Chapter: 773 - Zenith (9) (Patreon)

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Tala’s smile grew as the working echoing of Master Jevin’s power seemed to ripen within the supreme commander, firmly rooted through him and the prime commanders as well.

She remembered when the man had used this magic—or at least something very similar—on Eskau Meallain, years earlier.

She’d been caught at the very edges of it, and it had felt like roots were growing up through the ground into her feet, finding purchase in her very soul and causing Tala to gasp. Thankfully, as she hadn’t been the target, the sensation had passed as quickly as it had washed over her. Eskau Meallain hadn’t been so lucky.

Tala had witnessed the power branching throughout the woman’s entire being: body, spirit, and soul. More than that, what stood out were Master Jevin’s words, ‘I could strip your very foundations from you… I could tear your concept free of your soul.’

His power had that grip on Verity now, and his connection to the primes spread the anchors to them as well.

Unfortunately, the Reforged City Stone holder had no authority in this battle, nor on this field of war. As such, while Master Jevin’s magics were there and primed to act, they could not trigger on their own.

It wasn’t something that could win the battle for her by itself. Though, she might be able to use it as a decisive tool. That was certainly a better strategy than trying to hunt down and bring every automata to a permanent end.

Still, Master Jevin’s working wasn’t the only chance they had. Many things were coming to a head in this clash.

Eskau Meallain had been reaching for authority, giving the alliance an opportunity to add power to their fight. As such, Tala had attempted to acknowledge her, to give the alliance another surge of strength, but something had gone wrong. Tala had felt the acknowledgement fail in some manner.

It was unfortunate, but at least nothing negative had come from the attempt. Moreover, she simply had no room to dig deeper at the moment.

Finally, Tala felt her husband lean on her to crush a greater Leshkin. From there, she felt an odd sense of euphoria roll across his soul as he saw something. Whatever it was, it let him notice a deeper truth, and soon, that was communicated through Enar and Alat to her.

He couldn’t do anything to affect it, but she could, assuming she took his idea and ran with it.

Rane had highlighted something within Verity, drawing her attention to it.

Reality resonated with what Rane had found, with the connection so deep it felt like a part of the world more than simply a connection between things within it.

To Tala’s startlement, as her perception rolled across it, she understood what lay there, its presence and purpose obvious now that she’d seen it.

It was the core concept behind automata. It was the underlying, fundamental link between all soulcore entities with constructed bodies, if she was understanding it correctly.

This was why every automaton for the past millennia had always immediately sided with reality. But the connection, the concept, went deeper than that, tendrils reaching out into all artificial beings of a humanoid shape.

That’s why even Archon attempts at artificial beings had always turned against their makers, regardless of their powersource. That also explained why Lea felt it too, despite being able to resist it with her own, natural-born soul.

The concept was also bi-directional, every automaton giving strength and metaphysical weight to those above them in the hierarchy. 

And Tala’s husband’s suggestion was to use power and authority to strengthen that link.

Tala only had a moment of bafflement before she saw his idea for what it was.

It was audacious.

It was risky.

She loved it.

It wasn’t a required piece but it would absolutely turn what could have been centuries of hunting down automata of various kinds and packed the potential to end all of that into this one fight.

He had utter faith in her, and his plan would turn a cockroach hunt into a keystone army, or it would if she followed his lead.

If she was able to swing it, she could bring down the entire Black Legion all at once.

Master Jevin’s gift was now attempting to reach out through the strengthened connection as well, but the links were still just a bit too tenuous.

Her smile grew. Thank you, Rane. Thank you, Master Jevin.

Tala reached out herself, adding power to the connection, amplifying the reality of the connection through cohesion magic and gravity magic. If the act had even the smallest amount of hostility within it, it would have been rejected and the idea would have failed, but she was genuinely trying to increase the connection, the reality, the power of the Black Legion as a whole.

At the same time, Verity utilized his growing power to begin to land more blows on her, momentarily cracking her armor, cutting into it, or causing it to crumble away, depending on the interaction between her magic and his overwhelming reality.

Tala would take the beating, they needed just another few moments for the working of the Devouring Tree to lock into place throughout the now all-too-real link that all of the Black Legion shared.

She had a momentary picture that was outside of dimensionality. It was a vision of a great spreading organism, reaching throughout Zeme and the Doman-Imithe, anchored at the legion’s factories and flowing through the officers of various strength down to the footsoldiers, distance not factoring in at all.

What Tala was doing grew the organism stronger, thickening the branches, the roots, the flow of power. It compacted the idea of the automata into a more cohesive, interconnected whole.

Then, she saw it, growing at the core of every tendril, a passive root moving to lock into place.

It was time.

Tala reached out. I am Eskau of War. My war is against these creatures. Victory against the Black Legion is mine. You are MINE.

Her power and authority stretched out, and she tried to reach through the organism…but she was rejected.

That which united the Black Legion wasn’t about to let its enemy have sway within it.

Tala was momentarily stymied, barely deflecting a rain of blows aimed at her head while she re-evaluated.

A moment later, she changed her tactic.

She came at the automata organism with her authority as a mother, as the Iron Matriarch, but more importantly as the true mother of Lea, who was an automaton.

Tala felt an odd resonance to that.

She was, in a real sense, the only true mother of any automaton, and there was power in that. A mother had the right to influence her child, her children.

Tala felt a growing attachment to automata as she leaned on that aspect, seeing more of her daughter in those who remained her enemy.

This time, when she reached out she pierced into the organism with ease and sought to latch onto the root system.

She presented a different part of her authority to the roots, the part she’d initially tried to use. I am Eskau of War. My war is against these creatures. Victory against the Black Legion is mine. You are MINE.

Tala’s authority tried to settle in, only to be rejected outright yet again, this time by Master Jevin’s dormant magics.

She reeled in shock, confused at that rejection, and that allowed for a mistake.

Verity predicted Terry, kicking the terror bird as he appeared. At the same time, he twisted around Tala’s glaive, shifting to dodge a tungsten sphere, and driving his swords up through her sides, crossing as they quartered her heart.

Tala coughed up blood within her helmet.

-Wow… That’s really cliche… Don’t we have scripts preventing that?-

It’s not vomit. Tala growled, somewhat appreciative for the distraction, while really wishing Alat would pick better timing.

-Ahh, fair.-

Tala punched Verity in the face, removing her chestplate so that the blow caused him to rip the blades out as he was driven back. Oh… that hurt.

Her blood painted the ground before she recovered enough to exert her control and pull the liquid first stoneward then back into herself.

Why didn’t that work? She scrambled mentally even as she was forced to continue a circling retreat.

Terry was more cautious, able to avoid being countered by Verity once more, but not able to land nearly as many little hits.

Tala reached out again, her authority being denied by the frustrating, root-like magic even as the automata continued to accept her as mother, awaiting her influence.

Why won’t you work? We want the same thing, rust you! She flared her authority as Eskau of War, the war upon the very thing this magic had been set to destroy.

Nothing.

She was denied.

Categorically.

Oh, the magics recognized her authority; they didn’t deny it. The magic simply didn’t care.

Tala growled in frustrated anger even as Verity drove a sword down into her foot, sending reality splinters burrowing up through her ankle and foreleg.

Flow swept down and severed Tala’s leg at the knee, a new limb growing and armor recovering it in time for her to drop into a lower stance and lunge forward.

Tala was racking her brain for an answer.

Did Master Jevin want Rane to control the implanted magics?

That didn’t make sense, Master Jevin knew that Rane wasn’t meant to be directly involved in this clash.

-I reached out and asked. He said you should be able to control it, and he doesn’t know why you can’t.-

Oh… that made sense. Asking the man himself was the obvious next step.

-Happy to help.-

Tala’s mind was derailed by that misstep on her part, and that allowed her thinking to shift.

A moment later, Tala felt the obvious answer click into place.

Master Jevin despised arcanes. He would never submit to an Eskau, and while he had the intelligence to work with one regardless, his power didn’t.

Tala barked out a laugh, causing Verity to hesitate for just a moment.

In that moment, Tala reached out once more, easily seizing the roots within the concept, the reality of the automata.

To the core of the Black Legion, she presented herself as mother. And she was. She cared for the automata, especially in how closely they resembled her daughter. Moreover, she knew that they were sick, broken, in need of correction. This wouldn’t let her rule them, nor destroy them directly, but to reach inside and activate magics that would be to their benefit as she saw it?

Well, that was her role as Maternal Iron.

As she contacted the inner, mostly dormant magic that Master Jevin had added, the magic rose up against her, ready to reject her once more, but Tala turned her authority, presenting herself in a different light to it as well.

I am the Iron Matriarch, Ascending of Humanity. I am Maternal Iron and the Ravenous, Jealous Devourer.

Her eyes burned with passion as she addressed Master Jevin’s dormant working.

You.

Her magic and will bent existence to her desires.

Are.

Her void and reality thrummed in time with her authority, solidifying her claim.

MINE.

The roots that had wormed through the concept of the Black Legion, intertwining around their fundamental existence, pulled taught, drawing on Tala’s immense power reserves to enact a working she only understood in the broadest sense.

Across Zeme, every Black Legionnaire locked in place, their soulcores suddenly not in primary position, controlling their bodies. In truth, nothing was in control of the bodies any longer. The very idea of soulcores commanding fabricated bodies ceased to make sense within Zeme.

For one brief, terrible instant, Tala held the Black Legion in a grip of roots, like an alchemist holding a beaker with iron tongs.

She held them in her arms like a newborn babe, and she felt them all orient upon her. In that moment, they saw that she was a being of all existence, not simply an abomination of magic. As she’d seen, before recognition bloomed within them. She could be their end, their final end, and despite the hold of reality upon them, they desired that greatly.

They didn’t know what to do, and in that moment, they looked upon her to receive from her the motherly guidance that should be her gift.

Tala pushed through her rising dislike for what needed to be done and turned the connection toward the required end. Their end, if indirectly.

With one single act, she used the roots to obliterate the connection and everything dependent upon it. The very conceptual foundation backing the Black Legion fell apart, the anchors that held them in reality’s thrall fell away, leaving them as individuals, connected in a sense because of their similarities, but that was all.

Then, freed from the compulsions of reality, and with a path open to them that had never been available before, they chose to pass on.

Every Legionnaire fell like puppets with their strings cut, their soulcores dispersing. The vaults of the legion were no longer able to force their recycling.

The primes, far more aware of the network than the lessers, felt the automata choose their end, and despite their greater resolve to see reality’s desires fulfilled, they despaired.

It wasn’t a large hitch, but given the capabilities of their opponents, the sheer might and skill of Eskau Meallain and Eskau Pallaun, that hitch, that delay, that despair was all it took for the end to come.

Their bodies were destroyed and with no vault to return to for recycling, their spirits retreated through the collapsing connections into their one hope of continuance. That left only Verity, collapsed to his knees and shuddering upon the ground.

His whole body trembled as the four disembodied, cored primes settled around Verity’s soulcore, sinking in and adding to the whole even as the supreme commander’s soulcore began to show cracks.

It was no longer anchored to reality, no longer bound to remove the taint of the gated.

In the same vein, it was no longer marked as one of reality’s own, and reality was not happy with such an existence when not enslaved to its benefit.

Verity’s voice trembled. “My death doesn’t matter. The Forest Spirit will return and destroy you all. Then, our shattering existence, our fraying concept, will simply be claimed by the elk, and bind him further into reality’s thrall.” The automata chuckled, even as sparks of arcane power danced across his trembling frame. “You will all die with me, and this forest will birth a new means to purge Zeme of your desecration.”

Zeme shuddered, momentarily seemingly agreeing with the automata.

Then, existence returned, a miniature universe reintegrated with this one.

Wolf bodies hit the forest floor, and even the Leshkin and the herd—the last beings battling the alliance—hesitated, allowing all eyes to turn.

The closest body to Tala was obviously that of Botulf, and the last vestiges of his shattered spirit slowly left the lupine body as those capable of seeing looked on, helpless to do anything to prevent it.

All gazes slowly lifted up to find an elk high above, antlers crackling with powerful lightning… as the beast dangled, broken necked from Anatalis’s jaws.

Conri threw back his head and howled, the sound filled with mournful triumph.

As the Forest Spirit’s spirit slowly dispersed, that spirit moved up through the antlers, power rolling out and causing all of the antlers on the elk-kin to begin sparking even as they dragged the heads upon which they rested toward the ground.

Such was the fear and tyranny of the Forest Spirit that he ensured none of his offspring could survive him.

Tala frowned, noticing that the does were untouched, lacking antlers to turn on them.

A moment later, the lighting burst outward, utterly ashing all who bore them.

Terry let out a mournful cry, his eyes locked on where the arch-pigs had been.

Walden was suddenly standing beside Anatalis, and as the immortal elk stretched his neck forward, Anatalis lifted his burden.

The Leshkin took the moment’s distraction to flee, their spirit cores disgorging their contents back into the world, dispersing into the wind.

Walden’s nose touched the top of his progenitor’s head, and existence shook.

The elk’s voice resounded through the totality of the southern forest. “This domain is mine by right. By birth, by combat, by alliance, and through agreement with Mistress Tala Sappherrous, Eskau of War and the House of Blood, Iron Matriarch and Ascending of Humanity.”

Existence resounded yet again, confirming the transfer of domain.

Walden took upon himself the domain and authority of a god-beast, leaving the Forest Spirit as ‘only’ a Sovereign, broken and dispersing.

A moment later, the world trembled again as the ancient, immortal elk passed.

All through the southern forest, the nature that the Forest Spirit had enslaved and held back broke free, Walden bending his will to aid it.

There was no easily visible change immediately—that’s not how nature worked—instead, there was a sudden feeling of deep, eternal potential.

Amidst such monumental changes, Verity’s trembling came to an end, and his head dropped, a coarse, broken laugh rolling out of him. It was almost weeping.

Then, Tala saw a flash within the automaton’s spirit as a portion—one seeming to have come from one of the primes—pulsed once with power.

Verity grunted, his shoulders straightening as he looked up at Tala and gave a sad smile. “Ahh… I see now. Though my primes are gone, their truth is with me, and now that the fight is over, I see it.” He let out a mirthless chuckle. “You will fix reality, even if not as I would have done it, not as reality itself would prefer, but you will do it.”

Tala sighed, just feeling tired. “Was it worth it? You could have actually helped, or at the very least, you didn’t have to make things worse.”

The supreme commander of a destroyed legion shook his head. “Meaningless prattle. I will accept the lesser victory that comes, but that doesn’t mean it would have been acceptable to settle for such while I still had a chance for more.”

Tala almost argued further, but then she just shook her head. “Rust this.”

She almost reached out and snuffed the thing in that instant, but something stayed her hand.

Lea had gotten a lot from previous Black Legionnaires… could she get something from Verity?

-That’s… That’s quite the risk, Tala. Are you sure he couldn’t do… something?-

Unfortunately, that was an easy question to answer. No. No, I’m not.

That decided it. She would keep Lea away… but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do something that might one day help her daughter.

Verity was swaying, his overpowering will barely holding on to existence out of sheer stubbornness. He would not be his own end, not after he felt his subordinates choose such. He grunted and shrugged. “Just end this.”

“I can’t say this won’t hurt.” She almost felt regret.

He looked up at her again, seeing something in her eyes. “Do as you must. It doesn’t matter. I am ready to embrace my end.”

They both knew that the time for words was over.

Tala wielded the nails on the end of her chains with insane precision, leaning heavily upon Alat as they cut through Verity, layer by layer.

Their threefold perspective could see him to his very core, but they wanted to be sure they pulled as much knowledge as possible, recording the compounds as they stripped them away, storing samples within her expanded spaces after stripping all reality threads from the material, ensuring proper catalogue of every step.

Around her, the warriors of the alliance were being attended to by healers. The Pack had pulled back, bearing their fallen away.

Tala would need to connect with Anatalis eventually, but not now.

Walden was kneeling upon the forest floor, clearly deeply invested in solidifying his domain. The does stood nearby, clearly uncertain as to what to do, and no one seemed willing to approach them, that conceptual working now obvious in retrospect, despite it still not being worthwhile to disperse, at least not yet.

Alat had opened gates to the various expanded spaces, and a steady flow of traffic had begun as people moved about in a sort of shocked happiness.

Rane came to stand beside Tala as she worked, and Terry rested on her shoulder, but she denied Lea. There was simply too much risk to allow her to come near to Verity.

They were so close to victory, forgoing caution now would be the height of folly.

As Verity had mass, components and systems spread out to either side of superficial, the process took hours to perform properly.

In the end, however, she was left with only the soulcore before her, wrapped tightly in her chains.

Tala took a deep breath, receiving an encouraging smile from Rane.

Then, she renewed the power flowing through the nails affixed to the ends as they peeled the breaking conglomeration of spirit from the outside of the enslaved soul beneath, dispersing the former into nothing and setting the latter free into the next world.

It was done.

The End of Millennial Mage, 15Eskau of War

(Epilogue to Follow)

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