RE: Deity - The Breath of Creation

4:15 How the Tables Turn

The Capital of Art rose before the strike force. Alexander had to marvel at it, despite himself, because truly, he had never seen anything so beautiful. The entire city rose to the height of the tallest mountains, a painting made manifest. Statues of marble that looked like they may jump to life at any moment topped the tall, gleaming golden walls that surrounded the base of the city, hanging gardens filled the streets with color and scent of fruit, terraced farms and buildings that were made to be a marvel to look at filling spaces that may have otherwise belonged to parks, even on the steeper sides of the mountain-city. It was orderly and chaotic, a testament to all things artistic.Not even any of Father's works were as innately beautiful as the city itself, and Alexander was biased about Father's works. To admit it was something akin to wounding his pride...however, he was not so proud as to not be able to admit when something truly was superior.

And they still had not even entered the city yet. He could only imagine what it would be like once they set foot within the walls.

' Keilan reminded him, his brother hidden away in the belly of one of the great warships that flew behind him. Alexander glanced back at the armada, the ships still damaged from the routine attacks they had endured on the journey over. Scorch marks marred the hulls, the One World's allied forces waning and growing in equal measure as, with each attack, more allies arrived and more were lost. Their own forces had taken hits, too, but the Mad Scientist’s designs were great and terrible both, protecting even some of the stronger of their number from attacks that should have annihilated many of them. '

"I am aware. Thank you for the reminder," Alexander rumbled, fixating his gaze even further back, where a fortress still smoldered, black smoke rising into the sky. It had been the last obstacle between home and the capital, and now it lay in ruins. They had lost many good people fighting through those defenses, their souls protected by himself and Father both. But the One World had lost a greater strategic position.

"Just because you are aware doesn’t make it easier to look through," the Celestial Empress supplied mildly, from where she floated regally beside him. Her robes fluttered dramatically in the breeze, not a single hair out of place - a show she put on for those behind her, to see their Empress out front, completely unruffled and unconcerned.

"You speak truth," Alexander rumbled, though it pained him to admit. Perhaps he'd spent too long ruminating on what being a Dragon meant. He was beginning to have a touch too much pride. Or perhaps it was this world, and the constant pressure upon him despite Father's bubble of aid, that was riling up his draconic nature.

"This is going to be an interesting fight," the Empress said. "We have our strategies, but they are likely to fall apart when we come in contact with the enemy. The Rot will be deeply entrenched here. We'll have to take the entire place street-by-street just to reach the palace unless we break them here. The Rot is strong, yes, but in the face of overwhelming power even it cannot suppress the need to survive. I hope."

Alexander fixed his gaze upon Yueya’s palace, high in the clouds, gleaming like a sun from all its glittering beauty. Not overwhelming luxury, just raw beauty, be it rustic or luxurious. There was not as much red as he had expected. Not as much rot. But he supposed that was what made it dangerous; it crept in unnoticed. It was stranger for it to be so overt, like it had been lately. Until Morgan caught Alala, and Father extracted her Authority, it had been acting brash and forthcoming, almost as if Alala herself was influencing it…Alexander shuddered.

Whatever plan it and Yueya had now, he had to keep an eye out. It would seem simple. That would be the danger of it. Just as the attack on the Four Realms had been simple; attempt to overwhelm with raw numbers. Keilan kept communications open between her and home. They had also felt the damage happen to their Realms, despite the distance.

It was a good thing Reika and Elvira were there.

"It would be far easier to fight from the top and work our way down," Alexander observed as great warships began taking off from the Capital of Art, darkening the skies as more and more emptied out from the city itself. Other armies filled the plains before the capital, great engines of war lining up to be used against them. These were the troops that could not fit within the city's walls. They had to break them before they could march on the city.

It was to be a long slog of a battle with countless lives lost. Alexander did not relish the idea. Thankfully, however, they had a bit of hope in the form of Curie's SystemGuardians.

"Citizens of the Capital of Art, this is Lady Curie of the Sciences." The sound echoed from nowhere yet everywhere as thousands, tens of thousands of the strange, mechanical men Curie had created jetted in from the skies, echoes of her divinity radiating from a precious few of them.

The arrayed army shifted nervously, messages being sent out to each and every one of them, System messages, she called it, proclaiming her true nature and the need to stop Yueya. Father's Authority pushed through her every word, lending weight to the statement that had many of the lesser, weaker mortals falling to their knees, their weapons cast aside helplessly.

The stronger souls, the ones who had built up walls of magic and life energy around themselves that was distinctly different than what those of the Four Realms did, but oh so similar in strange ways, staggered a little but remained standing. And the gods? They shifted nervously. Divine beings, great beasts who only understood instinct, they all hesitated. They needed a little push.

Alexander roared.

The sound echoed, rolling across the open plains like thunder, pounding into their skulls and driving the point home. He was greater than their measly defense. He was a sun to their paltry bonfire. And, most importantly, Father had spoken, so they had best listen.

"The Heavens have spoken to you!" he roared, Keilan's domain snaking out in a subtle technique, translating Alexander's intent to all who could hear it, so none of his words may be misunderstood. “Your god, one of the ones who created you, has spoken! One of her thirds has wronged you, deceived you, tricked you! Surrender! Do not bathe your city in blood that needn't be spilt! Do not make me bathe your city in fire that needn't be spread."

Ok, so that was more than a little threatening, but Keilan properly translated it for him, his domain soothing the words while still leaving the intent there. Alexander’s rage was righteous and earned, but it had the threat of overwhelming them further, backing the rats into a metaphorical corner and urging them all to fight harder. Keilan soothed it, to make that less of a probability.

He and the Celestial Empress waited and watched as the army began to fracture and reform, mortals fleeing the battlefield with all the speed they could muster, a few gods leaving, and commanders who were too entrenched in the rot barking orders to keep everything organized. Entire regiments up and began to move, like black plains as the millions of soldiers and warriors began to flee.

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"Didn't expect that to fully work," Alanna noted, divine light radiating from her to give her a more impressive look. Compared to the sheer scope of forces arrayed against them, she looked insignificant. She was not.

"More are leaving than I expected," Alexander admitted. He'd thought the rot was too far ingrained in the whole of the One World for this to work. Perhaps it was only the fortresses and military bases they'd had to wipe out where that was the case. These were mortals. Many were not even soldiers, mere conscripts that had been brought forward to aid in the defense.

Curie's SystemGuardians continued the message on repeat, airships still forming up when Alexander decided enough was enough. All those who had wished to flee were fleeing or already fled. It was time to finish this.

"At least," he started, rearing his head, golden flames pooling behind his teeth. "This army is nothing compared to the one that had laid siege to the Four Realms."

A dragon roared, and there was fire.

***

The first battle was a bloodbath. On the open plains, with no need to carefully constrain their power, the might of a cultivator could be truly unleashed. Great craters were created from the least of techniques, lightning from the heavens obliterating entire fleets of the One World's airships, fires from canons of the Mad Scientist's designs cutting deep swaths into the crust of the planet.

And that was power from those who were not yet even immortal.

Alanna herself was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Entire regiments had been wiped out in an instant, their shields of magic flickering weakly and not properly reflecting her attack thanks to the major losses of those who had fled. Where had once been an army was now a crater - no, a hole. A hole miles wide, and so deep one could not sense the bottom of it. It had not cut through the entirety of the One World, but it was a great scar in what once had been a beautiful landscape.

Yet that was nothing compared to the might of Alexander and Keilan.

Keilan's Karmic Strings bound opponents, turning them against each other. His work was subtle. It was unkind. Yet everyone kneeled before him as he stepped out of the flagships to walk among them. Multiple gods knelt before them, their connection to their desires severed, neutralizing the Rot’s weapon however momentarily. Their connection to each other binding them with chains as strong as any bond, allowing other forces to move in and restrain or slay them, if they were too far gone.

Those who had been unable to resist, and were unable to bear the weight of their sins, killed themselves without a single word or order from Keilan.

Alexander and his children, the great dragons, took the brunt of the airships by themselves for one reason and one reason alone. A dragon could not bear to fly beneath skies in which they were not their own sovereign. Alanna had thought she understood such. She had not. Statera Luotian did not rule the skies, so Alexander did not take offense. They were the skies in which he flew.

The beautiful blue skies of the One World had been rent apart by his roars. A hole now existed where there had once been sky, the Void clearly visible.

All had knelt before him, then. With only a third of his power being suppressed, and with the enemies at only a third of their own power thanks to the Will of the One World actively fighting them now, the One World was at a terrible disadvantage.

Alanna would have felt bad. She did feel bad about the slaughter, despite knowing they would have done far worse to her people. She felt worse about the losses their forces took. Dragons, dead amongst piles of corpses. Immortals, cratering the ground where they had detonated their cultivation in order to deal another blow to the enemy. Thousands upon tens of thousands upon hundreds of thousands, dead.

She preferred to be the kind of ruler who only needed to use cruelty once. She preferred to never have to witness such a bloodbath ever again. She preferred victories that were cleaner than this one; despite it being a resounding victory.

Silence rang from the city proper as they marched upon it. The blood of its armies soaked the ground so deep it would take millennia for it all to wash away. The fear of its citizens was so thick Alanna could touch it - actually touch it, cutting through it with her divine powers like a knife through butter.

They did not fly up to the palace. She insisted they do this properly. Instead, they marched through the front gate.

The airships landed behind them. Just outside the walls. As much of a statement as anything else.

And their armies walked unimpeded into the heart of enemy territory. The gates were opened by those inside, wide-eyed mercenaries who trembled as she passed. Lord Keilan walked beside her, head held high, neither in front of her nor behind her. His tail dragged lazily across the ground, his large, bat like wings tucked loosely against his back. Karmic strings drifted about him in lazy waves, touching all he passed and sinking into the ground for purposes unknown to her.

Alexander curled in the skies above, the great white dragon twisting this way and that as he lazily made it known the skies were his. twice, someone tried to fire upon him. Twice, he ignored the threat entirely, the artillery shells impacting against his scales uselessly, leaving nary a scratch. His children flew behind him, alongside Solana. The great Pheonix shrieked her victory, golden flames burning along her wings, beak clacking and sending waves of healing flame across the entire city, rooting out the Rot where it could.

The mighty army of the Celestial Empire marched behind Alanna. The Heavenly Host, truthfully, made up the forefront. Their gleaming armor, perfect features, and shining qi made a statement. Intermingled through the entire array were the Asura, the psychic demons of Lord Keilan's design, their pale, featureless eyes looking at no one and everyone. Treants wandered like giants among them, while Dao Progenitors, few that there were, walked in place of entire platoons. Immortals mixed with mortals, and the gods, the elemental beings who were more a nexus of reality than a mortal existence like Alanna had once been, brought up the rear.

That was the most dangerous spot, after all. Only the gods could walk there.

The Mad Scientist walked just behind Alanna. She had argued about staying behind with her babies, the ships, and making repairs, but Alanna needed her here. With her. Ready to go.

Ready to stop the rot.

That was why Kei was skipping ahead of them all, staff hanging loosely in one hand, and Astraea walked just behind the Mad Scientist. The only one missing from their formation was Xing Wu, but that was only because the man himself was more concerned with what lay ahead.

Xing Wu was a glimmer of starlight drifting through the streets, never quite in sight, but always present.

As for the allied forces of the One World, they walked elsewhere, surrounding the city, marching down different streets. Helping, but not near the bulk of her armies. Same with the SystemGuardians.

People peered out of their homes. There were many kinds, some familiar, some very much different. There were elves, pointy eared like Yueya - or so Alanna had learned they were called. There were stout dwarves, their beards adorned with finery. People with more bestial traits - bird folk with feathers of a thousand different colors and beaked faces, or even humanoid cats, with those same animalistic features.

She admired them for their beauty. And they watched with fearful eyes as they passed.

Thrice did the city guard try to stop them. Thrice were they put down, mercilessly and efficiently. A person who looked like a lizard threw a bottle of some sort of strange fire at them that alarmed even Alanna’s senses. Vesuvius, the god of fire, caught it and pocketed it without even looking.

When the procession reached the upper districts, marching for hours at speed, they encountered their second bit of resistance.

The Royal Guard. Divine beings who were created specifically for combat and to protect Yueya. They had erected a wall and magical barrier around the peak of the Capital of Art, the shimmering blue dome strong enough that even Alanna doubted she could break through it. It was fueled by the power of an Origin Deity, after all. Alanna put once hand against the barrier, peering through as best she could, and smiled to herself.

Funny, how the tables turned. Once, it had been the Four Realms beleaguered. Now, it was Yueya. Only she did not have her entire universe behind her.

They did. This would not end the same. In fact, this was the end.