Collide Gamer

Burning brighter than the Sun Part 3 – The Flame of Destruction

Nathalia stayed with Romulus. He was interesting, he knew interesting people and finding Rome again and again would be annoying, so she just moved in after the banquet. Only Sol even attempted to object, but Luna stopped her and their Master gave the go ahead.

Nathalia didn’t really keep track of time, although Romulus introduced her to the concept of some sort of calendar. She found out a lot of things about Romulus and the gods at large. She made good friends with the fire elemental, who would be known as Krieg later on, Luna, and the Horned Rat. Last of which she could only ever meet when Romulus wasn’t around. At first, she only contacted him to find out what he had meant by the words uttered at that first banquet, she received no real answer but he was a somewhat interesting conversationalist, despite being young for a god.

She found out about the two great sins of Romulus, the thing he did to his brother as well as something that, when he revealed it to her, made her actually afraid. Fear was not a common emotion from her, especially not true fear. When he uttered the words atop the Vesuvius, it ran cold down her back.

“This is Pompeii – the city that will kill Gaia.”

Those words were the end of their time together.

“What do you mean, Romulus? You cannot kill her. She is a law of nature. The god of gods.”

“She is and she is not,” Romulus stated as he looked down at the city, from where they stood, they had a nice overview of it. “She is a goddess, an incredibly powerful goddess, but a goddess nonetheless. All deities can die.”

“Not her. She is a goddess so powerful she is almighty,” Nathalia stated, even as she studied the city below. Now that Romulus told her about it she could see it, the lines of the streets, the shape of the buildings, all of it carefully laid out. The whole city was nothing but a massive nexus – an array to focus the mana of all of its inhabitants into one massive spell. Currently it served to simply try and turn Gaia’s eyes away from here, but that could be altered within a moment’s notice.

“If she is almighty, why would she allow this place to exist?” Romulus asked her.

“Why wouldn’t she? It’s not like it will hurt her,” Nathalia countered the argument, “All it will do is tickle her and then she has an excuse to kill you.”

“Nathalia, I have the help of 142 gods and goddesses. Only Odin and his ilk have renounced my invitation.” Romulus must have sensed that he wasn’t going to convince her, saying, “I had hoped I could count on your strength as well.”

Nathalia fell silent for a second, “Why are you doing this?”

“To free the Abyss from its shackles. As long as Gaia exists we cannot use our powers freely. We live in bubbles separated from reality, in pomp and glory, while normal humans starve to death and succumb to disease. Why? Because a higher power says we cannot use our gifts to help them.” Romulus looked into Nathalia’s eyes, “I know you have no love for humanity, but even you would want to stretch your wings freely under a sky that can contain them, would you not?”

“Humans are worth nothing to me and the potential of freely flying is not worth the risk,” Nathalia denied his point. “All you will do is anger Gaia, like Tiamat before you. Was the Tower of Babel not proof enough for you? All of the oldest of all pantheons, eradicated in an instant. All of Mesopotamia, emptied in a generation of Abyssals. Now, only Lorylim remain. You must be aware that Europe could befall the same fate?”

Romulus nodded, “I am willing to risk it. No conquest is ever done without the potential of loss. If it means the chance to liberate the mundane people from their deprivation, then I shall offer the Abyss of today.”

Nathalia looked at Romulus, then at Sol and finally at Luna, they all looked determined. “You cannot be serious? Gaia will not stop at you. All of Europe, Romulus!”

“That is a risk I am willing to take,” he simply repeated. “The Abyss will one day break out into reality. Even if we do not succeed, my research and the power of my own soul put into this array will survive us. One day, someone will work out how to topple Gaia’s artificial boundaries.”

Nathalia grit her teeth angrily. “I will not die because of your hubris Romulus. Life is too interesting to squander it on your grand designs.” Just in that moment, all she knew slotted into place. ‘You best not lie, Rat.’

“Sacrifices have to be made,” Romulus sighed and massaged his forehead. He stopped in his search for more arguments, when the ground underneath them trembled. Worried, he beheld the mountain. “Vesuvius has been acting up lately, I hope it won’t interfe…” His eyes spied the supernatural influence that grasped at the earth itself. He traced it back to Nathalia’s hand, clenched like she was grasping at the magma chamber itself. “What are you doing?”

“Saving us all from your idiocy. I cannot flee far enough to escape Gaia but you are just mortal, you I can evade,” Nathalia said and stirred the volcano. She never had worked with a real volcano before, usually she created them from scratch inside Illusion Barriers. This was easier. Much easier. The reality of the boundary between the Abyss and mundane being imposed was all the more evident by the ease with which the volcano obeyed its goddess.

A second tremor, “SOL!” Romulus screamed and the elemental transformed into a sword of gold, too large and ornamented to be considered a proper weapon for most people. For Romulus, the cleaver was simply wielded in a single hand.

Although Nathalia moved immediately, the strike still struck her horn. What would have normally been a non-worrying strike snapped the black extension of her skull off on impact. It disintegrated into embers of black and orange, all of them flying towards Romulus. Her whole being felt slow and groggy, a chunk of her godhood leaving her and flowing into the Apex instead. The powers he stole, he immediately turned towards Vesuvius, in an effort to stabilize the magma within. Likely this was what he had called her for.

He was too late, however. The part of her power that he made off with was not enough to stop the chain reaction she had set in motion.

“Nathalia,” Romulus sounded equally angry and sorrowful. “I have to kill you now.”

“Pah, if you kill me directly or hundreds indirectly where is the difference really,” Nathalia said and slowly took steps backwards. Romulus set after her.

A wordless flurry of attacks. A pained expression on his face. A constant retreat for her. He was the worst opponent of any god. Any more strikes sustained and perhaps he would gain the power to revert what was happening. His Aura ignited, he sped up and caught her, fist slamming into her stomach. More of her divinity was drained and she slammed into the floor. Raising his blade, he prepared for the final strike.

‘This is it?’ she thought angrily, preparing for one final, desperate offensive. Perhaps her true form would… no, that would just make her a bigger targe-

Warm blood splattered over Nathalia’s body. Purple blood, so different from the magma flowing through her. A body of dark fur had taken the strike for her. Sol’s blade form stuck out of his back, completely rammed through the abdomen of the creature.

“Muris?” Romulus asked, confused.

“In the flesh, long enemy,” the Horned Rat coughed. “Making certain that none of your contingencies will let you re-attempt this exercise for several thousand years. You know what they say… the hand of fate must be forced…”

Romulus didn’t respond, only drew his hand back in a moment of rage and panic. Sol glowed with rising power, turning incandescent. The next strike never came. Nathalia gave the volcano one last push and the mountainside was torn apart.

Even if it was harmless to the gods, the explosion was disorienting. The entire world around them turned into molten rock and burst stone shards. While Romulus conjured one of the many divine powers he had stolen to become airborne, the Horned Rat wove an arcane spell Nathalia did not understand. A portal opened up around Romulus, threatening to swallow him.

Romulus struggled. Vines and stone crept over his skin, reinforcing his already legendary power. Still, he could not keep the power of the portal from gradually closing in on him. Hovering in the air far above the city-sized array, slowly getting swallowed by magma, the Horned Rat cackled. “Next time you put parts of your own soul into a magical nexus, make sure no one can meddle with it,” the skull-faced god declared, drawing more power from Romulus’ own design to empower the spell further.

“…You two… on your hands are the lives of all the mundane people that we cannot save!” Romulus shouted, the portal gradually closing. “If you ever set foot in my realm again, I will hunt you down!” Those were the final words, before the spell finished.

A moment later, a second portal enveloped Nathalia and the Horned Rat. They reappeared somewhere underground. The roaring of Vesuvius was gone. In its place was the skittering of a dozen feet. Small rat-people hurried over to their creator, helping the Horned Rat remain standing.

“Where did you take him? Where did you take us?” Nathalia asked.

“Just somewhere away from Pompeii, in Romulus’ case,” the Horned Rat wheezed, the pain of the wound now apparent in his voice. “Stubborn fool, fool – too powerful for me to do more than put him somewhere he’s delayed. My contacts will make sure none of the other gods halt the eruption or its consequences. As for us, one of the most important cities will grow here.” He stopped for a moment, purple blood oozing out between his teeth. “Urgh, I will need thousands of years to restore from this,” he lamented as the Skaven helped him up, “but we both got out alive, Flame of Destruction.”

Nathalia touched her broken horn, she felt the huge portion of her powers that had left with it like a missing tooth. She wasn’t happy about that. “You could have acted quicker.”

“I was waiting for the prophecy to come true, but you did it a bit too spontaneously,” the Horned Rat explained, the wound in his chest slowly closing. “I barely managed to tap into the array in time to save us.”

“And none of his allies warned him of that outcome?” Nathalia probed. “He had others like you on his side.”

“We are gods of knowledge, we just see potential futures based on the information we have, not the truth. They must have deluded themselves into thinking he could succeed, so that’s all they saw.” The Horned Rat grinned his tooth-smile.

“You are an annoying bunch…” Nathalia said and prepared to leave.

“Where will you go now?” the Horned Rat wanted to know.

“Go somewhere where I can still fuck somebody. This whole thing was annoying but necessary,” She got up and prepared to enter the flow of the world, letting Gaia drift her somewhere safe. Once more, she touched her broken horn.

It would take time getting used to being weak.

The scene froze again. “So, there we go. Any hard feelings?”

“I lost my powers,” Nathalia growled at the time goddess’ voice.

“Not enough to be called anything less than godly,” argued Ferikrona. “Now for the favour that you are owed. Time is a way to regain many things once lost.”

“Is that your whole purpose? To give me the missing parts of my power back?” the dragoness growled.

“Indeed.”

“You could have just done that!” she shouted. “I have much better things to do than float here, involuntarily participating in another one of the Rat’s plots.”

“Could I? Do you? Maybe I needed to stretch the time you had here to get the fix done. Or maybe I am just that bored. In any case, the time I keep you here is now at an end.”

 Nathalia felt as if her body was restored to a certain point in time, one before the fight with Romulus, one when she still had… She raised her hand to her regrown horn. “I suppose that is that debt cleared then,” she hummed, a little bit of satisfaction sneaking into her voice.

“Now, I think you have somebody who needs a reminder of who you are,” Ferikrona advised, then her presence disappeared into the golden darkness.

Nathalia smirked and grasped the true power inside her. All of it, all that she had lost, returned to her. In the ocean of times that left her untouched, she began to glow. Her humanoid form broke and expanded.

Sol was hovering above the sands of time, waiting for Nathalia to get back up. It was better for everyone involved if she made sure they could get her to Romulus and for him to finally end her. The next goddess of volcanoes would hopefully be more aggregable.

The constant swirl was interrupted by something stirring under the surface. “Finally coming back up?” Sol mumbled and readied herself.

A giant arm broke from the sands, every single one of the four claws big enough to crush a house. Sol dodged narrowly through gaps. The claw slammed back into the ground and helped heave the rest of the body out of the basin. Hundreds of metres away from the shoulder, Nathalia’s hind legs surfaced. The hourglass was kilometres across and that was just enough to contain the living mountain range that surfaced from within.

All of her was obsidian and magna. A dragon with a mountain ridge for a spine and cliffs for claws, glowing incandescently from within the translucent volcanic glass. A maw like a trench parted, revealing needle-like teeth the size of buses. “Come then, Sol!” she roared, before drawing back her long neck and bellowing forth white-hot fire that filled the sky.

The goddess of the sun was overwhelmed by the true form of her fellow goddess and the heat her flames should no longer have been capable of reaching. Flying as fast as she could, she fled to the edge of the barrier. The cataclysmic cone of fire inevitably caught up with her. Sol screamed in pain, burning under the onslaught of energies, before managing to leave the space. Once she could no longer sense the goddess around, Nathalia closed her maw.

“Yeah, kill that bitch!” Ferikrona said and flew up to her eye. The goddess of time was a girl with dirty blonde hair, somewhere in her early twenties of apparent age. She was dressed in a pink pyjama with a fitting hat. Although it was a loose fit, it gave enough of an idea of her slim waist and medium sized bust.

Nathalia swallowed her whole without hesitation. Attempted to, anyway. All she felt in her maw was sand turning into glass.

“Rude!” Ferikrona announced and appeared somewhere else, “I am goddess number 2, you can’t kill me. Not in my own Sanctum, especially.”

“I can kill nothing that annoys me,” Nathalia said and beat her wings. One flap was all it took to deliver her back to the edge. She landed in her human form. “I suppose I am thankful,” she said to the time goddess. “Do I even care to find out what the Rat promised you for this?”

“I mean, if you don’t really care, I won’t really tell,” Ferikrona said.

Nathalia waved off and that ended that conversation. She would find out eventually if it had anything to do with her. After all of this, she was itching for a good lay.

Luckily, she knew exactly where to go for that.