March of The Dreadlord: Crenel

"1st Dimension has been reached. Opening fire."

Little warp bubbles began popping up as ship after ship appeared near Crenel. Right in the midst of the Alteriian fleet, the Voyager and Cataclysm warped in, shredding large battleships to pieces. From the second they warped in, the weapons were blazing, and with no hint that an invasion was to come so soon, the Empire had caught the enemy off guard, if only for a few moments. But that was all the time it needed, for within the first few seconds, with cover fire from the Voyager and Cataclysm, the capture team was deployed.

"We have confirmation of success, Baron squad Sierra is inside. We have Sierra-Red in position and initiating Operation Atlas. Repeat, Operation is a go. All units, draw enemy attention away from Red, begin firing on enemy units. Begin invasion."

Verax smiled at this, given the lag, Bane had done enough to allow Zevon's squad of Barons to infiltrate Crenel. He came on the intercom. "Go. Deploy all units. I want any and every piece of metal that can fly out and clearing away the enemy. Remember, we intend to take Crenel, not destroy it. Are all teams ready?" He was then treated to team after team confirming that they were ready. "Alright then, all inactive units, deploy!"

Then from the sides of the two massive ships, swarms of vessels began pouring out.

--------

"Sierra Red, are you ready?"

Zevon sighed, his eyes narrowed and filled with determination, as his helmet materialized over his head. He placed a reassuring hand on Odin's, his Yahji, snout, who was shuffling anxiously. Behind Zevon was his squad, four other Barons. Each of the men around him had a different story, but they all had something in common, something Zevon shared. Indeed, each sect of the Dragon Riders shared a unique trait with each other, and that's why the Yajhi that bound with them chose to do so; they all had been abandoned by the person they held closest. To Zevon, it didn't matter why these men and women with him joined the empire, whether it was because they needed to run, they wanted to start over, or they unconsciously felt just the faintest glimmer of the light which lay beneath Verax's mask, they were all like him, they were all part of his family. And he would never let his family be hurt, or bring them shame by failing. Zevon twirled his Epersa, which took the form of a spear-rifle. He thought that it took this form because he kept others away from what was inside him.

"Zevon, do you read?" The voice of Command jolted him back to reality.

"Yes, we're ready." He gripped his spear tighter.

"We've got thumbs up across the board up here, Operation Atlas is go. Command out." At that, all the Dragon Riders swiftly shot down the hall.

"Remember, friends, this is the first time anyone outside the Empire has seen us and our dragons deployed in battle. Let this be the moment that they will forever after fear the prospect of having to do so again!" Zevon whispered passionately. Until they were discovered and were engaged, this was a stealth mission, but knowing the NSI, Zevon knew he wouldn't have to whisper much longer.

(If you are unfamiliar with some of the terms, check the Myrionith section in races. There it describes all the things you probably are wondering about, as well, if you could, I typed most of that section up pretty fast, cleaning up all the gramatical errors would be appreciated.)

In the end, Bane decided against messing with the internal turret security system. He instead just headed for his ship, slipping easily through the slightly panicked groups of soldiers who only had time to worry about what was on the outside rather than the inside. He quickly got to his ship, and thought, Time to go...

Bane was not the type to stay and watch during large scale attacks and invasions. He was not a fan of killing or any sort of death, and so he quickly navigated his ship out of its docking clamps and made his exit, going a short distance from Crenel and then warping out of the 1st Dimension.

The ragtag team of Somnis ships was ready. What little resources they had left had been used on reinforcing the hull and adding as much firepower as possible. The only people on board these used up ships were now people who had nothing left to live for, and were ready to die by taking out as many of Verax's ships as possible, to protect the rest of the universe.

General Kenzeron Redmond had been waiting, poised in the 2nd Dimension, waiting for Verax's ships to arrive in the 1st. No war speech was necessary. Everyone in the fleet knew that they wouldn't be coming out of this one alive. They all shared Kenzeron's stubborn determination, and that was what would propel them through this one last battle.

So when the Somnis ships warped into the 1st Dimension as one mass front, they may not have looked very imposing. But it wasn't the ships that Verax needed to fear. It was the people driving them. Only two of the Somnis warships were left, and six of the battlecruisers. Those composed the largest force, and were accompanied by a few destroyers and thirty or so gunships and fighters.

Every ship headed straight into battle, headed directly for any Myrionith ships other than the Voyager and the Cataclysm, guns blazing, with no fear and no hesitation. One of the warships, the Stargazer, four of the battlecruisers, and a handful of the gunships engaged the enemies who were focused on the Alteriian fleet, coming to their aid. The other warship, the Scion, led by Kenzeron, and the remaining Somnis forces focused their efforts on avoiding fire from the two dreadnoughts and and gunning down the ships that headed for Crenel.

On board the Voyager, Eris-Aya slipped onto the bridge. She stood by the door for a long time, watching the conflict, watching Crenel, watching pieces of Alteriian ships drift by, watching the ragtag Somnis fleets, watching Verax's own ships destroy ten after ten enemies... She watched it all with a slightly growing interest. Something of a hidden smirk played in her eyes--but not at watching the deaths of those people, at watching the destruction. It struck her that there was something beautiful in destruction, and thought of how life always springs up anew, refreshed and filled with fight after everything has been destroyed. She thought of hope, and how somehow hope was always strongest when there should be nothing left.

Come to think of it... the destruction itself and what it brought after... was beautiful.

After a long time of just standing there, watching, Aya cautiously moved up beside Verax's throne. She was still a little sulky, but too curious to just watch from the background. She wanted to be involved, a part of the action.

"Are you going to destroy Crenel?" Her murmured words reached Verax's ears just barely, and they were not filled with anger or sadness but instead a strange longing and starving curiosity that Verax had not seen from the girl before.

Greymane twisted about suddenly, reacting to the shifting form of The Argus as it coagulated around the hull of a massive ship, reforming itself around the new material. A milisecond of disbelief stunned him, until he blurted:
"Holy mother of... Is that the Voyager...!??!?"

Instantly alarms in various shades of color exploded from neural interface nodes throughout the hull, confirming his disbelief, sending ordered chaos careening through the thousands of ships in the massive fleet.

"How could they arrive so fast? Our reports placed them in the 12th dimension but three days ago...!"

Sensors invaded his mind, and Greymane speculated no more, diving into the depths of battle...

The situation turned out to be grim for the shining new Alteriian fleet. Though they were a part of perhaps the largest Alteriian fleet in the history of their race, besides at The Battle of Snow Dove, and The Battle of Crenel but a few months prior, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, in addition to the daunting figures of the two massive ships known only as the Voyagers.

Greymane transferred his orders to the subliminal command, focusing his huge fleet in seconds. But those were painful seconds... The Paladin battlecruisers were in the wrong position to defend against an internal attack, and as a result dozens of Battleships, despite their extensive defensive capabilities, fell to the initial shock of the assault.

But the Alteriians were not to be counted out yet, immediately, in the event of such a ploy the Alteriians had a command maneuver designed to out-flank the enemy and turn the hunter into the prey. On his command, nearly the entire Alteriian fleet disengaged, warped a few hundreds thousand kilometers, and returned beneath the majority of Verax's ships, blasting away with their cannons, rays, beams, and other tools of warfare at the exposed underbelly of Verax's ships.

Seconds afterwards, the great swathes of Alteriian drone capabilities went slithering up the spine of the enemy armada, disrupting fighter formations, shields of cruisers and battleships, and hunting down enemy drones.

Using his new Aegis class battleships with infinite precision, Fleet Admiral Greymane cut a path of burning metal straight to the heart of Verax's wildly swinging offensive, intending to gut the enemy units like a turkey, and let the entrails bleed...
But there proved to be too many enemy units for the plan to succeed. Greymane forced his way a few hundred kilometers through fire and hell, but his assault lost momentum as Verax's forces adjusted with a speed unknown to Alteriian logistics.

Luckily, instead of returning the tide of the battle in Verax's favor, the maneuver left his opposite flank exposed to the assaulting Somnis Warships ushering in from behind, their relatively small firepower dealing a multitude more damage then they typically would have been able to. This temporary distraction gave the bruised Alteriian fleet the time they needed to once again disengage from the firestorm and retreat to the defenses of the NSI and the hulking platform of Crenel.

The picket fleet barely managed to get off a warning signal to headquarters at Crenel before the communication lines were clogged with battle chatter and distress signals. The Alteriian fleet suffered most of the damage from Verax's surprise warp, but the N.S.I. was ready for combat.

"Move, move, move!" Pilots, crew members, and boarding parties scattered around the decks of Crenel, scrambling to their ships and launching for battle within minutes of notice. The defenses of Crenel were powered up and soon the externally-mounted railguns began cutting through the Dreadlord's fleet.

-~-

"We've got a lot of activity in the Crenel sector. Unknown hostiles approaching at 1142, boarding vector. Be advised, they may be looking to capture Eris-Tam and the commander."

"Roger that, out." Cassus ended the transmission and turned around to his sister. "Stay close. It seems the war has started early this time. I don't want to lose track of you this time."

He began to gear up when he noticed something odd. His sword was resonating. It had never done this, but he knew enough of his ancestral legends to know what it was. The situation was more dire than he thought.

"Please, don't run off. If Verax captures us, we'll have to go together. And if there's any danger, leave me to it. Just run, find Robless or Greymane. I'll be fine." With that, he walked out the door with Tam in tow and his sword in the other hand. They had to regroup with Robless or they'd stand no chance.

-~-

The new Mk. II Gremlin fighters weaved in and out of Verax's formations gracefully, a symphony of destruction in their wake as they outperformed and overpowered their weaker counterparts in Verax's fleets. Attack runs left enemy ships helpless to the combined firepower of the Alteriian, Somnis, and Initiative fleets.

Railgun- and missile-armed battleships fired salvo after salvo from above the battle, letting the battlecruisers rush into the melee to fend off Verax's forces. Crenel was an array of defensive machinery--flak barrages, glints of railgun shells, and its sheer form added to the complexity of battle. The Marauder finished undocking and also joined the battle, focusing on the heavy-hitting targets while dodging and deflecting blows from the Voyager and Cataclysm.

The battle was going well for Admiral Hale and Admiral Greymane so far, but there was no end to the number of troops swarming from Verax's two super-dreadnoughts, and their fleets could only last so long. It was a defensive battle, indeed, and the defenders held their ground valiantly, but Verax was an unrelenting attacker and would not give up until he either got what he wanted or wiped out the opposition.

-~-

"What's this, a distress signal?" the elusive shadow said to an empty room. "And now I have seized the Initiative. They're begging for help. Maybe I should let them suffer a little bit more. Oh, Verax, you'll be your own undoing, I'm sure. And so will you, Shade. I know you heard me."

Verize smiled to himself--there was no one else in the room. Was there anyone ever in this room besides him? Maybe there was at one point in time, but he doubted they were alive any more. Food for thought.

Mortis battlecruisers warped around the battlefield, disabling ships by warping away parts of their engines. Javelins flew fast and gracefully, behind each cloud of them, a trail of fire and debris. Just as one squad of Javelins was turning around from a destroyed target, they were all instantly reduced to a fine mist by railgun fire from Crenel. It was often like that, for every enemy destroyed, ten of the Empire's was too. But with the numbers and power they had, the had pushed the conglomerate back, still obviously on the defensive. Still, the combined forces of the NSI, the Somnis Fleet, and the Alteriians were making too large a blow in the Empires numbers. The Voyager and the Cataclysm finally began to participate in the battle, the Voyager using its acute anti-material mass weaponry to destroy the various weapons on Crenel. The Cataclysm engaged the Marauder, unleashing volley after volley of missiles, plasma bursts, railgun rounds, slugs, and all its other standard weaponry against it. If it could be fired, it was shot.

~*~

Verax remembered Aya with a jolt. "No, Aya. We're goin to capture it, it's too many people's home, it's strong, easily defendible, it's valuable." He realized with a start why she was asking, at her stage of development, and his eyes widened with terror. "Aya! No- it's not like-"

"Left flank taking heavy fire."

"I just got seven squads unresponsive."

"Cataclysm taking damage! Damnit! They underside wasn't finished!"

"What, we're taking damage?"

"Redirecting 69% of shield strength to vulnerable areas."

"Sir, if this keeps up, we'll have to retreat. We can't take these losses and this damage!"

"SILENCE!" Verax cursed himself, he had forgotten that they had not yet finished plating the bottom of the Cataclysm's hull. "We should-"

"-Send us? Right Veary?" Everyone turned to the voice. It's owner came strutting in, her curly purple hair swishing from side to side, her faded red, spiny, demonic armor clanking as she walked. Flanked by two men dressed in Black Knight armor, Viz stroked Aya's face as she walked by her. "Well aren't you just precious." She stopped in front of Verax. She smiled smugly, revealing rows of sharpened teeth, and placed her hands on her hips.

"I know, I know, you wanted us to be your 'big secret' or whatever, but we're no good as just a threat weapon! Plus, we're getting upset, not being a part of the slaughtering and all." Verax's face soured.

"I'm not-"

"Going to win unless you use us, I know. Which is why I came up here to speed things along." She smiled, she had got him. His face went from unamused, to annoyed, to furious, to defeated.

"Fine then, go on you.... play. Play." He sighed, feeling sorry for the Somnis Fleet, the NSI, and the Alteriians for what was about to happen to them.

"YAY!" Viz squealed as she clasped her hands, leapt, kicking with both feet. "Thank you! You won't regret it." She started to leave and then, out of no where, yelped in pain. She jerked forward and her arms went towards her head, but stopped midway through the action. She slowly relaxed, released her lip from her teeth, and looked forward. "Well, what are you to bozos staring at? MOVE IT! NOW!" She barked, as her two escorts jumped. She marched between them and out of the room.

~*~

"Deploying the Raiders, repeat, Raiders deployed."

From the nose of the Cataclysm, a cloud of black shadows spurred forth. At first they were identified as Javelins, because of the similar speed and size. Moments later, when comms were flooded with pleas for help, cries of disbelief, terrifying ghastly roars, and the sound of liquid and fleshy rips and tears, everyone began to realize, this was something, much much worse. The shadows latched on to ship cockpits and view ports, and before the victims could even doubt whether or not the apparition before them was real, the walls were bashed in, the view ports were shattered, and in moments they were torn apart. They realized this was a whole new form of warfare when the from the shadow's maws came beams of energy that cut through fully shielded ships. They knew, when the shadows shrugged off weaponry that easily destroyed thing twice their size. They knew, when the shadows dived towards then through one end of a battleship and out the other without slowing a second.

~*~

Kenzeron kept fighting, he kept fighting as ship after ship was rendered empty and inactive as the fleeting shadows zipped past them, and on to them. He kept fighting as the shadows vanished in the explosion of his vessels. But when one shadow flew at him, growing and growing until it was upon him, he was not prepared. It's glowing yellow eyes stared down at him. It's blood caked forked tongue flicked out at him. It's green scaly hide splattered with blood and fragments of metal. The dragon of some nameless Raider reared back, and with a mighty roar, smashed in the front of his ship, and began to feed.

~*~

Somewhere else in the void of space, a black and crimson blur shot around, a vector of unending destruction and endless death, until it reached the Alteriians, when the black leathery wings of Nezo shot away, and descended a figure clad in blood red armor, a helmet shaped like a dragon skull, all of it with a fresh new coat, painted in blood. She was dwarfed by the Alteriians, her meek size average for a human, which they towered over. But when faster than their eyes could track or minds could comprehend, a ring around her was suddenly a fountain of blood, from seemingly out of no where, and with seemingly no movement, she had killed them. Then she vanished, reappearing a distance away, within a ring of more Alteriians, and this time they were ready. But so was she. From the sword which had no discernible origin, matter itself was torn apart in waves and crests, rending her adversaries scorched heaps.

"The power of a Dreadknight! Be baptized by blood and death you mongrels! Taste the sins you heap on us, for we freely return them to their rightful owners!" The voice of the mysterious aggressor shouted. The clearly deranged voice and words, the power she used, and we wanton waste of life made the Alteriians wonder if this was the Verax they were described, and not the man in hulking armor sitting in the command bridge of the Cataclysm. Moving faster than thought, she evaded their attacks, but now without striking back. Her disembodied voice screamed like a banshee, "WHERE IS GREYMANE? FROM HIM IS WHO I WILL DRINK DEEP AND NOURISH MY SOUL!" Then she laughed endlessly, and without her form appearing, the rest of the Alteriians in this docking bay in Crenel were cut apart, limb from limb, neck from head, blood raining down on the Dreadknight titled the Twillit Dancer.

~*~

Within Crenel, an NSI patrol had found Zevon, and opened fire. Without flinching, the Dragonriders stood and took fire. Then as the sound of the bullets clamored to the ground, the five men and creatures before them stood unharmed. Then the five Dragonriders took the spears and pointed them down at the men, who, because of the Dragons and the ineffectiveness of their attack, had been rendered uncharacteristically dazed, and fired. They witnessed five of the group drop dead. When Zevon saw a familiar figure running towards them, he leapt off Odin, and called to the other four, "Continue your search! I'll handle them. Remember your objective!" And in a flash, he had impaled one soldier on the end of his spear, swung and connected the shaft fatally against another's head, then backflipped over Odin as he incinerated the last of them. When he looked back, his team was gone, and the figure was too close to avoid now. So Zevon stepped off Odin, and stood, ready to face his new opponent.

No one sang the funeral song of the Somnis people as their ships were crushed and as their soldiers were torn apart. Only the vacuum of space welcomed them into death, and as Sliv's cold fingers pinched the flames of their souls out one by one, no one wept for them. There was simply no one left to do the weeping. One after another, after another died violent deaths at the mercy of fate and the Raiders. They had not even time to see their killers before their lives were ripped from their bodies, and no one was there to sing their death march. The March of the Dreadlord was the only thing which sang to them, in the chords of destruction, the notes of screams, and the relentless beat of explosions.

One hundred percent casualties, read the report that would later be returned to the people that huddled now on board a refugee ship, with no leaders and no name, no longer the Somnis people but merely homeless. No survivors. Only death.

Bodies drifted unnoticed among the wreckage, suffering no longer from all that had befallen them. Death's cold arms welcomed them into that place from which they could never return.

And General Kenzeron Redmond met his fate, and didn't stop to shake hands first. As his heart was torn from his chest and as his exhausted body met defeat, Kenzeron smiled a grim smile, and he died.


~


Eris-Tam stumbled blindly along behind her brother, and it struck her as vaguely familiar. It reminded her of a time when she was as weak as she now felt, when she had relied on Cassus for everything. She could feel the death outside without seeing it. It was as if she had some heightened sense to fear at that moment, and though her mind flinched away from it, she didn't need to extend her mind for it to come crashing down upon her. But the fear was slowly being replaced by silence, and that frightened her even more.

Verax was out there, Verax was causing it. He was causing the death and the fear and the silence. Tam's frustration grew, her hopelessness settled in. Fear of what could happen invaded. Did Verax know she was here? Did he even know?

Did it matter?

The fear melted to make way for a much hotter flame. Anger. It slowly seeped into her. Anger. Something she hadn't felt in so long that it seems strange and foreign. When had been the last time she'd been angry? Before the parasite. She had hated Robless with an unquenchable passion. Passion. Passion!

Eris-Tam let go of Cassus' hand, causing him to turn and look back at her, a little startled. Her form straightened slowly, and her chin rose defiantly... with passion. Emotion burned brightly in her heart, and she closed her eyes and reached out to those screaming voice on the battlefield that had made her flinch away in fear only moments ago. She was ashamed of herself, and she made it right. She felt their souls out there, abandoning this world in the hundreds. And she gently cradled each one in her mind as they passed.

How could she have lost herself like this? How could she have lost the things she cared about? The passion? Looking back, it didn't make any sense to her. This was what Tam did, what she had always been meant to do. Help others, and fight. Protect. The silence no longer scared her. It brought her back to life. And so her eyes met Cassus', and for the first time in so long, the sparked and crackled with defiance, very, very alive.

She nodded once, and the two set off once again.


~


Eris-Aya was startled by the sudden damage to the ship. She never really imagined that the Cataclysm could be damaged. Then again, this was her first time experiencing battle. Needless to say, she quickly adjusted. Her eyes still glowed with a contained excitement, and she stared out at the expanse of destruction, her mind exhilarated. She barely even caught Verax's words as she was too caught up in watching as ship after ship was torn apart. Though Viz had been a little off-putting, Aya had not been able to forget the longing she now felt. She wanted to be... out there, she wanted to see it all close up.

Her mind worked furiously as she observed, calculating how high the losses would be for each opposing side, as more and more vessels were obliterated in front of her. Her expression slowly grew to a wide and devious grin. All thoughts of--of everything--had left her mind and now taking in everything that she could of the battle was the only thing that mattered. Through the chaos of the bridge, she slipped over to the massive window and practically pressed herself against it, completely absorbed and drawn to what was happening.

Battle had always been made out like a bad thing. People spoke of the sadness of it, but all Aya could see was potential, and she relished in it. Started to lose herself in it as her eyes tracked the devastation from place to place, eyes glittering strangely with every new blast and every new observation.

It was just--just so--so beautiful.

Greymane took his Capital Ship, the Argus, to confront the main strokes of the Veraxian attacks, knowing that the enemy ships despite the amount of shrapnel and energy that was thrown into the space around them could do little to actually damage his ship, for it was as formless as the space that they now fought inside of.

Despite the advantage of the Argus, the rest of the Alteriian fleet was being ripped apart. Despite being designed for heavy duty action, the sheer weight of force pressing down upon the Alteriians pushed them closer and closer to the slowly evaporating hull of Crenel. Despite the losses Verax's forces were taking, they were losing, just as they knew they would.

Still, the ships fought on bravely, making full use of the elongated structure of Crenel, which had not been taken by enemy forces yet, to their smaller fleet's advantage, weaving in and around defensive systems that destroyed pursuers and attackers in a deadly cat and mouse game.
Huge chunks of the station were being incinerated by the Voyager, but the station itself was some a hundred times voyager's mass, so the process would take quite some time.

Greymane maneuvered the Argus to face the direct fire of the Voyager.

"We were to die, so that others might live?" Greymane though, "But where is the life?"

Ships exploded him in a cacophony of silence. Space did not carry sound.

"Who? The Somnis? They're dead and dying."

Several carrier's on the Argus' left flank exploded as a railgun beam from Voyager overcame their protective paladin's shielding, and welded through their hulls in a bright red beam of hell.

"The NSI? They're being torn apart."

Escape capsules ejected from the carriers, their only defense a small mining laser. Greymane could imagine the numbed faces of the Alteriians aboard them, watching their lives pass by their faces.

"To die?"

A squadron of fighters descended upon the prey, and extinguished the lives of thousands in a single sweep, mercilessly hunting down the zigzagging prey, which attempted to return its pitiful fire.

"For what?"

A lone Xiphos class battle-cruiser descended upon the squadron in the hopes of saving the capsules, destroying a couple of the fighters in its pursuit, until halting, as if realizing that it had put itself in a vulnerable position. Then the trap sprung. A battleship appeared underneath the hull of Voyager and destroyed it in one attack, killing thousands more.

"CURSE YOU VERAX, FOR WHAT!?"

Greymane's eyes widened, and he directed the hull of the Argus into the battleship, effectively evaporating its hull, and killing everyone aboard. He belatedly fired the Argus' side weapon, discharging the evaporated material into a super-condensed particle beam, eradicating all defenses in a broad beam on the Voyager's underbelly.

It mattered not.

Verax could pretend that he was saving the world by killing billions. Verax could pretend to have some understandable side. Some kind of justice. But here he stood, raping and murdering millions of innocent people. All in the name of some bent purpose, that somehow, for life to mean anything, you had to kill everything and everyone you touched. He was delusional, like some absent writer of a script years ago orchestrating events that amused him, with no regard as to what evil was actually transpiring. His method must be correct, for it was his. There was no real compassion, no real thought, no real consideration. Just mindless destruction. Mindless flipping of pages filled with death and blood...

Greymane actually laughed for a moment when his sensors told him the Riders had appeared. "Time to show Verax a little treat..."

Greymane commanded a squadron of Hoplon's under attack to reform underneath the Argus, which had a Paladin obstructing it from a Dragon's view. Predictably, the dragon and its rider attempted to tear straight through the Paladin to the Hoplons.
And the Dragon succeeded, sending the sections of the Paladin burning into the ashes of nothingness that accompanied all of space. But that success led the dragon's maw into prey it could not devour, and the dragon vaporized as it unbeknowningly flew into death's mantel itself.

Greymane could feel the power of the beast slam into the invariable Argus' walls, screaming as it met its timely demise.

The battle... continued... fought onward. Endured.

Greymane repeated his trap several times.

The battle raged onwards.

Greymane heard a voice, probably the mental projection of one of the stronger riders, asking him where he was. He found it ironic that the rider seemed to think there were Alteriians on Crenel, when in actuality, there hadn't been any. They had just arrived in 1st dimension space. It was amusing. He also found it ironic that she had high enough an opinion of herself that she though Alteriians would mistake her for Verax.
Alteriians don't use viewing portholes. They're structural weaknesses. In addition, Verax would not be stupid enough to manually do battle with individual Alteriians, he would merely kill them in large swathes at a time, probably throwing carries into ripped open space.

Greymane laughed, although the she-devil would have no way of knowing he did. Then Greymane answered, being one of the more powerful users of the Rolxan in Alteriia.
"You are rather annoying. And I find it rather annoying you're dressed in blood, as that makes it easier for my weapons systems to target you. Come out here, for you smell of elderberries, your mother was a toothpick and your father raised chickens!"

Greymane laughed again.

Space. Doesn't carried sound.

Greymane merely laughed...
Laughter.

Laughter filled the silence, but did not.

When the debris cleared, the Voyager continued floating, without a hint a damage. The underside's now plated fully. Deep within the Cataclysm, Ellowy Xi Despa laughed. "Funny isn't it? When what you think happened happened later. Time is not your ally." Verax, infuriated at this technology, began to tremble. They DARED destroy his castle? THEY WOULD DARE? "I've had enough of this. Viz, stop killing NSI pilots. Voyager and Cataclysm's, wipe them all out." And they did. Glowing unlike any had seen before, both ships went to 100% fighting capability. With rounds the size of cities, and lasers that would instantly wipe out planets, both Voyager-class ships became hidden behind a veil of light and fire, as each and every Alteriian ship, Save for Greymane's was blown away, not vanished, not escaped, but killed and obliterated. In less than ten seconds, there was only one ship.

~*~

Viz looked puzzled and glanced around her. "Oops." She, in her excitement, mistook NSI humans for Alteriians. She glanced around her, in her pool of blood. "Well, okay then. I know where he is." And she shrugged, uncaringly, then vanished.

~*~

Dragons did not need view ports or structural weaknesses, within second, they simply burned their way through, for instead of fire, the Orbital Raiders breathed down lasers. They were anything but 'predictable', for every Raider the Alteriians shot down, they Alteriian lost twenty. Moving faster than what could be followed, impervious to the Rolxan, and claws sharp enough to slice through diamond, they were creatures from before Alteriian time, their thoughts unreadable, their action unpredictable, and their onslaught unstoppable.

Then on black wings, a slightly larger dragon appeared. On it, rode the woman Greymane had heard. They opened fire on it, and when the flashes cleared, it stood, and it's rider, and they laughed, laughed at their petty abilities. Then, at near light-speed, the dove at the Alteriians, and separated the front and back of their ship. Viz leapt off Nezo, who took the half without Greymane, and with a beam of power spewing from his maw, his hide shrugging off all their feeble attempts to attack him, he fed. Viz stood unmoving, as the Alteriians around Greymane died. She simply moved to quickly for them to even notice she had moved, until only Greymane remained.

"You disgust me, you big arrogant blueberry! You think you know power? You idiots don't know anything! YOU DESERVE NOTHING!" And she vanished cutting straight through Greymane, the last Alteriian fell. Just for good measure, she cut him into enough pieces that he looked more like a puddle than a pile. She stuck he hand into the liquefied enemy, then brought her blood covered hand back to her lips, and tasted it. And she loved it. She shivered as she laughed in delight, and as one of the Voyager's main cannons took aim at the last remains, physical and otherwise, of the Alteriian fleet, she laughed harder. Only just before she was vaporized did Viz and Nezo vanish, re aboard the Voyager.

"Alteriian fleet wiped out. Losses minimal. Destroy remaining targets." And then the Cataclysm fired into full gear, wiping out three quarters of the NSI deployments within minutes.

"YOU CAN STILL SURRENDER, ROBLESS!" Verax bellowed, his voice heard even in Crenel, "YOU ARE ALONE NOW, AND YOU FACE THREE ARMIES!" Silently behind him, the Voyager and the Cataclysm's armor was upgraded, now, even the telekinetic and psychic forces the Alteriians used would be treated as normal force, their only ace against the massive ships denied. Ellowy chuckled. When you can decide how time works for you, there is little anyone can ever do to stop you, because you control that ever.

An armored dreadknight stood around the corner, as if he were expecting Cassus to walk that route. Cassus turned around to his sister. She still had a fire burning in her eyes. "Tam." She looked back to him. "Go. Please." He pleaded with his eyes. "Go find Robless. I have to do this." For a moment, Tam was torn between joining the fight and following what Cassus told her to do before she nodded and turned around slowly before running down the hall.

The soldier turned to face his foe. "Zevon. I thought I was done with your kind until I saw you aboard the Voyager." Cassus brought his blade made of metal older than the dreadknight himself. "Verax must have been hiding the dragonriders from me. Is there anything you would like to say before we end this honorably?"

-~-

Outside, the space battle was grinding to a halt. Almost all of the Alteriian, Somnis, and N.S.I. fleets were annihilated, except for a few stragglers or a few ships which docked under the protection of Crenel to avoid utter destruction. Shattered hulks scattered the battlefield. Even the Marauder was adrift in space, the few soldiers that did survive, including Admiral Hale, managed to escape the wreck aboard an emergency shuttle that barely survived the return trip to the prison planet.

Crenel's defenses were also destroyed, as a result of surgical strikes that left Crenel intact while blowing apart the railguns, missile silos, and beam cannons that kept the invaders at bay. There was nothing to stop the dragon riders from attacking the people inside the structure, and the surviving Alteriian and N.S.I. troops were being continuously pushed back towards the control room, their last stand.

Robless commanded the troops from there, but knew they were being overwhelmed by brute force. He wouldn't surrender until he knew the status of Tam and Cassus. He contemplated why Cassus had responded that he was "occupied" when Tam walked into the room, flanked by Black Legion Centurions who had escorted her in. "Aurora, where's Cassus?"

-~-

The Black Legion fought alongside the regular troops and allies who had miraculously survived the space battle. It wasn't enough. For every ten of Verax's troops dead, a Black Legion soldier fell, but it mattered not when there were a thousand times as many enemies. A squad leader relayed a message to command.

"We're being overrun! Retreating to HQ!"

It was too close for comfort, and Robless knew it was time. "Dreadlord Verax. We surrender."

(Cassus and Zevon's fight will start at where I started the beginning of the post until here.)

-~-

"Look at them surrender, their fleets in shambles and their troops on the run!" Verize stared, disappointed, at the bank of screens in front of him. He wondered what Shade had in plan for the captives. Another screen showed the interior of the Cataclysm. Aya looked almost...bored at the aftermath of the battle. Verax was undoubtedly pleased at this victory. "Well done, dreadlord. I wonder how much longer you can keep this up..."

Lol. Well, I was going to have the remainder of the fleet retreat to the 7th dimension. I guess not.

HEY WOAH, hold up, Greymane has words for you first, he can't die yet...!

(I'll assume this occurs in the time before Greymane meets up with Dragon Lady.)

For roughly another half minute, the battle continued onward as it had been before, the Alteriians and NSI dealing ridiculous amounts of damage, only to be pushed back by another wave of ships, soldiers, and weaponry. The Alteriians had perhaps killed ten or twenty of Verax's troops per Alteriian death, but it frankly didn't matter.
It had always been hopeless. Verax had more soldiers than the entire population of all of Alteriia, including the disabled, the young, and the old. More than three times more, if he had every soldier at his command in this dimension, which he severely doubted.

At least the Alteriians had done substantial damage to Verax's standing invasion forces...

Greymane took a deep breath, chanting prayers to Narushah. After the explosion of light that had just been emitted from the two gigantic warships, he doubted there was much of his feet left to tell the tale, if any Alteriians at all. His men were gone. Millions snuffed out under the thunderous fire of a warlord who thought he had no choice but to murder.

He had sent the command, a minute or two before, to pull out as much of the valiant fleet he had left, the rest of the carriers, and destroyers... The battle-cruisers undoubtedly had taken the brunt of the attack... He did a few quick mental calculations. He doubted more than a quarter of the ships would have been able to escape before the twin vessels of destruction tore everything apart, and not all of them would have been able to use their warp drives... that left, maybe, of the ships still alive, perhaps a tenth would escape, and four or five out of a hundred would have retreated to inside Crenel, and attempted to hold the booby-trapped fortress, soon to give their lives...

Decidedly, the two planet sized ships could wreave enough damage to destroy any targetable ship in their vicinity... but it wasn't as if the Alteriians' ships were puny or defenseless? He hoped someone had survived and escaped to report back to high command. He had dispatched the scouts with live reading of the video alre---
--- A mind-numbing screech filled the air about Greymane, as the Argus reached the critical capacity on its defensive systems, absorbing perhaps its sixth or seventh dragon and rider...
Then the systems failed.

Greymane was alone, communications cut off from the rest of his ships, drifting though space. He had hoped The Argus would have enough power to swallow the more annoying of the dragon riders, before its transportation systems were deemed critical.

At least he was the only one left on the shifting halls of the ship, when she would come for him...
Besides Raicheylla, dear, beautiful, so full of happiness and promise Raicheylla... Intelligent, confident, and so wise for her years... The one reason why Admiral Greymane had even accepted to the reassignment of his commission those years ago. He had sent her away, sending off his only shuttle, which was capable of warp drive, a few minutes before to Vertrus, guaranteeing that at least one story would be told of the bravery of the Alteriians as the Second Battle of Crenel.

Greymane raised his Rolxan about him, speeding his already viper-like speed to super human proportions in anticipation of the attack that would undoubtedly leave him nothing but particles on the floor.

True to her word, the dragon-lady burst through what from his perspective was the ceiling. Weilding the Rolxan, Greymane dodge to the left as chunks of metals flew about him, barely dodging death as it were. He noticed that only the Lady came for him, and the dragon began eating at the metal of the rest of the ship.

Greymane chuckled. There was no one to feed upon on that ship, the ignorant beast. He received nothing but a mouthful of metal and the plasmic shards that allowed the Argus to avoid damage, that cut the more tender insides of his gaping maw. He expected a mouthful of Alteriian, but ended up with a mouthful of his own blood.
Greymane chuckled again.

He moved his eyes back to focus on the dragon lady, who had just landed on the deck. Greymane's hearts beat one, twice, and then the trap was laid... and he was dead. Despite his own enhancements, he had barely enough time to enact his plan. But his plan was indeed enacted. The last words of a man already dead.

As the Dragon Lady bent to taste the burning Alteriian Blood, she tasted not sweetness, but acid. The acid caught in her throat, burning her face and evaporating her tongue as the purple hued agent tore through her. For dragon riders were nearly impervious on the outside, but not on the inside.
In a few seconds, most of her throat was destroyed. Instead sending her instead of shivering with delight, shivering with total agony.

(by the way, The Rolxan is not a force, it is the essence of existence. You can't stop it with a shield.)

The Alteriians had been defeated,
The legendary Greymane lay dead.

Millions layed scarred upon the feld,
Husks burnt silently.

There were none there to sing the songs
Or clean the dead.

None there to morn
Or seek vengeance.

Just the pitiful few, fighting dearly,
Inside of the monstrous fortress designed to stop monstrosity

From ever again coming to the 5th Dimension.
What was there to defend?

Nothing. Just hopelessness.

Eris-Tam stood in the doorway of the control room with a grim expression, looking at Robless, tense with worry. "We ran into one of the Dreadknights on our way here. Zevon. Cassus told me to go on ahead and find you." I hope he's okay... if something happens to him, I... "I wanted to stay... I might go back and find him if I can. If he's injured and can't make his way here, I... I want to be able to get him to safety..."

She stood in the back of the room, searching mentally for her brother. It seemed like he was okay so far... but if Tam picked up on anything unusual then she would certainly slip away from what was left of the Crenel's soldiers as soon as they didn't seem to need her. Or rather, as what might more likely be the case, as soon as it seemed that it didn't matter what she did to save them.

But somehow that was her mentality: save them. Tam didn't worry much whatsoever for her own safety, and though that was not uncharacteristic there was a specific reason in this case that may or may not have been rational: Tam did not believe that Verax would let one of his soldiers kill her. Tam didn't even think about it, that should she come across one of the Dreadknights, she might actually be in danger. It seemed to her that if something like that happened, Verax would stop it.

It was a naive way to look at things. Had Tam stopped to consider this, she might have seen that maybe she didn't matter all that much after all. She might have seen that she could be killed before Verax even knew that she was on Crenel. Anything could happen, and Verax could be powerless to stop it.

The thing that Tam did consciously consider, though, was that Tam had been shown that she would not die here. She had not known where she was in that vision, but she did know that it had not been Crenel. If she could risk her life, extend herself to a means which should kill her in normal circumstances to save these people, then she would do it because she knew that her time would expire soon, but not now.

As Tam waited for Verax's forces to reach their position, she mentally readied herself for what could come.


~


Eris-Aya was no longer quite as interested in what was going on outside the Cataclysm, as the battle was over on the outside and all that remained was to take Crenel itself, completely. She still looked absently at the wreckage, but her eyes glittered more at reliving the short experience of being so close to such lovely and perfect destruction. The cruel smile still played on her face but she was still now, no longer writhing with energy and excitement. She had no thought in her mind for Verax at that moment, who was still in the room with her, and no thought for what he might think of her because of her reaction to the battle. Verax could have been seven dimensions away for as much as Aya noticed him, or noticed how he now looked at her.

She was too distracted by the beauty of the scenes that replayed and formed in her head as she remembered the devastation.

The words honroably struck Zevon. He knows, then. About the limits of our immortality. About us.... His eyes did a quick run over of Cassus, and his sword caught his eye. "That blade..... your ancestors were dragonslayers, then?" He called over his shoulder to his gold and silver dragon, "Odin, stay back. I don't want you getting hurt. Keep away from that accursed blade." Returning his attention to Cassus, he rose his spear, then slammed the end of it into the ground.

"Cassus Drugari," Without taking his eyes of Cassus, he lowered his free hand to a lever in the middle of his spear shaft, "I am afraid," Zevon flicked his wrist, and knocked the lever aside, opening a chamber in the spear, "that today," he reached behind himself, and pulled out a clip which he jammed into the chamber, "Will be the first of many times," he pulled the lever back over the chamber, pulled it down, and released it, "You find your skill and sword won't be enough to save you." Zevon grasped the spear, and swung it down, the tip now pointed at Cassus. "Even if you know how to kill me, do you still think you can?"

~*~

Viz's throat burned, why, why was she so stupid? Why did today of all day did she have to make this stupid mistake? She stumbled and wobbled around, now back aboard the Cataclysm, and finally collapsed to the ground, he hands clasped over her neck like a choker. Nezo charged towards her, ramming straight through some soldiers, celebrating their victory over the Alteriians, sending them flying like ragdolls through the air. When Nezo reached Viz's side, he nuzzled his nose against her in concern. Viz coughed and choked, gasping for breath.

Shade felt her suffering, forced to accept a wretched punishment. It reveled in the feeling, and reached across planes of existence to Viz. It absorbed the particles of blood still stuck to her throat, it drank the pain she felt, and fed on her silence. Taking her suffering, Shade felt nothing, for It was pain and silence and suffering, lies and decite, broken promises and death. Viz gasped as her ability to talk and breathe and taste were renewed, and she, in her exhaustion, fell asleep on the spot. Nezo plopped to the ground with a satisfying thud and tremor, curled around her, and also, promptly fell asleep.

(literally there's no point in that post if you just give her back her sense of taste... so... we can just edit the entire thing out.)

"A little rusty," Cassus said, "but it's nothing I can't handle." His mind ran at lightning speeds as Cassus calculated the possibilities. This dragonrider was not just any other rider, as expected from Verax, and was undoubtedly highly skilled. This was Zevon, the assassin, the dreadknight, wielding the speargun that was unique to him.

With unparalleled reflexes, at least from a normal standpoint, Cassus leapt forward and held the blade in front of him as both his shield and his sword. Zevon reacted just as quickly, and Cassus barely managed to deflect the spear aimed for his chest. Sparks scattered across the floor as the Kh'vir blade connected with the speargun which Zevon raised in defense. Cassus ducked under Zevon's arm as it swung to strike him in the head and struck back with his sword, leaving a dent in the otherwise impervious armor.

The battle continued as such for a while, attack and counterattack, defense and offense, over and over in these cycles, but Cassus could sense Zevon gaining the advantage on him. Verax wouldn't need him if he was captured, and he would be killed unless some miracle happened.

-~-

Commander Robless did not simply surrender as he said he had; his remaining troops would retreat to the Leviathan and warp to the interdimension to lay low until the N.S.I. could reorganize. Robless himself, however, would not be leaving with them. Instead, he made sure to utilize the old defense systems to direct attention away from the Leviathan and his retreating soldiers.

He would be captured if he stayed, but he did stay, and his troops survived as a result of his capture. While he was occupied, he had nearly forgotten about Tam. Robless turned around to face her as he felt her presence. "Tam, you don't have to stay. The Leviathan will be transporting survivors out. Please, if you wish..."

Tam shook her head gravely. "I cannot run, not now. I have sensed that Cassus is losing any advantage he may have had on Zevon... I'm going to go after them. I might be able to save him, and that is worth any risk that could possibly face me at this point."

She paused as she turned and started for the door which she had entered before, standing still and facing away from Robless for a moment. She briefly thought over what she would say, since it had become obvious that the commander was not going to be leaving Crenel alone or willingly. And if this was the last time she would see him, then there were some things that needed saying.

"Valderis... I'm sorry that we were enemies for so long. I wish that we could have been friends then as we are now. But of course I do not hold anything that happened then against you. I... I fear this may be the last time we speak. I believe that I am to die soon, and while I know that there is not enough time to complete every task which I wish to accomplish before I leave all of you, please know that I am grateful for everything you have done. Any debt that you may have had to me has been thoroughly repaid, my friend."

She turned back to him for a moment, looking into his eyes, "If I am to die, though... I may have a few last requests that might make my passing easier. But when the time comes, if it comes, you will know what they are..." Her eyes flashed briefly with pain, and her thoughts returned quickly to her brother. "For now, though, I must go and try to save my brother. Goodbye, Valderis Robless... it was a pleasure knowing you." A faint and joking smile played on her features, and she added, "Well, some of the time."

And then she was gone. She disappeared out the door and was then racing down the halls of Crenel, towards where she knew her brother to be.

Hold on, Cassus... I'm on my way.

"You're just as good as the reports claimed you were. Just as dangerous, too." Zevon swung his Epersa upwards after skidding down the hall a few feet from the last clash. His wing was met yet again by a shower of sparks from connecting with Cassus's blade. Every action was met with a reaction, for every strike, one was struck, both soldiers holding their ground. Though he hid it well, Zevon was afraid he would lose this confrontation. The Empire's description and analysis of Cassus showed that Cassus and Zevon were about equally matched in combat prowess, with Cassus being the more skilled of the two. Simulation after simulation of this fight resulted in just as many victories as losses. But in their exchange of blows, Zevon began to realize why the mistakes Cassus made we far more frequent than normal; Eris-Tam. The simple fact his sister was here was enough, though sub-conscious, divide his attention from his absolute best. Such things were uncontrollable, but still, a hole Zevon could exploit.

The two interlocked weapons separated and the wielders with them, and after recovering Zevon fired the gun portion of his spear, the round hit the floor. The aim had not been center in either the horizontal or vertical, and so it was quickly forgotten. When Cassus moved and Zevon didn't, the purpose had become clear; it was a delayed incendiary round, exploding and tripping up his adversary. It wasn't very effective, to Zevon's disappointment. And so they continued their routine of attack and counterattack.

Cassus gracefully rolled out of the explosion, feeling the heat through his armor as he emerged from the flames. He used his momentum to propel himself forward towards Zevon. The warrior raised his sword and used it to hold the dreadknight's speargun away from its intended target as he delivered a powerful blow against Zevon's exposed face with his arm.

This only seemed to anger his opponent, and after dodging to the right, Cassus barely avoided getting skewered by another spear. He attempted to get in close and strike Zevon with a flurry of slashes, but for every blow that managed to connect, Zevon managed to counter. Cassus could pick out the details and motives of each of Zevon's attacks; unfortunately, he knew Zevon would do the same--and then some.

An open-handed strike from Zevon caught Cassus off-guard as he was thrown backwards against the end of the corridor. A flying spear followed through and pinned itself to the wall behind him, creating sparks as it ground itself into the metal of Crenel. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught something--someone--that he didn't want to see.

"Tam!"

In the split-second it took him to yell out her name, Zevon fired. The spear pierced the joint between Cassus' shoulder pauldron and his breastplate.

Cassus didn't die. As his conscience faded, he pulled the spear out of the wound and tossed it on the floor. Tam rushed over to him as he muttered, "Don't worry, I'll be fine," before falling unconscious and slumping over on the cold steel of Crenel.

-~-

Robless awaited his captors in the control room. He clutched the console in front of him and held his head low in defeat. Hundreds of thousands of troops died at his command. Even worse were the losses of his allies. There was nothing he could do, yet he could not shake the feeling that he was responsible for the deaths of the entire Somnis-Alteriian fleet.

Footsteps sounded from the doorway as the first of Verax's troops entered the room to apprehend the commander. With barely a thought but vengeance, Robless raised his handgun without looking and fired.

The soldier's head snapped back and he simply fell to the ground like a brich. The metal floor seemed to creak in pity, but Robless felt none of the same. "That...that was for Greymane."

The gun boomed again as another round went straight through the chestpiece of the dead soldier. "And that was for the Kazesqui."

He dropped his gun as the rest of the squad entered and put his hands behind his head, which he now held high. If he was going to be taken alive, he might as well do it respectably.

"Show me to Verax."

Eris-Tam could have moaned her despair and her pain in that moment, animalistic and raw, but she choked it back as she rushed to her brother and knelt down, pulling Cassus into her arms as his consciousness faded. She clutched him close and tears welled in her eyes, and she stared at the wound numbly for a few moments, feeling that same sense of helplessness that she'd felt since the Thel-ghan'che slipping back into her mind.

But she pushed it back. She held her brother close for only a moment longer, then stood slowly. She stared at Zevon, tears in her eyes but rage on her face. Her eyes burned into him for a long moment, and then she growled, "You."

Her mind surged forward and so did she, launching herself in every way at the man who had hurt her brother. She lunged towards him, transforming mid-leap into some strange and versatile species that Zevon didn't recognize, and as she reached him she twisted her arm into a blade. Though he managed to dodge her first few physical blows, he might not be able to say the same for her mental ones.

She did what was the equivalent of wrapping her fist around his mind, and squeezing- claws out. Eris-Tam was far from weak when it came to this sort of attack. She managed to find and target his sensory system more quickly than he could react, sending short jolts of pain through his body that sent him gasping and heaving against the wall. And then she was on him, quick as lightning. And it wasn't skill that aided her. It was fire and passion and... and motherly instincts, even.

Tam shoved Zevon against the wall and shifted back into her true form, keeping only the blade-like hand. She kept her grip on his nervous system while she held him against the wall with her hand and pressed the tip of the blade-protrusion against his chest, before snarling in a voice full of passion and anger, "You will leave. You will go and leave my brother and I alone. You will, or I'll send you back to Verax in pieces. Or... you could try to kill me. I guarantee that Verax would not be pleased if you managed it. Not that you will. But... the choice is yours."

Zevon struggled in vain against the wall. How humiliating! He defeats one of the greatest soldiers alive, then this? And Odin had left to aid in the capture of Robless. He was never good at mental defense, day after day, Viz tried to teach him how to defend against attacks like this, which in battle against Alteriian forces could very well happen. But he just wasn't any good at it, and now, exhausted from his struggle with Cassus, he was too weak to resist Tam, he thought he was at her mercy until-

In a bright flash of light, a force impacted Eris-Tam, flinging her away from Zevon and skidding across the floor. When the light died down, a tall, gracefully posed woman, dressed in armor similar to Zevons, but with crimson horns jutting out of the shoulder pads, and a short faded and tattered cloth skirt around her waist, which was purely for appearance. The armor had large deed red vein-like patterns squirming up it, which gave it a very organic look. Her helmet looked like a dragon skull, which, unlike the other Dreadknights, whose helmets simply were shaped in the likeness of a dragonhead, this helmet was an ACTUAL dragon skull, the bone harder than any metal in the known universe. The jagged teeth and snout obscured most of her face in shadow, but thin, tight-lipped snarl was visible underneath.

She extended her right arm to her side, and from her waist, a cylinder, similar to the one Viz had pulled from her belt and to the design at the middle of Zevon's spear, flew straight into her opened hand. When her hand closed around it, it stretched and changed shape, becoming a gold-colored scythe with three heads, the razor edge of each blade being silver. She seemed to glide, her feet not touching the floor as she charged at Tam. As she past over her, this mysterious woman swept Tam off the ground, and slammed her into the wall behind her with enough force that the wall cratered and at the center of the impact, even shattered. The newcomer leaned over, until the eye sockets of the dragonskull were staring into Tam. Then the sapphires placed in the eye sockets gleamed then vanished, revealing behind them two very angry eyes.

Zevon was gasping on the ground, the sudden change in situation startling him. "Ellowy? What are you doing here? Why did they send you? Did we fail? Did he esca-" He sputtered.

Ellowy, without turning her eyes away from Tam, replied, in a venomous, but mockingly calm tone, "Just like you to leave me to clean up your mess. You can't even handle one pampered queen? And you call yourself a Myrionith Dreadknight?" Zevon recoiled, as if the words were a physical strike.

"I was only asking if-"

"I don't care. Now go make sure your men aren't as stupid as you are." And before he could object, she said very sternly, "Go. Check. On. Robless. That, is an ORDER." Zevon clenched his teeth in suppressed rage, but he submitted.

"Yes, Lordress." And he limped away. Her eyes slowly returned to Tam. Ellowy pulled her back and slammed her into the wall again, this time completely destroying it.

"And as for you," she started off in a voice that made it clear that Tam had made herself more than just a minor annoyance. "You should feel lucky. We have orders straight from Lavernius's lips that you are not to be harmed, under any circumstance. But I don't care WHO that lunatic wanna-be Dreadlord thinks he is, no one attempts force a Dreadknight. No one. Not even, and especially not, someone as close as you are to our leader." She smirked. "Do you think you, could do to me what you did to Zevon? Go on and try, girly. I dare you. Just try."

And with barely a glimpse into Ellowy's mind, Tam was blasted out as if she had been shot by a rocket launcher. But that glimpse was enough. In that mere, infinitesimal fraction of a second, Eris-Tam gleaned just who Ellowy was. Ellowy Xi Despa was more than just Verax's sister-in-law, she was destruction. That small glimmer of her conscious told Tam Ellowy already had over three thousand different ways to end her life that second, and if Tam became a target, there would be no escape. She had seen glimpses of memories, Ellowy had wiped entire nations, cultures, populations, and histories away. Once she had a target, there was no hope, there was no corner dark enough that the soulless sockets of that dragonskull wouldn't see you, no army large enough that the scythe Ellow carried couldn't cut through to get to you, if she had to grab a star with her bare hands and drag it down to a planet to get to her victim, she already had a plan to do so, with any star, to any planet, for any person at any place. She had a plan for everything, her mind a universe of it's own, just as expansive and filled. Tam saw how in battle, not even Verax could defeat Ellowy. How Ellowy herself had that same aura, a kind of translucent fire, that had surrounded Shade, an aura of power, that existed on a plane above mortality, possibly a plane above divinity. Ellowy was not simply another person, she was death incarnate, she was doom given form and voice. She was the Reaper of life, and an inescapable adversary. Time and space, reality and divinity, nothing had stopped her before, and nothing could stop her now.

((She's...

she's so...

so...

PERFECT! <33333))