The heavens broke with a salvo of shrieks.
Dihmers ran for cover.
Keepers froze in the midst of their latest charge.
The Ruby Chorus gazed from afar while Endrax and her broodlings took survey of the unsettling situation.
From the Penumbral Edge, a new cloud had formed—one made of velvety bodies and crude machinations and ethereal runic light. A song escorted the new army, a song comprised of ritualistic chants and warrior shrieks. A sea of fangs glinted, accompanied by a forest of slitted eyes. They came by wing, by wagon, and by zeppelin. Wood and metal and torch and moonrock coalesced into a veritable battering ram of zealous wrath.
The Ruby Chorus kept their distance. The Keepers rushed head-on while Endrax and her children steadied themselves in caution.
The new army did not even remotely flinch. With a Lunar Hymn, they met their attackers straightaway. Runic explosions brought a new illumination to the Curve. Despite the blood and ruby clouds of death, they punched their way across the wasteland, laying ruin to all Dihmer settlements that waited in their path and appropriating their resources. When they met Endrax and the Ruby Chorus, they slaughtered just as indescriminately. The perilous procession continued—all slitted eyes locked on the Sarcophagus—until sheer attrition forced their advance into a crawl. Soon, all three armies were locked in the center of the curve, with Endrax and her children stuck helplessly in the middle.
Children of a wayward Benefactor,
Corrupted in spirit, born from nightmares;
They covered the land in a second night.
Carrying with them Penumbral weapons
Of war, they attacked from the land and air,
Exercising their greatest strength: cruelty.
Weaker than the Ruby Chorus, Bloodwings
Excelled through ambition and Loyalty.
Fewer in numbers than the Keepers, they
Surpassed them in the art of genocide.
Their actions strengthened the Chorus but they
Did not care; they only flew and murdered.
None of the forces anticipated
Such a violent advance, and the battle
Changed forevermore, until the War came
To a stop around the Sarcophagus.
Endrax, who was already weakening
From fighting both the Chorus and Keepers,
Could not hope to defeat all three armies.
Her only recourse was to defend the
Hidden gift of the benefactors with
The last litter of her courageous brood.
The sky burned red-against-purple.
Ruby clouds billowed towards the stars like volcanic plumes.
The land around the ziggurat was absolutely covered in a calcified sea of bones and glass and insectoid limbs. Those who were suicidal enough to camp that close to the target over the centuries had burrowed narrow trenches through the necrotic detritus.
Within one such crevice, a spiderweb flounced in the heat of an artificial breeze. High above, flashes of runic light illuminated a squadron of wooden zeppelins. Cannons fired lunar rounds through the sky, impacting translucent monoliths that responded with volleys of finely-harnessed crimson beams. Between the combatting vessels, countless swarms of chitinous drones swept through the air on dragonfly wings. Fanged equines occasionally dove in to do courageous battle with the metamorphs, and the clouds turned a brighter shade of ruby as more and more corpses fell to the wasteland below, adding to the mountainous piles. Just as monoliths and zeppelins came within a scream's distance from one another, black-scaled drakes swept in, breathing plumes of onyx flame.
The silken web shook more and more. It was next to impossible to make out the Song anymore. All was a continuous cacophony of screams and artillery barrages. Thunder rocked the earth beneath the bones and entrails as more vessels fell from the heavens, accompanied by the occasional flailing corpse of an impaled drake or metamorphic creature.
Then—against all odds—a singular squadron of Bloodwings sailed past the aerial gauntlet, descending towards the ziggurat itself. Their wings shook the stationary spiderwebs, and emotionless sets of black eyes reflected velvety bodies doing bloody combat with Keepers and Chorus constructs in the ravines adjacent to the Sarcophagus. In the end, a single soul approached the target where the heart of Endrax's brood had been stationed for a final stand. The mare's neck glinted with a crescent pendant as she fired a concoction into the heart of the draconian defense. There was a runic blast, and it erupted in a plume of dark magic, consuming and melting the whole of Endrax's children.
The battlefield lit up in the resulting conflagration, and the very bones around the Sarcophagus began to melt.
At long last, the Bloodwings' guile proved fruitful.
One singular charge brought an end to the last
Defense of Endrax, bringing an end to
Her litter, her courage, her legacy.
The bloody battle became what it was
Inevitably destined from the start:
A Trinary War between three factions.
And because of Endrax's failure, one of
These corrupted armies would get ahold
Of the Benefactors' treasure and thus
Destroy the last chance to fix the Circles.
This left Endrax with one final option.
As the three armies prepared their advance to fill up the vacuum left by the deceased drakes...
The heavens and earth shook.
Countless faces looked towards the stars—stars that were soon blotted out.
Endrax—on slade black wings—soared straight for the Sarcophagus. She raced past all advancing forces, dodging multiple artillery barrages and simply taking more than a few of the explosive charges. Bleeding black blood and flame, she finally purched atop the ziggurat. A lasting roar escaped her iron-wrought muzzle. Then—with a violent thrust—she impaled herself on the summit of the structure. Her massive corpse bent around the pyramid, tail and wings and limbs covering every possible entrance on all four sides. Thus—with a final act of righteous defiance—Endrax sealed off the interior of the alicorn structure against every member of the three battling armies.
Undaunted, the angry factions fought tighter and bloodier around her, taking their frustration out on the other members of the endless Trinary War. In the end, Endrax's forced stalemate remained just as effective as when she was alive.
Endrax, the Divine of Death, did her part.
If she could not be the Slice's salvation
She could at least be the Curve's final seal.
The very last bastion of harmony
Was not locked behind more than that which the
Benefactors intended making the
Treasure within even harder to get.
This most sacred of gifts awaits the Spark,
But now, because of desperate extremes,
The quest to reunite the circles is
Imperiled by the selfish forces who
Battle at the Sarcophagus' doorstep.
While there may be only one lock, there are
Now three "keys" to enter that bright domain.
The Shards of Endrax; they have been scattered.
Then it sounds like it's time to go key collecting...
Kinda funny that Endrax and her brood weren't considered a faction, and that it was only the trinary war and not whatever 4 is.
Wasn't Endrax originally referred to as the divine of darkness? Think it means anything that she's now the divine of death?
Wow. Um... Potassium?
3 factions 3 keys 4 books to go including this one if there are not any added.
Chapter one, from the point of view of a spiderweb.
Now it is time for the team to infiltrate the factions and steal them some shards. Should be a fun experience I'm sure.
8614353
Formerly the Quaternary War. Soon to be reborn with the formation of a Herald/Dihmer/Spooder alliance!
Oh dis gon' be gud.
This...this is going to take some work.
....Am I reading Austraeoh, or Warhammer 40,000?!
8614489
Its not Warhammer 40K until a SteelWolf Titan or Roark riding Crusader or Durandanan BattleCarrier SuperCell turns up.
Hmm. SuperCell. I wonder hos resistant the Machine world matter is against Antimatter. Maybe the TimeCrystal mass can only be formed from Majorana Particles and so will be just as resistant? Oh well, theres always the Gammas.
Prepare the Plough. Activate the Sun Crystals.
Are you ready Mr Gupter?
Its time.
Time to SLAM.
8614353
That would be Quaternary I believe. Technically a more accurate term, but doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
As far as Endrax, her original title was Divine of Shadow. For whatever that's worth.
8614511
That'd be perfect. Imagine Dash finding a dormant Imperator-class Titan and wreaking havoc on everybody. Well, that is if the Titan's machine spirit would listen to her.
Oh, and you would end up destroying the entire planet/plane with even a minuscule amount of antimatter.
Doesn't mean you can't try though
8614489
On the Grimdark side of the plane, their is only war.
That aside, the war is the one thing preventing any of the factions from getting a hold of what they desire. None of them seem to be able to realize that, with all of them being too set in the thinking that they alone deserve what lies inside the Midnight Armory. Now can Rainbow take advantage of that, and more, can she convince them to benefit their enemies as well as themselves?
I think there is one more of these song of circles, as nowhere yet has it been explained how Rainbow is going to even attempt to fix this massive mess.
all 4 entrances blocked by her massive corpse, that means her neck and head, wings and tail are all blocking an entrance each.
That would take some doing to keep those limbs in that position during self impalement.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Alternate Chapter Title:
breath of fire 2? anyone?
And each key will take 1 book to get.
So I'm a little confused as to how her dead body stops them from getting in. Couldn't they just move it or vaporize it?
I really hope when Rainbow Dash gets to the Sarcophagus, she meets with Endrax’s skeleton.
Oh good, it's a fetch quest.
8614375
Yes
8614489
Remember the battle with Nevlamas? This series has a lot of Warhammer like moments
8615021
You wanna try moving a huge dragon levianth with your bare hoofs while being fired upon by 2 other armies?
8614664
I think that Endrax was just that big that she could cover the entire thing. In the first chapter it is said that her wing s blot out the stars.
God damn...poor Endrax, even already witnessing her death doesn't make it any less tragic...
8615021
she T H I C C
and dragon flesh doesnt really degrade
8615427
Yeah, she's big, but that size would mean she'd need to keep her muscles tensed to prevent them from going slack, her wings in particular would fan out and act more like a giant tent than a blockade, with massive gaps between the walls and whatever portion of her wings would be touching the ground.
Granted, I don't think she's really that big, chances are that she was about the same size as Axan and Nevlamas, being all fully grown ancient dragons.
The two points of view we've had on her are a Sarosian who was practically at the door of the Armoury when she impaled herself, and a spider in a web.
Taking those into account, it's entirely possible that a building big enough for her to impale herself on would either be too wide for her wings to fall naturally into place, or so tall that she'd need to keep part of her tail coiled in order to effectively block all the entrances.
That's assuming that she looked like a western dragon. While unlikely, she could be oriental
8615405
This is the only point I don't get yet. Do they really have to move it?
One faction has flying crystal fortresses with red laser death beams, another has zeppelins and big bombs (as seen in this chapter), and the third shapeshifts at will and even turns into liquid puddles, fires high concentrated acid and can go kamikaze. Unless dragon matriarchs are made of sterner stuff than their brood, the body should crumble if you shoot at it long enough. And they had plenty of time.
Then again, I think we don't know how the three shards can unlock the Armory, so there is probably more behind it.
8615782
It's like in Harry Potter where Harry is protected from the killing curse.
Endrax's motherly love creates a barrier that can itself only be broken by an equal act of love, which the three armies are clearly incapable of
8615850
That would make sense. Did I miss a hint in the text?
Dude. Brutal.
8616125
I'm about 93% sure he is just making crap up. Though it does seem like a valid theory. If the key is supposed to be something that's difficult for the armies to obtain, "harmony" sounds like a pretty good guess
Look how only Loyalty starts with uppercase among their properties. More stuff about Dash here.
8616894 Say, didn't we see her body turn to stone in death?
8617747
Only this tidbit:
The odds sound more and more insurmountable. It's a good thing that word isn't in Rainbow's vocabulary.
8614511
Antimatter doesn't discriminate. It would explode just as happily against Urohringr metal as it would other metal.
8616409
Aludin Bane Of Kings is nothing compared to the characters in this story.
8616894
Perhaps she is named the Divine of Death because her power transcends death and persists on its own. Maybe her final act was to will her corpse inviolable to any without the intent to use the Harmonic Prism for good.
8618456
If you take a hydrogen atoms and pass it near a magnetic monopole, you can get the proton to break down into a pion, an antipion, and an anti electron. therfore the hydrogen atom is made up of equal amounts matter and antimatter. The trick, is explaining just why the slight variation of taking the anti electron out and putting the electron in, plus neutrinos and antineutrinos, leads to a mixture that reacts so violently, and what happens if its possible to make a material which is stable to both alternate variations otherwise. Sort of like trying to apply magnets to superconductors. It always repels?
8615782
My guess is that the other factions keep each other in check, thus making sure that if they cant get inside, no one can
Very interesting history around The Midnight Armory. Now to click the next but- Huh? What?! I... I caught up?! But I'm not done reading! I want to read more! No, nooo! Why cruel world, why have you done this to meee?!?!
8619463
and the recent announcement of a 1-2 week hiatus has to make that hurt even more.
In any event, welcome aboard, rooms are on the 4th floor, kitchen is on the third if you need comfort food, Enradi or Amrita soda, and the aux. hangar has a gym if your endurance stat needs upping.
Don't take the pudding cup in the fridge, it's mine.
As long as Swan Song doesn't try to ship me with anypony...
8620965
Ha!
As if.
Is anyone else feeling withdrawals? Cause I’m feeling withdrawals. And intense need for the next chapter. But that just might be the withdrawal speaking.
8622175
Withdrawals? No, I feel perfectly fine. The voices in my head can verify that.