The End
Around him the others fought and waged their private battles. The tide of the war moved forwards and backwards. And before him the prismatic nightmare twisted and squirmed in continual, rage filled tantrums of blood soaked light. Light that arched from its core and plunged into the earth. A barrage of anchors that didn't hold long but like a tide of ants, as each construct was shattered others rose forth in an endless, infinite grasping refusal.
Still Kiz held his ground, muscles knotting as he reeled in another inch of molten, yellow fabric now seeping crimson along a skein of vein like tendrils. The veins throbbed, pushing warm bloody light further along its length.
Kiz had bound many horrors that threatened the annihilation of Creation if left unchecked, but there was not many entities so primal in their connection to the Word that cleaved the Void and poured Light from the nulled nothingness of eternal absence of anything.
"HRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHNNNNH!"
The prismatic nightmare manipulated the auditory spectrum of energy like a man far too drunk. Kiz was bent on Binding the beast. But the beast was not going quietly into the long, cold dark.
And yet.
That only had to be one possibility. Kiz turned his head a degree and watched the tapestry of yellows and reds that had passed through his hands and now were stretched taut at the edge of the Well of the Void, beyond which oblivion waited. Even light lacked sufficient velocity to escape the pull of a black hole. It was almost an impossibility.
Kiz knew of the power of mankind's will. The will of man was the power supreme, whether it was found in the the dreams of the sleeper or the path of the waking hours walked. The radiance of these other colors was foreign to him. First the molten, waxy yellow curtain now wrapped around his void soaked fists. Now the bleeding, boiling red raged fueled constructs bursting from the monster and seeking purchase in the womb of the earth. While such were not supposed to exist, there was a light that did and had and could prevail. The Green Light. The embodiment of mankind's will. It was the greatest gift of the Presence. After all, it was the will given form as the Word that had started everything.
Kiz didn't have much that he could spare on those around him. But if something was going to happen to break the stalemate, it would happen fast. There would be no time for those who weren't prepared.
"Not..." Kiz felt his muscles ache with the tension. His voice sounded like it was a thousand leagues away, echoing in a slow lumber towards those nearby. "Lost. Come-" Kiz knuckles popped and his fingers spasmed. They wanted to open, but Kiz held them closed by the force of his will. "Be ready. It'll..."
The sheet of yellow-red light quivered and ripped in the middle where the tension was greatest. Kiz roared, and void script erupted from the pores along his arms and ran in tumbling, random cavorting strides along the backs of his hands and raced further towards the tear. Kiz didn't have the power to fix things. He wasn't a maker like the Light-touched were, who could construct something from nothing by the sheer power of their will and ego. Instead he manipulated the space and time he shared with the prismatic light horror. Shifting the relationships and twisting the area around and through and back again and again, redoubling and moving the vast empty space that existed around and between all things in Creation from smallest electron to largest planet. He never touched something that existed. He moved the nothingness by allowing more or less of it to seep in from the Void. The ripples and bunches in the moments strung together between them braided the tear and the light and the void script into a knotted, tangled mess.
There was nothing more to say that wouldn't offend. No room for the necessities that might inhabit a conversation between normal humans, even those between peasant and king. The grant of permission was beyond generous, bordering on unprecedented. Kiz blinked as the presence of the Endless faded. The heavy weight of its words beating like dumbbells upon his mind ceased. It'd been a few moments, but in those moments the solar exalted had lunged into the fray behind the Atlantan. Rose was near, but she was also far away. Even Raven was gone. And the Rider's unraveling continued but now further away. Had the space between them rippled with its unveiling or had the Rider moved away in those lost moments as the words of the Endless struck his consciousness with hammer blows?
Kiz was alone but not. The Rogues were closer or still nearby, lost in their own loss. If they heard or could unravel sense from the few words Kiz had been able to get out, they could join him on this new journey. He wasn't sure how long he'd be gone.
Creation buckled as the full breadth of Kiz's Demense oozed, poured, and burst up from the depths of the ocean of dreams and breached into the open air and then fell upon the shores of Creation.
The urban wreckage of the Solar's furious assault upon the villain of stolen planet's power was epic. The speed and vibrancy of the impacts of her fists upon the villain's body shattered the air and burst lesser materials like glass for blocks. Torn cars and gouged pavement were scattered everywhere as the forces of Kobra had swept aside civilization around the bridge. Whole blocks of buildings were shattered like the bodies of men upon a battle field. Exposed brick and girder beams were like the torn corpses jutting from the maws of insane beasts. In coming to the bridge, the heroes had wrought more destruction and sown more chaos upon the landscape.
But for several hundreds of yards around where Kiz stood those pictures and objects and aspects of Creation grew fuzzy and faded from memory. In their place a bleak carpet of brown grass and skeletal white trees sprouted into existence. The dome of energy that shielded the eye of the storm within which both the heros and villains dwelt -- at least for the area were Kiz Demense manifested -- became overcast with gunmetal grey clouds that allowed only twilight through to illuminate the dreamscape. The prim, chaos, and dreaming gushed, making creative possibility possible in ways not usually allowed without extreme effort upon the fabric of Creation.
Kiz's Demense was as much nightmare as dream. It was tainted with the nightmares already bound to him, and the Void had never been happiness and sunshine anyway. In the center most acreage of Kiz's soul, a dark keep rose from the ground with high black walls broad enough to walk on and a waist high parapet.
Kiz stood now with one of his feet pressed against the parapet, muscles thick and bunched.
Kiz roared and an echo that reverberated from every corner of his Demense towards and around the prismatic terror, the broken beacon of light bleeding bits of a spectrum that Kiz didn't understand but he didn't need to. He lacked resonance with the entity to speak direct from one entity to another in the space between moments like he had with Lisa and the Endless. Still he could convey an idea to his adversary.
"There is more beyond fear and rage. You need not go quietly into the night. Within the dreams of mankind there is hope. It is the weapon that has defeated demon's in Hell and given rise to the ascendency of mankind. Hope is the fuel of Will. There is hope yet for you, but it will take some time for you to see that."
And Kiz jumped over the side of the wall, down into the bowls of his keep, into the depths of himself and carried with him the Spectrumonster. Although he'd hoped to stay longer and aid Rose more, Kiz did what he had to do.
And like that, Kiz descended back into the dreaming, pulling the Spectrumonster with him using the full weight of entire being. A giant leviathan once breached and with a fishing line caught in its gullet, now sweeping back down into the darkness of the dreaming.
The keep faded. The depressing sky resolved itself. The grass and trees were once more torn roads and broken buildings. And Kiz was gone.
Around him the others fought and waged their private battles. The tide of the war moved forwards and backwards. And before him the prismatic nightmare twisted and squirmed in continual, rage filled tantrums of blood soaked light. Light that arched from its core and plunged into the earth. A barrage of anchors that didn't hold long but like a tide of ants, as each construct was shattered others rose forth in an endless, infinite grasping refusal.
Still Kiz held his ground, muscles knotting as he reeled in another inch of molten, yellow fabric now seeping crimson along a skein of vein like tendrils. The veins throbbed, pushing warm bloody light further along its length.
Kiz had bound many horrors that threatened the annihilation of Creation if left unchecked, but there was not many entities so primal in their connection to the Word that cleaved the Void and poured Light from the nulled nothingness of eternal absence of anything.
"HRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHNNNNH!"
The prismatic nightmare manipulated the auditory spectrum of energy like a man far too drunk. Kiz was bent on Binding the beast. But the beast was not going quietly into the long, cold dark.
And yet.
That only had to be one possibility. Kiz turned his head a degree and watched the tapestry of yellows and reds that had passed through his hands and now were stretched taut at the edge of the Well of the Void, beyond which oblivion waited. Even light lacked sufficient velocity to escape the pull of a black hole. It was almost an impossibility.
Kiz knew of the power of mankind's will. The will of man was the power supreme, whether it was found in the the dreams of the sleeper or the path of the waking hours walked. The radiance of these other colors was foreign to him. First the molten, waxy yellow curtain now wrapped around his void soaked fists. Now the bleeding, boiling red raged fueled constructs bursting from the monster and seeking purchase in the womb of the earth. While such were not supposed to exist, there was a light that did and had and could prevail. The Green Light. The embodiment of mankind's will. It was the greatest gift of the Presence. After all, it was the will given form as the Word that had started everything.
Kiz didn't have much that he could spare on those around him. But if something was going to happen to break the stalemate, it would happen fast. There would be no time for those who weren't prepared.
"Not..." Kiz felt his muscles ache with the tension. His voice sounded like it was a thousand leagues away, echoing in a slow lumber towards those nearby. "Lost. Come-" Kiz knuckles popped and his fingers spasmed. They wanted to open, but Kiz held them closed by the force of his will. "Be ready. It'll..."
The sheet of yellow-red light quivered and ripped in the middle where the tension was greatest. Kiz roared, and void script erupted from the pores along his arms and ran in tumbling, random cavorting strides along the backs of his hands and raced further towards the tear. Kiz didn't have the power to fix things. He wasn't a maker like the Light-touched were, who could construct something from nothing by the sheer power of their will and ego. Instead he manipulated the space and time he shared with the prismatic light horror. Shifting the relationships and twisting the area around and through and back again and again, redoubling and moving the vast empty space that existed around and between all things in Creation from smallest electron to largest planet. He never touched something that existed. He moved the nothingness by allowing more or less of it to seep in from the Void. The ripples and bunches in the moments strung together between them braided the tear and the light and the void script into a knotted, tangled mess.
Dream of the Endless said:
There was nothing more to say that wouldn't offend. No room for the necessities that might inhabit a conversation between normal humans, even those between peasant and king. The grant of permission was beyond generous, bordering on unprecedented. Kiz blinked as the presence of the Endless faded. The heavy weight of its words beating like dumbbells upon his mind ceased. It'd been a few moments, but in those moments the solar exalted had lunged into the fray behind the Atlantan. Rose was near, but she was also far away. Even Raven was gone. And the Rider's unraveling continued but now further away. Had the space between them rippled with its unveiling or had the Rider moved away in those lost moments as the words of the Endless struck his consciousness with hammer blows?
Kiz was alone but not. The Rogues were closer or still nearby, lost in their own loss. If they heard or could unravel sense from the few words Kiz had been able to get out, they could join him on this new journey. He wasn't sure how long he'd be gone.
Creation buckled as the full breadth of Kiz's Demense oozed, poured, and burst up from the depths of the ocean of dreams and breached into the open air and then fell upon the shores of Creation.
The urban wreckage of the Solar's furious assault upon the villain of stolen planet's power was epic. The speed and vibrancy of the impacts of her fists upon the villain's body shattered the air and burst lesser materials like glass for blocks. Torn cars and gouged pavement were scattered everywhere as the forces of Kobra had swept aside civilization around the bridge. Whole blocks of buildings were shattered like the bodies of men upon a battle field. Exposed brick and girder beams were like the torn corpses jutting from the maws of insane beasts. In coming to the bridge, the heroes had wrought more destruction and sown more chaos upon the landscape.
But for several hundreds of yards around where Kiz stood those pictures and objects and aspects of Creation grew fuzzy and faded from memory. In their place a bleak carpet of brown grass and skeletal white trees sprouted into existence. The dome of energy that shielded the eye of the storm within which both the heros and villains dwelt -- at least for the area were Kiz Demense manifested -- became overcast with gunmetal grey clouds that allowed only twilight through to illuminate the dreamscape. The prim, chaos, and dreaming gushed, making creative possibility possible in ways not usually allowed without extreme effort upon the fabric of Creation.
Kiz's Demense was as much nightmare as dream. It was tainted with the nightmares already bound to him, and the Void had never been happiness and sunshine anyway. In the center most acreage of Kiz's soul, a dark keep rose from the ground with high black walls broad enough to walk on and a waist high parapet.
Kiz stood now with one of his feet pressed against the parapet, muscles thick and bunched.
Kiz roared and an echo that reverberated from every corner of his Demense towards and around the prismatic terror, the broken beacon of light bleeding bits of a spectrum that Kiz didn't understand but he didn't need to. He lacked resonance with the entity to speak direct from one entity to another in the space between moments like he had with Lisa and the Endless. Still he could convey an idea to his adversary.
"There is more beyond fear and rage. You need not go quietly into the night. Within the dreams of mankind there is hope. It is the weapon that has defeated demon's in Hell and given rise to the ascendency of mankind. Hope is the fuel of Will. There is hope yet for you, but it will take some time for you to see that."
And Kiz jumped over the side of the wall, down into the bowls of his keep, into the depths of himself and carried with him the Spectrumonster. Although he'd hoped to stay longer and aid Rose more, Kiz did what he had to do.
And like that, Kiz descended back into the dreaming, pulling the Spectrumonster with him using the full weight of entire being. A giant leviathan once breached and with a fishing line caught in its gullet, now sweeping back down into the darkness of the dreaming.
The keep faded. The depressing sky resolved itself. The grass and trees were once more torn roads and broken buildings. And Kiz was gone.
