777 - The New You
With patience that bordered on endless, the Keeper waited.
A living creature would have long since grown tired, hungry, or simply bored during the many hours that had passed since Lex Legis and Akna had entered the Confluence. But the Keeper was beyond such things now. With no need for food or rest, no muscles to cramp or eyelids to grow heavy, there was no change in his vigil. Surrounded by the deeper darkness that he kept wrapped around himself at all times, he hung in the air, silent and motionless, waiting.
There was no doubt that Lex Legis and Akna would return. Or at least, that their bodies would. Even if they perished, something would eventually find the passage back to their mortal forms. When that happened, the Keeper knew it would be up to him – or rather, his acolytes – to subdue whatever it was that returned in their place.
And once they were properly inducted, he’d have two new servants to guard the Shrine.
The thought was a pleasing one, particularly given the lack of respect that Lex Legis had shown since arriving.
That the unicorn had brought unbelievers and heretics with no intention of converting them to the Dark Tyrant’s worship had been bad enough. Dragging one of the guardians outside the grounds specifically to slay them without violating the Night Mare’s prohibition against her worshipers fighting within the Shrine had been worse. Even the replacement that he’d procured, Teyu Yagua, was only barely acceptable; despite the creature’s great power, that it had turned out to already be sapient meant that it would be that much harder to train. Worse, Lex had promised it a means of communicating, which the Keeper now found himself responsible for fulfilling.
Why Her Dark Majesty had decided to give someone so lacking in piety the Charismata, designating him as one of her Chosen, was beyond the Keeper’s understanding.
As such, it had been with no small amount of delight that he’d watched Lex Legis sink beneath the lightless surface of the Confluence, marking his failure to pass the Rite of Sublimation.
May the Night Mare make your atonement in her realm long and painful, he bid the unicorn silently. I’ll see to it that whatever comes back in your place treats our goddess with the reverence she deserves. And as for Akna-
As it summoned by his thoughts, it was at that moment that the white wolf heaved herself free of the Confluence, gasping and choking as she pulled herself across the uneven stone floor.
For a moment the Keeper watched, eyeing the adlet to see if there was any indication that she wasn’t herself any longer. Denizens of Darkest Night who took the bodies of the unwary always warped them somehow, the flesh contorting to match the spirit that now inhabited it, but Akna was still in her winter wolf form, looking no different than when she’d left.
Except, for some reason, she was changing back and forth between four legs and two.
Even as the Keeper watched, Akna switched back to her natural form, head hanging and pendulous breasts swaying as she crawled forward. But she’d barely moved when she slipped back to being a winter wolf, shuddering as she stumbled across the ground. Then she was an adlet again. Then a winter wolf.
Something has unnerved her, the Keeper decided. Perhaps because she failed to bring back one of the Umbral Regalia?
That had been Akna’s goal in following Lex Legis into the Rite: to replicate her original success in bringing back one of the Night Mare’s sacred weapons. But none of the divine implements were visible now, meaning that she hadn’t been able to procure one of them. Still, her preoccupation with changing forms was odd...perhaps she’d done something to displease the goddess and was confirming that the shapeshifting power she’d gained before was still intact?
Either way, there were still ceremonies to observe at the conclusion of the Rite.
“Guided by the will of She Who Rules in Darkness, you have come here, to the Shrine of the Starless Sky,” intoned the Keeper, knowing that up above him his acolytes were listening, waiting to hear if they needed to leap down and subdue a rampaging creature. “As the caretaker of this sacred place, exalted in the eyes of the goddess, I command you: look into the holy shadows that surrounds me and speak your name.”
Below him, Akna didn’t respond, save to stop collapse to the ground, still breathing heavily and shifting back and forth.
Inwardly, the Keeper frowned. Her body not having ben warped was a strong indicator that Akna was the one within it, and yet Akna had been through the Rite before. She knew what she was supposed to say. So why wasn’t she replying?
“Look toward my voice,” repeated the Keeper, “and tell me your name!”
Below him, the lupine took a shuddering breath. “I...my name...”
She rolled onto her side then, and it was only because he had no need to breathe that the Keeper managed to stifle a gasp.
There, on Akna’s hip, was Lex Legis’s brand of destiny.
That the podium in front of an amphitheater was the unicorn’s mark was undeniable. Akna herself had informed him several hours ago that it had been borne upon the flank of his servant, Solvei, who had died getting her master and his comrades to the Shrine. Now it was upon Akna herself...and even as she changed into a winter wolf again, the brand remained, indelible and unaltered.
Had Lex Legis found his servant in Darkest Night and commanded her to take Akna’s body?
But that theory died a moment later as the shuddering adlet – humanoid again, at least for the moment – looked up at him.
Her eyes were two different colors now.
It took the Keeper a moment to fully process that. Darkvision didn’t register colors, seeing things in black and white only, with everything else being shades of gray. But over the centuries, the Keeper had grown adept at guessing what the various drab hues represented in terms of real colors. And judging from the mismatched irises that he could see now...
Her right eye matches Akna’s original blue. But her left eye...gold?
Still trying to puzzle out what he was seeing, the winter wolf – apparently having decided to stay in that form – took another shuddering breath. “My name,” she began slowly, “is Solv-” Cutting herself off, she shook her head. “Akn-” Again, she couldn’t bring herself to finish, squeezing her eyes shut as if in pain.
“I know who I am,” she murmured a moment, taking a deep breath. “I’m-”
This time, it was a low growl from the Confluence that cut her off.
Turning his eyeless gaze to the well of roiling blackness, Akna doing the same beneath him, the Keeper waited. A moment later the sound repeated itself, louder this time. As the harsh snarl reverberated throughout the room, the Confluence began to undulate, its surface roiling and seething as if agitated by the noise emerging from within it. Frowning inwardly at the sight, the Keeper watched as the disturbance built, the planar aperture shuddering and convulsing with increasing turbulence.
Then, just as the Keeper decided that he’d have to try calming the Confluence himself – the lightness substance of its form quaking so violently that it threatened to burst – it suddenly went still.
And a single foreleg, covered in slate-grey fur and wrapped in barbed wire, reached out and slammed itself against the rocky ground.
But at the end of that foreleg wasn’t a hoof.
Instead, it was topped by five talons, each one sharp enough that they dug into the stone.
A moment later, Lex Legis – or rather, the thing that he had become – emerged from the Confluence, threw back its head, and gave a deafening roar.
Akna fell back, her mouth hanging open as she stared, and the Keeper couldn’t blame her. While the body in front of them was still recognizable as once having been Lex’s, the changes to it made it clear that the unicorn was no longer present. Instead, something far worse had come back in the stallion’s place.
Now possessing claws rather than hooves, those were only the most notable of the myriad changes that the pony had undergone. His entire frame was larger now, having gained several inches of height, and his physique was far thicker, replete with muscles that it hadn’t previously possessed. His tail was different also, with the arc of horsehair having been replaced by a long and fleshy appendage similar to a cat’s except thicker, waving back and forth in agitation.
His face was different as well. As the newcomer gnashed their teeth, the Keeper could see that they were sharp and pointed. While not true fangs, as they didn’t protrude past his lips, they were still clearly the teeth of a predator, intended to rip and tear into prey.
Nor was that all that was different. His eyes had also changed, the pupils having become vertical slits within their irises. And his horn was now a single color, the lighter grey base having vanished, leaving the darker hue that made up the rest of it to extend all the way down to where it met its owner’s skull.
“M-Master...” muttered Akna, still seemingly too shocked to move.
But the Keeper was far less surprised, having half-expected this outcome, even if the specifics of the former-pony’s appearance had caught him off-guard. “And so it ends the way that it had to,” he murmured, before raising his voice up, looking upward. “To me, my acolytes!”
They came immediately, having been waiting for the summons.
Bagora, the gorilla-bear, arrived first, hooting as he jumped down the stairs in great leaps and bounds. Showing a newly-arrived creature its place was a pleasure that the Keeper knew the brute enjoyed, making the few chances he had to inflict such violence a rare treat.
Draped around his shoulders, and immediately dropped to the ground once he arrived, were the siblings Fis and Bae. Although their names were simply pieces of their kind’s full name, “amphisbaena” – a serpent with a head at each end of its body – they were monikers the brother and sister pair had chosen themselves in celebration of having been raised to sapience and comprehending what they were.
Others made their way down as well. Maxilla, a saurian creature known as a bonesnapper due to its pronounced underbite, arrived more slowly, her hunched gait and the large stone club she was dragging behind her making it impossible for her to rush anywhere. The loud buzzing that came after her marked the appearance of Bijek, a creature twice as large as a pony with the body of a wasp, the head of a spider, and the claws of a crab, the latter clicking animatedly at the thought of avenging Ganas, the phase spider Lex Legis had slain. The noise was almost enough to drown out Kelawar, the giant bat unable to keep from yipping in excitement.
Still more arrived, dropping down or hovering overhead to surround the beast that Lex Legis had become. The creature that wore his body hissed at the display, circling in place to take in the menagerie of monsters moving to confront it. But none of them moved to attack...nor would they, until the Keeper gave the word.
Up above, the caretaker of the Shrine of the Starless Sky prepared to do just that.
“It might be that you cannot understand my words,” began the Keeper, his tone flat and even. “Or perhaps you can speak, but have no knowledge of this tongue. It makes no difference either way. By the Night Mare’s will, you have left Her realm of blessed darkness. Thus, in thanks to Her munificence you shall endeavor to do Her work in this world. And as the one who maintains Her will here, in this sacred space, that means that you shall serve me.”
Floating up higher, he raised his voice, letting it echo through the massive chamber. “Now bow down, or be made to do so by my acolytes!”
Around the room, the myriad creatures hooted and snickered, hoping that there’d be an enraged howl that would precipitate their being given leave to attack.
But what came from the creature wearing Lex’s body then wasn’t a roar of anger, or a bellow of outrage, or a scream of defiance.
It was laughter.
Deep and powerful, the sound of the altered unicorn’s mirth caused the acolytes to falter, glancing at one another in uncertainty. But the mutated pony ignored them, instead staring up at the Keeper as the sound, scornful and triumphant, rang out.
“Bow? To you?”
The sphere of darkness overhead bobbed as the Keeper jerked in surprise. The creature below him was looking directly at him! Not just at the surrounding globe of darkness, but at him personally, his eyes staring directly at the sockets of his skull! And yet he showed no hint of surprise at seeing him in his true form, which meant...
“I AM LEX LEGIS! THE CHAMPION OF THE NIGHT MARE!”
Raising his left foreleg, the one clad in barbed wire, he clenched his talons into a fist.
“AND I BOW TO NO ONE!!!”
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Lucky 7s! Grats on pushing the story for so long/far!
Well, it seems we now know what Spinner's prophecy really means now as well as what the carvings from the earlier chapters mean. Though from what little that's shown here, it seems that Lex might have grown stronger here. If not in magical power then at the very least physical power as it seems Lex is now part aurumvorax(?)
Still, even if his current condition has proven to be beneficial, I wonder if Lex can handle the Keeper and his acolytes should they prove to be hostile. At the very least, Lex might still have an ally in a certain multi-headed pupper if he's still around since I doubt Akna and Solvei are in any condition to help right now.
Any sounds of conflict might draw Fail Forward's attention though I wonder if they're alone since I wouldn't put it past Keeper to have them under observation.
Also, congrats on a rather lucky milestone for the story.
Jackpot.
Time to start singing the theme tune of Lex Legis?
Doom, Doom, Doom, Doomdoomdoom, Doomdoomdoom?
Hay, it works at least three(3) ways?
11427755 Thanks!
I wanted to title this chapter something along the lines of "Jackpot" or "The Grand Prize," but just couldn't make it fit with the sequence of events.
11427960 Just so long as there's lots of percussion and a chorus shrieking the lyrics in the background.
11427824 Spinner's prophecy has indeed come true, at least in part! The odd thing is that Lex doesn't seem to be upset by this; if anything, quite the opposite. We know that he's terrified of any sort of corruption of his person, albeit more so mentally than physically, but you'd think that become less of a pony would upset him quite badly. And yet here, he seems almost to be reveling at what's happened.
As for the Keeper and his acolytes, presumably now that they know that Lex is still Lex, they'll be bound by the dictate that the Night Mare's worshipers not fight on the grounds of the Shrine. Then again, we've never seen quite how that edict is enforced; just that Lex's barbed wire cut him when he was about to kill Ganas there, a sign of the goddess's disapproval. Perhaps it's different for the other creatures there?
Presumably, we'll find out the answers to these questions fairly soon, along with what Fail Forward and Thermal Draft have been up to!
The prophecy concluding has Lex reaching a new stage of pony evolution, he is not an Alicorn but he certainly not something weaker. got to wonder how everyone else will react to the transformation. Heck, now that I think about it. He was able to make sonata and aria into ponies so he gotta be able to make himself into a pony once more with a ritual so no foul has been done.
11429140 Indeed, it's highly likely that Lex can't be called a pony anymore, at least not completely. But in exchange he's likely gained an incredible amount of personal power...though turning yourself into a monster in exchange for power is a fairly standard villain trope, so it suggests that he's going down a fairly dark path. Of course, as you noted, he has a ritual to turn mutated ponies back into normal ponies, so it should all be fine.
...right?
ok Lex got a serous upgrade.
11429598 That certainly seems to be the case! Presumably, more details are forthcoming, since there's no way everyone else isn't going to have a lot of questions about what's happened to him.