Unconquered Pt. 16

The crash still smashed him into the scaffolding and flung him hard against the golden chest of the immense statue. He felt something crunch in his wrist and then crack in his back as he collapsed onto his back, his arm flung out wide. The ship he had flown all the way here tumbled away, crumpled and crushed like it had been caught up in the fist of a furious god. Then the air rushing by them shifted -- changing from wispy and thin and blue to a roiling blaze of red and black and lightning. They were in the Sunder.

Ember slowly sat up, groaning as he did so.

The Sunder didn't rush in to blast him with chaos. It was being kept at bay by the magical generators of the statue's cladding. And in that moment, Ember was able to see the Land spread out underneath him. He could see the vast height of Mount Mahameru -- coming to its flat top, where he saw that complex machines were built. All part of the vast collection of devices that the builders of the Land had made, to keep the Land functioning. He started to stand up, looking up past the scaffolding he stood on.

Past the head of the statue, he could see the brilliant glow of the Sun. It grew closer by the second.

Ember gritted his teeth and began to start up the statue.

***

A block of the ruined city of Samsara was now, currently, more on fire than it was frozen. If this was the only unique thing about it, it would have been a reason to come and check it out. But the fact it had two masters of their arts dueling meant that survivors from both sides, who had landed with parachutes and life boats, started to gather in the rubble, to watch as the two finest warriors on the battlefield struck at one another.

Five origami replicas of June flipped and twirled on their axis, lashing out with their arms. Slashing paper-cuts, sharp enough to slice through bronze, swept through the air towards Goat who Wrestles. He blocked each with a pinkie, hardened to steel by the focus of his martial skill. Each impact filled the air with sparks and a clang. Once he had blocked each, Goat popped his pipe from his mouth and breathed out a gout of flame that transformed into a massive, flaming deer, which rushed towards June. June clapped her hands together, then flashed them out -- red ink had written sacred symbols on her palms, and as the flames struck the symbols, the deer flew apart into a haze of flames.

"You're getting slow in your old age, Goat!" June shouted.

"Hell seems to have softened your killing instinct, though," Goat said, then clapped his pipe in his teeth. He paced to the side, then started to sprint forward. June sprang backwards -- and when she left the ground, the ground that she had stood upon melted down. Flames roared up out of the pits, and Goat wove between the gouting flames, blocking them with casual sweeps of his arms, before he reached out for June. He caught her wrist.

June exploded into a haze of butterflies.

Goat clapped his palm, crushing two butterflies, and when the butterflies swept back around, reforming into June on a boulder of wreckage about ten yards away, blood dripped from a pair of gouges taken from her shoulder. She gritted her teeth.

"Why?" She hissed.

"Why?" Goat chuckled. "Ten thousand years of bloodshed, pain, and death. And why? Because of a fake world. A fake life. Fake people." He shook his head. "Bahul is going to make something better. Bahul is going to make something that is worth being built. And he's going to make it while I'm fucking Champion whores in Surya!" He laughed. "I've got a ticket off this pathetic shard."

He sprinted forward, then jerked out his pipe with a shove -- sending glittering ashes into the air, which flew straight towards June's eyes. She thrust out with two fingers and a billowing explosion of white air shot into the air, blowing the ashes away. But then Goat kicked her in the gut with an arrow fast blow, knocking her back off the boulder. She collapsed to her side, hissing as she clapped her hands together. "Thin ice thin ice-"

She began to turn one dimensional, so that she could slip away, but Goat sprang atop her, grabbing onto her throat. He jerked her up, with the iron had strength of a true master, holding her up and off the ground. He tossed her up, and then brought his palm down onto the ground. "Air juggle style!" he shouted, and June was frozen in the air, caught still, her arms locked in her flailing posture, her legs half cocked. She tried to move -- but she couldn't move anything...save...

Her tail twitched.

Goat planted two fingers against her temple. "Hundred blows as one strike..." he whispered, looking as if he was beginning to draw up the energy for the blow. June had seen it before, on many battlefields, where they had fought together as friends and allies. She had seen the twisted, exploded ruins of bodies left behind. Energies began to crackle along his body, buzzing along his spine. June started reaching for bottles and tinctures -- but her belt was empty of everything.

"Bye June," Goat said, grinning.

June's tail closed around a brass bottle.

She whipped her tail around and flicked it once -- and the bottle flew straight into Goat's mouth. He choked, staggering backwards, sucking in air in his shock. With the sudden loss of focus, June landed, then punched the back of the bottle. She heard something inside of it shifting and a muted pop as a cork came free. Goat's eyes widened and he clutched at his throat as it bulged, wriggling. Green flames exploded along his body, gouting from his nose, his ears, around his eyes. He fell to his knees, the bottle falling from his lips so he could scream and scream.

"Don't worry," June said, her voice acid. "After the first few weeks, Hell isn't so bad."

The green flames swept out. Skin flaked away. And when it had faded, Goat who Wrestles was a blackened skeleton -- which crumbled apart, into a pile of ash.

June panted, then sat down on her ass. She lifted her eyes to the tower of smoke, and to the distant statue.

"Good luck, Ember," she muttered.

***

Ember staggered to the last ramp of the statue -- and found that the scaffolding led to an ear. But it was here that he had to admit that something was happening to the statue. As it drew closer and closer to the sun, the golden hue of the statue had shifted, becoming harder and sturdier and gaining a glossy glow to it. He put his palm against it -- and realized that it was familiar. It was the same glowing golden metal that the ancient spear of his home village had been made of.

"Orichalicum," the deep, bass voice of Bahul jerked Ember's head around.

The ear lead into a straight corridor which itself lead into a circular chamber that looked a great deal like the bridge of the Starshrike, save that it had only one chair. That chair was dominated by the immense bulk of Bahul himself. He was looking through the eyes of his own statue, which displayed the view of the Sun -- which was drawing closer and closer and closer.

"It's Orichalicum," Bahul said, slowly standing as Ember staggered inside. "Also known as sunsteel -- it is forged by exposing gold to the purified rays of the sun itself. Only possible under prismatic effects and certain storms on the Land. But here?" He spread his hands. "Here, we are surround by that light. And in an instant, I have crafted the largest warstrider that has ever been."

"And with it..." Ember said, panting. "You're going to kill the sun."

"Correct." Bahul said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I am going to crush the sun, shatter it into pieces, and find the control prayers for the gods that it created. With those controls, I will be able to remake the Land -- each god would be mine to command. Not to bribe with prayers, not to intimidate with violence, but to control as directly as I control my own fingers. I will tear apart the weak souls of humanity, their very biology. I will rebuild better men. Better women. There will no longer be divisions and disunity. I will remake the land itself -- there will no longer be a valley that has plenty and a valley that has nothing."

"And all it takes is the deaths of twenty billion people?" Ember asked, gritting his teeth against the pain throbbing through him. He was beginning to think that maybe crashing into a golden -- now orichalicum statue -- was an exceedingly bad idea. He shook his head. "That's vile."

"Better to tear off the bandage now! To make a perfect world and end this destructive cycle!" Bahul swept his hand out. "I am the last Unconquered -- you are nothing more than an aberration, created by the Sun in a desperate bid to prevent me from creating my perfect world."

Ember shook his head. "I won't let you do it, Bahul."

Bahul chuckled. "I'm afraid you can't stop me."

He walked forward.

Ember didn't even bother getting into void stance. He punched Bahul as hard as he could. The blow seemed to strike Bahul -- and yet, he smiled, his mustache not even disturbed. "Valiant," he said as Ember punched him again and again. "But futile."

He brought his fist crashing into Ember's belly. Ember coughed up a thick spurt of blood, gasping around the sudden pain that flared through his guts. He staggered, his eyes unfocused as Bahul snatched his hair up, dragging him to his feet, then twisting him around and flinging him against the far wall of the orichalicum chamber. The golden glow of the place suffused Ember as he collapsed onto his side. He coughed again, and wheezed. "I...am Ember...of Rataka..."

"Precisely," Bahul said, his voice not exactly unkind . He walked forward. "You are Ember and no more."

He grabbed Ember by the throat and lifted him up. Ember clutched at the massive wrist of the burly Unconquered, while Bahul cocked his head, regarding him. "Honestly, you got further than I ever expected, considering the chains around your waist. You, at least, have the proper spirit of the Unconquered. I had thought you weak, when you first fell to my hand. But no weak man could crawl from Hell." His mustache twitched in what might have been a smile. "In fact, I must commend you for succeeding with the most paltry, mismatched set of Lunars any Unconquered has ever been saddled with." He sneered. "I believe our celestial masters were getting desperate."

Ember trembled. Not with fear. Nor pain.

Rage.

"Take...it...back!" He choked out.

"Or what?" Bahul asked. "I haven't even flared my anima, foolish child. Your soul is willing, but..."

He turned and started to walk for the door. "Your flesh..."

Soul.

That word echoed in Ember's head. You're a depowered mortal whose primary value to me is the shinimatic modeling in your soul. That was what the Shadow Dragon had said.

Bahul stepped to the edge of the ear, with the infinite roiling chaos of the Suner beyond. He held Ember out beyond the edge, smirking at him. "...is weak."

Ember wheezed. "Sh...hull...ghmm!"

Bahul drew him closer, frowning. "Last words?" His free hand reached around, hefting Ember up by the belt of his wrappings, so he could take some pressure off Ember's throat. Ember, leaning close, hissed.

"That soulgem...is mine."

And he swung his arm up and planted his palm on Bahul's forehead. His fingers clenched and the nails dug underneath the soulgem that was flush with Bahul's skin. Bahul bellowed in rage and shock, his palms opening, but Ember remained suspended as a golden flame began to spread from the gemstone to his fingers, creeping along inch by inch. Ember tugged on the gemstone -- and saw the fires sliding further along his fingers to his knuckles. Bahul clapped his hands to Ember's wrist. Ember felt his voice in his head, bellowing at him.

No! No! I am the Unconquered! You can't take it from me!

Ember clenched his jaw, pulling harder. You don't get it, Bahul! He thought back -- the flames reaching where Bahul's hands gripped his wrist. Ember focused -- and rather than using his own desire to be the Unconquered, he reached past. To what mattered. The memory of Chirp giggling and blushing and squirming as he worshiped her body. The fierce glare inside of Ceaith's eyes. The delightful laugh of the Rose as their rapier's clattered and clashed together. The gentle warmth of Xora. The knowing wisdom of Tayar. All of them. He didn't want this for himself.

He wanted this...for them.

"We are the Unconquered!" Ember shouted, aloud.

The roaring flames swept along his body. Bahul's hands went went and the two of them tumbled backwards, Bahul crackling and burning with a flickering anima, as if his body could no longer quite hold the same power that it had. But as he flickered, Ember flared. Bahul snarled and punched at him as they tumbled through the Suner. Ember blocked the blow with his left forearm and then smashed his forehead into Bahul. Bahul skidded away from him in the chaos -- then focused. With his will, he transformed some Sunerstuff into a shimmering ball and chain of pure quicksilver. He swung it around his head and Ember punched it -- where his fist met the sphere, a rattling klunnng sounded and the sphere shattered apart into a thousand pieces.

"This is impossible!" Bahul bellowed.

Ember kicked off a bit of Sunerstuff as they burst through the raw chaos and into the cold blue air above the Land. He grabbed onto Bahul's wrist. He dragged him close. Hissed.

"You want the Cycle to end, Bahul?"

Ember grabbed onto the soulgem on Bahul's forehead.

"You first."

He ripped with all the might of the Unconquered. His body flared like a golden sun.

The gemstone came away, and Bahul's body came apart, exploding in a sizzle of hissing starlight. The concussive wave slammed Ember backwards, flipping him end over end over end. He tumbled through the air -- and felt his hand burning. The power in his hand -- the power in his head. He felt his soul surging with the energy. He realized that he was empowered -- but he held in his hand, the power and the energy of Bahul as well. He could be something greater than even an Unconquered. He could surpass the Sun itself.

He could stride the Land -- nay, the Sunder itself -- as a conquering omnipotent deity.

He could...

He could...

He could fix it all.

Ember clenched his hand. He placed his fingers on his forehead -- his fingernails digging underneath his own skin. Blood flowed and pain roared through him as he screamed his soul out. The gemstone snapped free -- and he felt pain soaring through his body. But it was not a fatal pain. Ember didn't cling to the power, as Bahul had. He let it go -- and so, the power simply left him, leaving him dazed and ragged, and holding the two blazing motes of godhood.

"The Cycle...is...broken!" He bellowed and clenched his fist.

The two motes fused.

Shattered.

And Ember opened his palm in the sudden stillness of the moment. Golden motes of light filled the air around him -- a thousand fireflies. A million. A billion. A constellation of beauty that glinted and glimmered around him. Tears blurred his eyes as the cold was kept at bay. Then, one by one, the fireflies began to wink out. They zipped away, shooting off. He saw them arcing down -- landing among villages, among forests, among towns, among cities. He could see people, looking up in awe, then gasping as the motes found them.

Ember smiled -- wanly.

He felt so very tired. His body was still battered -- even an Unconquered could only heal so much in a spate of a few seconds.

He let himself fall.

Then, below him, silver filled his view. A roaring sound. Sleek wings. And welcoming, golden arms.

And then nothing at all.

***

Ember awoke, slowly. In pieces. His left arm refused, stubbornly, because it was currently being lounged upon by Ceaith. His belly was occupied by Chirp. Xora and Jaqueline both had their hands on his right arm, while Tayar was cuddled up against his head, using her body as a pillow. But what Ember noticed after all that was a brilliant glow that faintly impressed upon him a feminine figure, frowning down at him.

"Fine!" The figure said. "I'll work for you. Gods." She shook her head.

Ember's brow furrowed. He slowly sat up and Ceaith grumbled atop his arm.

"...you're the animating intelligence of the Starhshrike?" he asked.

The figure spread her hands slowly. "Tada!"

"You came back!" Ember said, excitedly.

The A.I shrugged and sat down on the bed near his feet. "When the Starshrike came into the Sunder and it was crewed by a bunch of panicky idiots who had no idea what they were doing, I had to step in. And...I saw everything I missed on the observation orbs. Everything." She pursed her lips, slightly, then shook her head. "Y-You...turned out to be a pretty good Unconquered."

Ember slowly sagged back. "Where are we?"

"Samsara," the A.I said, smiling. "How do you think your wives got on here?"

Ember smiled, then relaxed back into the warm embrace of his wives. Ceaith grumbled as she started to wake up. "Hey, Ember..." She mumbled. "Me being here doesn't mean I, like, like you." She grumbled, then closed her eyes again.

Ember smiled.

He wasn't quite sure what he had done.

But for now? He was just damn happy he was alive and here, with his lovers. Xora nuzzled against his belly and murmured, softly. Her teeth found the hem of his pants. Ember was very happy -- and then blinked as his cock sprang into the air. It was easily sixteen inches long, just as long and as thick as it had been when he was the Unconquered.

"What the hell?" Ember whispered.

Chirp blinked.

"Well," they said, smiling. "A-At least that's back."

Ember slowly sagged back.

The future could wait.

***

"And so it was, the Final Unconquered returned to the Land with his five Lunar Wives, to find that the Cycle had been broken indeed. The power of the Unconquered had been passed on -- not to one man, or one woman, but to every man, every woman, every child. The incredible power of the Unconquered, distilled into a billion people -- and while no one was ever as strong as the Unconquered, each had a glory of their own now."

"Some found their finest talent honed to new heights. Farmers, able to feed whole villages with a day's labor. Painters, able to make paintings that live. Craftsmen, who could make things as fine as the finest magister in a single evening. Even the Final Unconquered had a spark as well -- and it is said that his skill in the bedroom, the only talent he truly cherished from his days as the Unconquered, was all that he had left."

"What of the Lunars? They did not lose their powers, no. Ceaith slept her way through half a hundred women, while Chirp and Xora both retired quietly, unwilling to fight and use their powers without cause. Jaqueline, the Rose of Versalis, it is said still strikes from the shadows with his rapier and her wit. And, finally, Tayar became the finest diplomat the Realm has ever seen, and helps to keep the peace between us and the Sunderites as they come to mine our land for the resources they need."

"But without an Unconquered to be Chosen, no new Lunars will ever be chosen again. The Cycle truly is over -- and the Land will find a new future. Not one chosen fo...for...Aliysa? Aliysa, are you asleep?"

Aliysa Vinn yelped and sat up -- her eyes widening as her storyteller glared at her. "W-What? Me? No! No. Not. No. Not even!" She said, shaking her head, her cheeks burning. "No, I-"

The storyteller's body flared with a golden-white light, mana flowing into her eyes as she looked down her nose at Aliysa. Aliysa blushed.

"Okay, only a little," she said.

"Out!"

Aliysa walked out of the storyteller's hut, grumbling under her breath. Boys flew by -- skidding through the air on clouds. Their talent was in the occult. Aliysa sighed, her arms crossing her chest as she walked forward. She hated her talent. The spark of the Unconquered, which had passed into her when the Cycle had broken, was not exactly the most exciting enhancement of the human condition. She was very very very very tough. Knives shattered on her, she could go weeks without food, she didn't really need to sleep. She just happened to like it. It was a good way to get out of a boring lesson, for one thing.