Then they saw the three Lewises. "I have no idea what the fuck this is." admitted the Tortoise.
Ahead, Zoryana and some Anvari worked together, blasting through the ever increasing Fae armies. The Canadian werewolves were with them, jaws clamping down on throats, blue blood leaking onto the ground.
Astrolinium wrote:Caspian and Peter jumped off the dragon and began immediately began shooting at any nearby Fae soldiers, though Caspian doubted even his anti-angel gun (which was, he thought with a start, now strictly paradoxical) could do much against them.
Then again, the anti-angel guns were now strictly paradoxical (how could they have been made in the far future if angels no longer existed in the present?) and so who could say what the fuck they might do?
He accidentally shot Crowley, the last remaining angel in the world, who gave Caspian a death glare before turning back to dealing with Oberon.
A nearby ISSR soldier, Johnny Foreigner (odd family name with a long history, dating back to a proud Italian immigrant who took on the name because of Peter Dinklage's lesson of "Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.") saw this occur, noted it down in his head, and later became famous for creating the anti-angel gun, which was mostly just a novelty item and of no practical use, until one day Caspian stole it in the far future.
Oberon grabbed one of the three Lewises, the one from Elfen High 1, by the neck. He started to slowly squeeze when he was distracted by a bazooka directly to the face, causing him to let go of that Lewis. Billy, who fired the bazooka, very rapidly stopped being alive after that when Oberon appeared in front of him. His face suddenly went forward, his teeth grabbing Billy's throat, and ripping his neck from the rest of his body.
Holding Billy's head in his left hand, Oberon took occasional bites while watching the events around him. He spoke telepathically. Kronos, how goes your plan?
Just about ready to do it. came the response almost as a telepathic grunt. It was clear that Kronos was devoting his attentions to something else.
The air turned chilly and cold, and a familiar song rang throughout Elfen High. "He's a-coming, do you hear the king?"
The twin moons in the sky began to glow, as did the Earth...
Let's discuss Dyson Spheres.
In theory, a Dyson Sphere is an artificial planet or series of satellites used for people to live within, containing a star within as a power source.
The Fae had repurposed Armenio for this purpose into a miniature Dyson Sphere, as within the moon many of them resided, with only the occasional city on the surface as bases (It may be somewhat cheating to use an existing structure as a Dyson Sphere, but it works the same way, with the star formed by magic but being quite a genuine star). Kronos had used some time capabilities to rapidly advance these cities to a point where people could live - Moscow, in fact, had been transported there ten years ago, the residents converted into useful matter and minions for the Fae. The timey-wimey nature of things due to Kronos made such things odd, but very helpful.
The Dyson Sphere of Armenio suited the Fae, but they needed something a bit more than that for their war against a far greater and stronger force on the horizon. Armenio was also a genuine sphere, which worked in emergencies but would be problematic later. It would need to be fixed. And they had just the thing...
A beam of green light shot from Armenio, connecting to a receiver on Earth's moon. Another beam of light shot from the Hell moon, landing directly upon Earth, striking Oberon. A beam of light shot from Earth's moon, striking Oberon as well. A portal of sorts opened on Armenio, with green light flooding inside, striking the moons across the surface of Hell. The King of the Fae smiled darkly, glowing green.
Below, Kronos focused and meditated. It was almost ready...
Then Elfen High nuked Hell's moon in the face.
Oberon's eyes widened.
Kronos' eyes widened.
On the Earth, looking up, various men and women gasped at the sight of the green light going berserk as Armenio shattered. On the surface of the Heaven continent, a now human Raphael looked up in astonishment, crossing himself. He clasped his hands together, praying emptily.
Oberon roared at Lyra, his face a picture of savage, animalistic fury. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" he demanded, his eyes bulging as spit came out of his words with the snarling words. He started to move toward Lyra...
But Kronos could no longer hold his burden. He needed to make do. With a roar, he held up his arms and Oberon suddenly stopped dead cold, green light bursting from his every pore while Armenio's pieces floated in the sky, slamming down toward Earth, the radiation cloud around the planet's entire atmosphere.
They had planned this carefully. But the main link was broken. For this transformation to work, they had needed the moon Armenio, where their sources had been located. But now they were crippled.
Kronos was very, very worried. He had not accounted for this. He had been so busy designing and working his magic that this completely random act had completely stunned him. There had been no way of preparing for it. And now anything could happen.
Realising something, Crowley made a mindless roar and cast a spell across the school and those directly above it...
The world was ending.
The inhabitants of this world were quite aware of this. One of those aware was a young woman named Supriya, watching the destruction happening across them in Leicester. She hid, of course. She had to hide. What could she do other than that?
But she wasn’t alone there. She held the hand of Sameer, and they smiled at each other. “I suppose this is how it is going to end?” she asked sadly. There was no sense in false hope, when life burned around them.
Sameer sighed. “I suppose so.” he said, reflecting. “I guess….I guess I just want more time.”
A kiss on the cheek. “We had some good time as it were.” came the response of his wife. Then there was the explosion in the sky, the second moon ripping apart as they watched in amazement.
They knew they would die, and this explosion had sealed it. On the other hand, it was awe-inspiring. The colours, the sheer insane destruction, the scale of it...It was unimaginable.
It was almost slow, the destruction. Sameer and Supriya had seen nuclear explosions, from tapes of Hiroshima they had watched in school. But it was black and white, and just shown for short times. “God help us.” breathed Sameer, seeing the explosion ripple across that second moon of Hell, destroying it comprehensively in a dazzling display of red and orange and death and pain and awe.
The end was coming. They felt it in their bones. It couldn’t be outfought, it couldn’t be outdone, it couldn’t be outmatched and it couldn’t be outrun.
Supriya squeezed her husband’s hand tighter.
Supriya smiled weakly. “I know two things for sure. One is this. I love you.”
“I love you too.” said Sameer. “What’s the second?”
“You just said it.”
They kissed each other, slowly and passionately, knowing it would be their last.
Then the world died.
There had been plans put in motion for some time now. There were threats to the Fae, though it was difficult to imagine what they were. And Oberon had taken all these things into account as he worked on a plan.
There were things threatening the Fae, yes. They linked back to a tree. The World Tree, standing in the centre of all the Omniverse. All its realities, all its alternate paths, all of time and space and possibility and imagination and existence. In short, everything.
The Dyson Sphere, a series of satellites, is generally meant to utilise the sun. However, for his purposes, Oberon required a different source of power.
Oberon meant, as he always did, to challenge the World Tree, to use its power. It was the nexus of the Omniverse, a place whereupon he could dominate everything to his will. He would be the truest God that way, in control of all there ever was and would be. And he had been very, very close...
Then, it's worth restating, Elfen High had nuked the moon directly in the face. And that sheer and completely unexpected event had entirely warped what Oberon had intended to do.
Kronos made do. But the moon of Armenio had been a radically important receiver. Blood burst from Kronos' eyes as our universe reshaped itself. A green wave travelled across Hell and Earth, vaporising what it touched and taking something else...
Death gasped.
It was...worried. Very worried and very concerned. There had been billions of deaths just now. No. Trillions of them. Every non-Fae life on Hell and Earth had just died. Humans, demons, dogs, cats, insects, dwarves, gods, aliens, Indians and all the assortment of strange creatures in those universes.
But they did not stand before it. They did not stand before it at all.
Where were those souls?
No. There was life. Just some, just some scatterings, but there was life...Elfen High. Elfen High lived.
The Universe was created. This will make a lot of people very unhappy and will be generally regarded as a bad move.
Crowley’s eyes burned when he opened them, just an unimaginable blue light blinding him. The light faded in seconds, but dark memories were in his mind. Memories of the Gotterdammerung. Previously, Merlin, Kronos, Ganesh and the rest had made sure that people would forget the things seen during the period of pure Chaos between the creations of the universe, but evidently they did not bother with these precautions now.
Crowley snapped the fingers on his right hand, slowly staggering to his feet. His comrades would glow slightly as memories of that horrific, unimaginable time faded from their memories, for their own safety. Crowley himself allowed the memories to disappear, glaring now at Oberon and the blinded Kronos, who sat on a nearby bench, his eyes gone as he panted.
Oberon’s face was a picture of absolute, pure fury. In a way, Crowley was relieved by that. He could never have imagined that hatred and rage on Richard’s face, who had generally been stoic and reserved when not fucking around. It was a reminder. No matter how much Oberon looked like his old friend and...father, he wasn’t him.
Spit came from Oberon’s mouth as he roared. “THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED!” he howled at Kronos. Crowley felt a sort of disgust and revulsion take him, almost overcoming the fear. He wanted to laugh. Oberon might well be a lion, but he was all the bad sides of it. He may well be a dangerous, often majestic beast...but he was a lazy, prideful sonofabitch. And that wasn’t more clear than now, as he slammed Billy’s severed head on the ground in a rage, allowing it to spatter and smash.
Kronos growled back at Oberon. “Things happened that I did not expect.” he said slowly, his empty eye sockets staring into space. “I want more time.”
That phrase nearly knocked Crowley over, because of the memories summoned. Leah, dying. His time with her. His time with all his families, ended so abruptly. Uriel had ended his time with Leah, but Crowley was repurposing that hatred - Uriel’s reasons for many of his actions were because of Oberon, and the madness caused by his single minded obsession.
Oberon would die by the hands of the last angel. Crowley was very sure of this.
But...they had been through a Gotterdammerung. Where was the new world? He looked around, seeing his school. Elfen High still lived...though the ground implied a slight difference. Were they still on Earth soil? (Insofar as they were?) Gravity felt...lighter. He felt that outside, though the school automatically had adjusted to Earth-like gravity, for the comfort of the passengers.
There was something different though...he felt outside, reaching a magical arm out. He felt...nothing. Nothing at all. Just the school, and space outside.
“Holy shit.” said an ISSR soldier, looking outside and seeing the stars outside. Not any Earth to be seen. The various RAF fighter jets were now in the auditorium, which had grown massively to accommodate them and Damien, though they would have a mind-splitting headache.
Crowley paused, thinking. “What.” he said quietly, starting toward a conclusion. A conclusion that Kronos confirmed.
“We were...intending to reshape the Omniverse.” the god said through some pain. “That was our goal. But evidently, we were interrupted. But when I started the process, it couldn’t be stopped. That energy needed to be used. And it was used in this form, using what materials I had on hand…”
Oberon was calmer now, his voice returning to a slow and calm verbal waterfall, smooth and relaxing to listen to when you forgot who was speaking. “I was going to use something. I believe you mortals would call it a Dyson Sphere? More of a swarm, of course.” A grandfatherly chuckle. “It would function as the new centre of the Fae empire. Originally, Kronos would have extended his capabilities outside of your universe and the universe of Hell and the worlds I conquered in the past, and we would have enveloped all of the Omniverse to our commands in one stroke.” He brushed some imaginary dust off his armour. “I assume you are aware of the World Tree that stands in the centre of the Omniverse, Harbinger of the Sun?”
Crowley flinched. Some of the others...now, they would remember that phrase. It had popped up often enough for them, particularly if they were at Elfen High before 2030. “I am aware.”
“We would have used it as a nexus, something we took our power from. Effectively our sun in our Dyson “Sphere”.” he explained in a cool fashion, shaking his head with a sad smile. “BUT WE WERE INTERRUPTED, WEREN’T WE?” he fired a blue beam of energy in a rage at Lyra. It would likely strike her, enough to cause some serious pain but not kill. Not just yet.
“Souls.” muttered Oberon quietly. “That’s the linchpin of this whole business. Uriel tried to use them for his own purposes, I know. He had learnt, after his years of religious fanaticism and torture that he could manipulate and use them. We are doing the same, but on a larger scale. But we did not absorb the whole Omniverse. Merely your Hell and Earth.”
Crowley blinked. It was clear now. “Elfen High. You turned my school into your Dyson Sphere, powered by all the life from Hell and Earth.”
“It’s remarkably big, isn’t it?” Kronos commented. “If you need something that can contain trillions of souls, this is a very, very good choice. The sun of these souls is located within your school, operating as our power source.”
Oberon sighed. “You know, nephew.” he said, pseudo-affectionately. “I didn’t want to have to do this. But now you’ve forced me to attack the World Tree head-on. I do think I’ll be hijacking your school now…” he said, a hand raised upwards as the school glowed blue and jerked forward through a portal.
The druids and Michael, upon the World Tree, would see the blue light approach them. A blue light that surrounded Elfen High.
On Elfen High, Crowley started to break down in laughter. “Three universes.” he giggled. “I’ve lived through three universes. And I lived through the first two twice. And I still fucked up. That’s amazing.” he snorted, sitting back down on his ass. “That’s just amazing.”
He had saved the entire human race...a week ago, from everyone else’s perspective. And thousands of times during his disappearance. And now...they were all dead again. As well as every plant, every animal, every demon, every other creature except those in this school.
And he didn’t even control the school anymore, or he wasn’t the sole controller. Oberon was the pilot now, using the power of the trillions of souls he had taken to direct his ship. They needed to get to that power source, but they also needed to protect the World Tree. They would need to split up to do that. Crowley telepathically explained that to his friends of the school. Some of you, be sure to dock at the World Tree and help the forces there save the Omniverse. You may recognise the temporary Harbinger there. Tell Michael I am very sorry. Some of you, come with me to find where Oberon and Kronos have placed all these souls of our world. Maybe we can reverse this. Or at least we can keep them from destroying other universes.
Crowley didn’t explain what he thought might have to happen. In order to save the Omniverse...Elfen High might need to die. And if the school had to be destroyed, this last remnant of the world they had once been part of….well, he would do it himself.
Oberon spoke up again, before he would charge at Crowley with his sword. “Nephew, this school shall be the start of my ultimate empire. But for your friends, it will only be your Graveyard.”
