
“I said your eyes and hair weren’t living pools of flame before!”
Jess looked curiously at her cat.
"It's true," he assured. "Your hair used to be blond as a summer's day, eyes as blue as the winter seas. You haven't done the flame thing for a very, very long time."
“Really.”
Twilight nodded solemnly and hot fires began to cool. Her hair no longer living flame but rather a brilliant fiery red, the same shade as the irises in her now far more human looking eyes. She shrugged. “Very well, then.” Jess laughed with mirth and triumph both, lips curving in an eager expression hauntingly familiar, her voice echoing through the hills even as strange, sulfurous winds shrieked and howled through the valley once more.
“Guys! You have to hear about our latest adventure. It was fantastic! Look at this blade I got. Pure mithril, and it resonates with the power of the Void itself!” Jess flourished her blade in a flashy moulinet, admiring the play of light upon the shimmering sword as it sparkled with little bursts that brought to mind nothing so much as the dying shudders of stars exploding in the midnight sky.
As much as the dread promise of the shimmering blade sickened him, Alex found himself captivated by its hypnotic sheen, before the terrible figure calling herself Jess sheathed it once more.
“And that’s not all. Malek, show them your sword. Oh. And don’t forget the wand.”
Jera blinked. “Malek! Is Malek alive, Jess?”
Jess laughed. “Of course he is, silly! He’s right here! Rage? Show them your treasures!”
With that the terrible hound covered with strange overlapping sigils of blood slowly unspooled several tendrils of quivering ruby red, one revealing a serpentine bladed Zweihander, as long as the average soldier was tall, the strange undulating metal throbbing with dark red strands of what Alex could sense was fatal power. The second tendril unfurled to present to Alex that which had been the motivation for this terrible journey, and the source of all their nightmarish troubles.
With a mixture of relief and utter loathing, Alex carefully took the Wand of Dreams from the pulsating tendril with shaking hands. Quickly, he wrapped it deep within his dry shirt before tucking it in the doublet he hurriedly dressed himself with.
Then he froze, stopped cold by what should have been obvious from the start. “Jess. You are still Jess, yes? Are you saying that Malek is the hound beside you?”
Jera gasped. Jess shrugged. "Malek is Malek. He's the same as he ever was. Right, my Rage?" With that she stroked and hugged her terrible hound, and his tail beat the ground with happiness, sending crashing vibrations through the dying forest.
Alex paused. “Um… Jess. You know that Malek was a person, right?”
Jess just gazed at him for a time before Jera spoke. “Jess, can you tell us what happened? We’d really like to know how you ended up with your pretty sword.”
Jess's face lit up and she beamed happily at the chance to tell her tale. “It was incredible, guys. Amazing! First Malek and I had to outwit these two massive creatures, made all of clanking steel… scurrying like mice from cats!” And Jess began to tell her tale.
“Quite an adventure!” Alex shouted once Jess had finished, having to fight to have his voice heard over the constant shrieking winds, the air itself having turned from rich loamy forest air to a thin, sulfurous brew that he found it increasingly hard to inhale without coughing. “And it explains what happened to Malek,” he gasped and shivered, even as he gazed into his beloved friend's eyes with wonder and a certain sharp regret, realizing that he, along with the land they stood upon, were slowly dying. Sucked into the terrible maelstrom of hideous power his friend had become.
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It was the ultimate adventure!” Jess enthused, joyed beyond words to be reunited with her companions once more. “Such power! Such sweet, sweet power, my friends, if only you could imagine! No more Erno or Vaki to worry about either, and we won't even talk about that lying bitch who dared to claim to be my mother!”
Jezabelle's ecstatic grin broke for a snarling moment before becoming tinged with worry as she gazed at her companions. She noted with some concern that both of her dear friends still looked frightened, and were panting heavily. She looked about her and noticed that the brooding steel gray clouds of an hour before had completely given way to skies of flashing red and burnt ember, and what looked like strange stars indeed roaring through the misty skies, far closer than they had any right to be.
Jezabelle made careful note as well of massive fortresses of rock she could now see sailing through the heavens, though whether they were tiny moons so close as to kiss the clouds or massive inhuman fortresses cast aloft by hideous abyssal arts, she could not say. It was then that she noticed that all the forest appeared to be wilted and dying, finding it strange indeed that she had not felt their silent cries. For in all the forest, there was only the one great oak sheltering her friends that served as a bastion of life and peace in a world torn asunder. "I think it's time we left here, don't you? I think this realm of Regio is coming apart!"
With that, Jess approached the tree, only to stumble over an unseen root and gasp in surprise as the leaves prickled and tried to push her away. For the first and only time in her life that she could recall, the wood was closed to her. She felt a terrible lurch of pure sorrow. The tree which had welcomed her with such love before was now rejecting her. Utterly.
“Jess, what’s wrong?” Alex asked urgently, even as he turned to Jera’s gasping form, cursing with fear for his love as he held her close.
"I don't know. I don't know! The tree is rejecting me! I thought she loved me!" Jess howled. "What happened to it? What foul magic is this that has turned my tree against me?"
Her familiar gently pricked her hand with his claw, snapping her out of her melancholy. “What is it, Midnight? Do you know what’s wrong? What we should do?” Her voice raised an octave and Midnight sighed.
"It's not the tree, Jezabelle. And what's happening to this realm of Regio that was so recently a part of our world is not just random chaos." His Sapphire eyes peered deeply into her own, and Jess felt a sudden wave of apprehension, dreading her familiar's next words.
“It's you, my beloved. All this chaos and destruction? The death of this forest? The stripping of all breathable air for the howling winds and sulfurous skies of the abyssal planes? All you.”
Jess shook her head in mute horror, stumbling back, terrible poise and inhuman potency forgotten.
"It's not me! There is no way I would destroy this land. No way I would hurt any tree, let alone a forest. How could I? Why would I?"
Her cat just gazed sadly at her. "Oh, my dear Jezabelle. Can you even stop the sweet rush of power filling you, even as we speak? Are you even aware of it any longer? The land is dying because you are killing it. Absorbing all its life, all its vitality like a massive whirlwind devouring all in its path."
Jess closed her tearing eyes shut tight, shaking with dread. “Is it really me, Midnight? Am I actually causing this?”
“Yes, Jezabelle. It is you.” His eyes fixed implacably upon her own and she lost the ability to blink, her gaze captivated by her familiar's brilliant sapphire orbs. “It is in your nature to destroy. It is the nature of all demons. Your powers now might rival that of the gods, but with only one exception
since the great Falling has a demon done other than devour all it came across.”
Jess shuddered, holding her shaking limbs close. “How do I stop it?” she whispered softly.
Her familiar solemnly butted his head against her own. “There is only one way. You must cut your chord.”
Alex gasped. “To cut a demon’s chord is to kill them. Utterly.”
Twilight turned his potent gaze to a stumbling Alex. “And how do you know of such things, boy? Ah yes. The endless books and tomes you have studied. Seeking to understand the truth underlying all things." Twilight's sigh was chillingly close to pity. "Tell me, child, how scarred is your mind from understanding the true nature of the nightmares you have witnessed this day? From seeing how terribly fragile your realm truly is, the horrors that await all the souls hiding in this fragile universe like a ship rolling upon endless seas of madness and terror? Even if you survive this day, young Alex, I fear nights of easy sleep are a gift you can only hope for in the next life, if your soul can find peace, even then."
Alex flashed a bitter smile. "Your words are nothing but the truth, great Midnight, beloved familiar and companion of one of my dearest friends in all the world. You are right. I have witnessed horrors that are even now shrieking in the depths of my soul. I am strong only for Jera, and even if we survive I hold grave doubts that her family will accept the broken wreck shivering at every shadow I fear I will become, when the numbing terror that keeps me sane at this moment wears off."
Alex took a deep, shuddering breath. "But magic is not the only field where I have braved so called forbidden tomes, Great One. I was always interested in history, as is any scholar worthy of the title. Not only the history of magic, but in the history of the origins of our realm as well. What truth, great cat, lies at the heart of all the creation legends of our world? That, I thought, is where the heart of true knowledge can be found, the common thread of nature and magic, the power of creation, the primal language I have yearned to understand since my first days at Highrock, and in doing so cursed myself to nightmares for all the rest of my days from the horrors I've witnessed this eve."
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