Post by Meitr on Sept 9, 2023 1:16:43 GMT -5
drip… drip… drip…
Deep beneath the Konatsian city of Dharatan, the storm raging above ground had awoken an evil force once thought completely destroyed five decades ago. The rain, red like blood, dripped into the fractured streets, running underground through sewers and eroded passages in the ground until it found its way to an abandoned stone chamber, buried beneath rubble. Its ceiling was held up by a few choice pillars that were strategically left standing to ensure that the room would remain standing when all else collapsed. The chamber itself was small, less than twenty feet in diameter, and it contained two objects of note. First was a fleshy, veiny, purple ball sitting on a stone pedestal. It glowed unnaturally from within with a pink light that grew stronger with each passing second, the ball itself pulsating when the energy reached its apex. Some kind of gauge was built into the pedestal. It was a smooth stone circle indented to make it into a small, shallow bowl.
This bowl was filled nearly to the brim with a glittery blue liquid, a simple golden coin sitting on its surface. Sitting on that coin was a needle, which pointed to various words written in the Konatsian language. They appeared to indicate some kind of energy level, presumably the energy level of whatever was incubating in that pod. Next to this gauge was a three foot long rectangular area of the pedestal that was also filled with the same blue liquid that held the needle on the gauge aloft. The purpose of this seemed to be as some kind of display. It depicted various forms of data rising out of the liquid. Some were words in Konatsian, others were images of some kind of short creature with a tentacle coming from its head. There was also a sandstone sarcophagus, which appeared to depict a Konatsian wizard holding a scepter and a sword as an open book shined like the sun behind him. The seal shone with a blue magical power.
drip… drip… drip…
The blood-like rain dripped rhythmically onto the lid of the sarcophagus, the roar of thunder nearly shaking the chamber. As if on cue, the blue liquid filling the rectangular console that made up the pedestal’s display turned a dark red, the data beginning to become harder to read as the liquid settled back into the receptacle. Before it did, however, someone capable of reading Konatsian would be able to make out one final word on the display. “FAILSAFE.” If one turned their attention to the gauge. They could see that it was barely a quarter of the way full, but the pedestal’s display indicated that the creature was awakening. Cracking open like the two halves of a coconut, a thick black smoke descended, covering the floor of the chamber. As it creeped towards the sarcophagus in the center of the room. Gathering at its side, it began to build itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. The smoke vanished in a puff soon after, revealing a small black creature the size of a human child, but it was clearly not a human child.
This creature had jet black skin, sharp teeth, and a nearly non-existent nose that was made up of two slits in the center of its face. It looked at its hands, as if coming to terms with its new state of existence. Looking towards the sarcophagus, it somehow seemed to know there was someone alive inside. Walking closer to the tomb, the creature placed its hand upon it. As if noticing the creature’s presence, the seal’s magic faded. As if it was waiting for that very moment, it casually removed the lid and threw it across the room with a flick of its wrist. Inside was an old Konatsian man, tiny and shriveled with age. This seemed to be who the creature expected, since it nodded to itself in confirmation. “Master. Awaken, master!” The creature spoke in a high-pitched voice like that of a child, but its speech pattern indicated that it had some higher degree of intelligence. At the sound of its voice, the old man in the tomb began to awaken, groggily looking up at the creature by his side before sitting up and letting out a great yawn. Then, as if realizing what was happening, immediately sprung to life. Gripping onto the edge of the sarcophagus and leaning towards the creature as far as he could, he let out a gleeful laugh.
“Yes! Excellent! You have awoken at last, my dear Majin Excalibur… and you look perfect! Tell me, child, whom do you serve?”
“I serve the Cult of the Magi, and my master… High Sage Meitr.” The Majin spoke with a calm, monotone voice, looking at Meitr expectantly as if awaiting orders. As he did so, the High Sage felt the creature’s spirit.
“Your obedience tells me that the binding ritual worked just as intended… except… oh no. Oh no no no no… what is THIS!? Your strength is pitiful! You should be at least ten times this strong! What happened?”
“I am sorry, master. I did not receive enough energy before the fifty year failsafe activated. As a result, my energy is far below what it should be.” Upon hearing this, Meitr was shocked. Fifty years? He had truly been asleep that long? He expected some of the smaller cultist cells to retrieve himself and Excalibur after no longer than five years at most. Though he was shocked, he did not show it. Not that this Majin would care that he showed a moment of vulnerability. He was bound to serve him and the cult, after all. He would follow all of Meitr’s commands completely and utterly with no concern for his own safety.
“Yes, well… it can’t be helped I suppose. That’s fine! We must simply find you some energy. That’s all.” But how? There was no one nearby with sufficient power to even make a dent, and draining an entire city at this point was both tedious and dangerous. Both he and Excalibur would need magick and knowledge in equal measure before they attempted such a thing. On other planets, though… perhaps they would find what they require. Even in his day, the strongest warriors came from off world. “It is settled, then! Majin Excalibur, my servant, I have for you your first command!” Upon hearing that his master was going to finally give him an order, the Majin stood at attention. “Pick me up and take me to a ship!” The Majin had no clue where a ship might be, but he knew how to get the two of them out of here. It was a start at least, and he didn't want to tell his master that there would be complications he would have to overcome to successfully accomplish his first order.
“Yes, master. As you command.” Picking up the Konatsian wizard as though he were a toddler, the Majin aimed his hand up at the rocky ceiling. “You may wish to close your eyes, master.” Waiting for him to do so, the Majin fired a powerful ki blast into the ceiling, obliterating the rock above them and creating a wide shaft in the earth that led to the surface. This display made the wizard giddy.
“Magnificent! While your power is nowhere near what I expected, you clearly are not powerless.” Looking down at his master, something like a smile crossed the Majin’s face at the minor backhanded compliment.
“You honor me, master. Hold on, I shall find you a ship.” With that, the two took to the air, the Konatsian wizard, climbing onto the Majin’s back for a better view. Looking over the landscape, not much had changed in the intervening five decades. The totems and towers his cult had built in the area had been completely destroyed, however. Such great institutions were built for the express purpose of understanding The Great Magicka and teaching the art of magick to those who had the talent to understand it. Centuries of tradition and learning were all wiped away in a mere half century by those who understood nothing, let alone the great intricacies of The Great Magicka and the sacrifices that were required to advance the craft. Meitr remembered these institutions as though it were yesterday. He could see them dotting the landscape in his mind’s eye, but now where a magical tower once stood, there were but piles of stones that looked as though they were simply part of nature. Every single one of Meitr’s thirteen fingers gripped the Majin’s shoulders tightly in anger, growling under his breath.
“Fools. Inferior, ignorant, dullards. I was fooling myself to believe that they could ever understand my work.”
“My lord, ahead. Two abandoned spacecraft.” The Majin pointed out two craters in the wasteland, and at the center of each were two space pods, Saiyan in origin. And to their luck, they were perfectly preserved.
“Excellent find, Excalibur. Set us down.” At his command, the Majin landed. Meitr dismounted, walking towards the two pods and beginning the process of examining them. “Hrm… technology isn’t exactly my area of expertise… but… these are definitely spaceworthy." Messing with the consoles of both pods, they sprung to life in a series of lights and beeps. “Take the other one, Excalibur. We are going to Earth.”
“Earth, my lord?” The Majjin cocked his head to the side, confused.
“Yes, Earth. I know what you're thinking. A planet of weaklings. Very true. But they can be very useful weaklings.” When he last visited the planet almost a century ago, there weren’t very many strong fighters on the planet. None he saw who could stand up to both himself and Excalibur together. “It will act as a wonderful base on which to build your energy. Perhaps we’ll take a break from the usual weaklings once in a while so you can absorb someone really strong.”
“Strong…” The Majin thought about it, then nodded, sitting in the space pod. Shortly thereafter, the pod doors closed with a hiss from the hydraulics, Meitr’s doors following right behind. In perfect synchronization, the two pods rose from the ground before blasting off into space, quickly breaking through Konats’ atmosphere and slipping the bonds of its gravity. The two began to head for the blue marble, the future uncertain.
Final Word Count: 1744
Deep beneath the Konatsian city of Dharatan, the storm raging above ground had awoken an evil force once thought completely destroyed five decades ago. The rain, red like blood, dripped into the fractured streets, running underground through sewers and eroded passages in the ground until it found its way to an abandoned stone chamber, buried beneath rubble. Its ceiling was held up by a few choice pillars that were strategically left standing to ensure that the room would remain standing when all else collapsed. The chamber itself was small, less than twenty feet in diameter, and it contained two objects of note. First was a fleshy, veiny, purple ball sitting on a stone pedestal. It glowed unnaturally from within with a pink light that grew stronger with each passing second, the ball itself pulsating when the energy reached its apex. Some kind of gauge was built into the pedestal. It was a smooth stone circle indented to make it into a small, shallow bowl.
This bowl was filled nearly to the brim with a glittery blue liquid, a simple golden coin sitting on its surface. Sitting on that coin was a needle, which pointed to various words written in the Konatsian language. They appeared to indicate some kind of energy level, presumably the energy level of whatever was incubating in that pod. Next to this gauge was a three foot long rectangular area of the pedestal that was also filled with the same blue liquid that held the needle on the gauge aloft. The purpose of this seemed to be as some kind of display. It depicted various forms of data rising out of the liquid. Some were words in Konatsian, others were images of some kind of short creature with a tentacle coming from its head. There was also a sandstone sarcophagus, which appeared to depict a Konatsian wizard holding a scepter and a sword as an open book shined like the sun behind him. The seal shone with a blue magical power.
drip… drip… drip…
The blood-like rain dripped rhythmically onto the lid of the sarcophagus, the roar of thunder nearly shaking the chamber. As if on cue, the blue liquid filling the rectangular console that made up the pedestal’s display turned a dark red, the data beginning to become harder to read as the liquid settled back into the receptacle. Before it did, however, someone capable of reading Konatsian would be able to make out one final word on the display. “FAILSAFE.” If one turned their attention to the gauge. They could see that it was barely a quarter of the way full, but the pedestal’s display indicated that the creature was awakening. Cracking open like the two halves of a coconut, a thick black smoke descended, covering the floor of the chamber. As it creeped towards the sarcophagus in the center of the room. Gathering at its side, it began to build itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. The smoke vanished in a puff soon after, revealing a small black creature the size of a human child, but it was clearly not a human child.
This creature had jet black skin, sharp teeth, and a nearly non-existent nose that was made up of two slits in the center of its face. It looked at its hands, as if coming to terms with its new state of existence. Looking towards the sarcophagus, it somehow seemed to know there was someone alive inside. Walking closer to the tomb, the creature placed its hand upon it. As if noticing the creature’s presence, the seal’s magic faded. As if it was waiting for that very moment, it casually removed the lid and threw it across the room with a flick of its wrist. Inside was an old Konatsian man, tiny and shriveled with age. This seemed to be who the creature expected, since it nodded to itself in confirmation. “Master. Awaken, master!” The creature spoke in a high-pitched voice like that of a child, but its speech pattern indicated that it had some higher degree of intelligence. At the sound of its voice, the old man in the tomb began to awaken, groggily looking up at the creature by his side before sitting up and letting out a great yawn. Then, as if realizing what was happening, immediately sprung to life. Gripping onto the edge of the sarcophagus and leaning towards the creature as far as he could, he let out a gleeful laugh.
“Yes! Excellent! You have awoken at last, my dear Majin Excalibur… and you look perfect! Tell me, child, whom do you serve?”
“I serve the Cult of the Magi, and my master… High Sage Meitr.” The Majin spoke with a calm, monotone voice, looking at Meitr expectantly as if awaiting orders. As he did so, the High Sage felt the creature’s spirit.
“Your obedience tells me that the binding ritual worked just as intended… except… oh no. Oh no no no no… what is THIS!? Your strength is pitiful! You should be at least ten times this strong! What happened?”
“I am sorry, master. I did not receive enough energy before the fifty year failsafe activated. As a result, my energy is far below what it should be.” Upon hearing this, Meitr was shocked. Fifty years? He had truly been asleep that long? He expected some of the smaller cultist cells to retrieve himself and Excalibur after no longer than five years at most. Though he was shocked, he did not show it. Not that this Majin would care that he showed a moment of vulnerability. He was bound to serve him and the cult, after all. He would follow all of Meitr’s commands completely and utterly with no concern for his own safety.
“Yes, well… it can’t be helped I suppose. That’s fine! We must simply find you some energy. That’s all.” But how? There was no one nearby with sufficient power to even make a dent, and draining an entire city at this point was both tedious and dangerous. Both he and Excalibur would need magick and knowledge in equal measure before they attempted such a thing. On other planets, though… perhaps they would find what they require. Even in his day, the strongest warriors came from off world. “It is settled, then! Majin Excalibur, my servant, I have for you your first command!” Upon hearing that his master was going to finally give him an order, the Majin stood at attention. “Pick me up and take me to a ship!” The Majin had no clue where a ship might be, but he knew how to get the two of them out of here. It was a start at least, and he didn't want to tell his master that there would be complications he would have to overcome to successfully accomplish his first order.
“Yes, master. As you command.” Picking up the Konatsian wizard as though he were a toddler, the Majin aimed his hand up at the rocky ceiling. “You may wish to close your eyes, master.” Waiting for him to do so, the Majin fired a powerful ki blast into the ceiling, obliterating the rock above them and creating a wide shaft in the earth that led to the surface. This display made the wizard giddy.
“Magnificent! While your power is nowhere near what I expected, you clearly are not powerless.” Looking down at his master, something like a smile crossed the Majin’s face at the minor backhanded compliment.
“You honor me, master. Hold on, I shall find you a ship.” With that, the two took to the air, the Konatsian wizard, climbing onto the Majin’s back for a better view. Looking over the landscape, not much had changed in the intervening five decades. The totems and towers his cult had built in the area had been completely destroyed, however. Such great institutions were built for the express purpose of understanding The Great Magicka and teaching the art of magick to those who had the talent to understand it. Centuries of tradition and learning were all wiped away in a mere half century by those who understood nothing, let alone the great intricacies of The Great Magicka and the sacrifices that were required to advance the craft. Meitr remembered these institutions as though it were yesterday. He could see them dotting the landscape in his mind’s eye, but now where a magical tower once stood, there were but piles of stones that looked as though they were simply part of nature. Every single one of Meitr’s thirteen fingers gripped the Majin’s shoulders tightly in anger, growling under his breath.
“Fools. Inferior, ignorant, dullards. I was fooling myself to believe that they could ever understand my work.”
“My lord, ahead. Two abandoned spacecraft.” The Majin pointed out two craters in the wasteland, and at the center of each were two space pods, Saiyan in origin. And to their luck, they were perfectly preserved.
“Excellent find, Excalibur. Set us down.” At his command, the Majin landed. Meitr dismounted, walking towards the two pods and beginning the process of examining them. “Hrm… technology isn’t exactly my area of expertise… but… these are definitely spaceworthy." Messing with the consoles of both pods, they sprung to life in a series of lights and beeps. “Take the other one, Excalibur. We are going to Earth.”
“Earth, my lord?” The Majjin cocked his head to the side, confused.
“Yes, Earth. I know what you're thinking. A planet of weaklings. Very true. But they can be very useful weaklings.” When he last visited the planet almost a century ago, there weren’t very many strong fighters on the planet. None he saw who could stand up to both himself and Excalibur together. “It will act as a wonderful base on which to build your energy. Perhaps we’ll take a break from the usual weaklings once in a while so you can absorb someone really strong.”
“Strong…” The Majin thought about it, then nodded, sitting in the space pod. Shortly thereafter, the pod doors closed with a hiss from the hydraulics, Meitr’s doors following right behind. In perfect synchronization, the two pods rose from the ground before blasting off into space, quickly breaking through Konats’ atmosphere and slipping the bonds of its gravity. The two began to head for the blue marble, the future uncertain.
Final Word Count: 1744