Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

890 - Not With a Bang

“You know, it was funny the first time, but I’m getting kind of bored with how that tulpa of his can make whatever he needs appear out of literally nowhere,” complained the Unspoken, his basset hound cheeks drooping. “It ruins the dramatic tension.”

The Author made no reaction to the chaos god’s use of a narrative term, but Blaze was less kind, giving the Unspoken a withering look. “Suck up.”

Luminace winced at the strife, but made no comment on it, instead looking at the Moon Princess. “Is it safe for Lex Legis to keep conjuring things from the Deep Ethereal? If he’s already facing a creature that was banished there-”

“O ye virgins, make much of time, for the flower that blooms today shall tomorrow be dying,” interrupted Kara with a snicker. “That egg is probably going to hatch into a pantheon-killing monster in the next minute or so, and you’re worried that Lex is taking too big a risk in how he’s fighting it?”

Luminace wore a disapproving expression as she adjusted her monocle. “Desperation is a temptress greater than any mare. Saving the world today means little if it’s done in a way that dooms us all tomorrow.”

“As much as I hate to admit it,” interjected the Moon Princess, “Kara is right. In the face of a foe dire enough that The Author personally comes to portend the doom they bring, no price is too high to pay for their defeat.”

“And yet here we sit,” noted Soft Whisper, with only the faintest trace of bitterness in her voice, “doing nothing as a primordial being that can threaten the lives and souls of so many – including our faithful, if it attacks our realms – is allowed to emerge in all of its power.”

“It is not being ‘allowed’ to do anything, you decrepit old fool.” The Night Mare kept her eyes on the viewscreen, watching as Lex Legis and Kryonex put aside their differences to combat the greater threat. “My champion will snuff out this so-called ‘anti-god’ before it can be properly born.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” murmured the Moon Princess, closing her eyes, brow wrinkling slightly as she turned her attention elsewhere. “The Netherweave Dominion is powerful, but in what it allows for, rather than raw might.”

The Unspoken cocked his head, though that might have been because it had taken the form of a rooster. “Oh?”

“It’s from another unrealized universe,” continued the Moon Princess. “One where Lex Legis left the Night Mare’s faith after what he learned of himself during his pilgrimage to her realm. He destroyed the Shrine of the Starless Sky, using the remnants of its obsidian dome to desecrate the blessing he had received, allowing it to affect creatures beyond its design.”

“And he wasn’t immediately smote for that heresy?” sneered Blaze.

“Not everyone pays back a slight as quickly as you do,” answered Kara with a cluck of her tongue, the sound wet and obscene. “Foreplay always make the payoff better.”

“I find it more notable,” cut in the Sun Queen quietly, “that this is the second time we’ve been told that Lex Legis breaking from the Night Mare’s religion was something literally outside the realm of possibility, happening only in universes that could never come to pass.”

The Night Mare gave a dismissive flick of her tail. “I am a goddess of loyalty. Such fidelity is what I demand from all those who would be exalted in my service.”

“Just because you demand it doesn’t mean that you’ll receive it,” retorted Luminace, though her tone was contemplative rather than combative. “I’ve never seen a mortal – or immortal, now – whose devotion was so great that Creation itself couldn’t actualize a circumstance where it broke down.”

“Bah!” Blaze slammed a hoof down, scorching the floor of the Synedrium. “Faith means nothing is mettle fails! All that matter is whether the titan’s weapon and the demigod’s will can slay that thing!”

“I suppose we’ll find out together, hot stuff,” murmured Kara, a sly smile on her lips as she turned her eyes, not to the viewscreen, but to the Night Mare. “But I think will and weapons aren’t going to be what ultimately decides how this turns out...”

---

Neither the Netherweave Dominion nor Kryonex’s divine influence over reality itself were going to be enough.

Although less than thirty seconds had passed, Lex could already see that this last, desperate strategy that he’d managed to pull together wasn’t working. Or at least, there was no evidence that it was. The sphere was continuing its mad combination of teleporting and racing after them, showing no sign that the two of them were doing anything besides inconveniencing it.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. At every opportunity, Lex had used the Charismata – altered by the byzantine collection of rune-inscribed obsidian – to arrest its movement, holding it in place so that Kryonex could focus his will on the thing in an effort to destroy it.

Had the sphere not developed the power of negation, that might have been sufficient to unmake it. But now they were barely slowing it down. Although it could only turn that ability on one of them at a time – either freeing itself from the Charismata’s grasp so that it could rush at Kryonex, breaking the demigod’s concentration, or simply negating Kryonex’s ability to will it out of existence directly – that was enough to make it impossible for them to direct a prolonged attack at the thing.

Not that Lex hadn’t tried to work around that disadvantage. In the instances where the sphere had shut down Kryonex’s attempt to wipe it from reality, he had tried to use the Charismata to attack it in other ways. Ordering it to destroy itself, commanding that it return the divinity it had absorbed, directing it to cease using its negation power...nothing had worked.

Just like when he’d faced Tlerekithres at the docks back in Vanhoover – or Teyu Yagua outside the Shrine of the Starless Sky – the thing in front of him now couldn’t be overwhelmed by the Charismata, only held briefly at bay.

And in less than one minute, he wasn’t going to be able to accomplish that much.

“This strategy isn’t availing us!” noted Kryonex, the demigod again dodging the sphere’s wild zigzagging as it broke free from the Charismata’s mystical hold. “We need another!”

“I’m aware!” snarled Lex, resisting the urge to curse the demigod – if Kryonex hadn’t made it necessary for him to expend so much power overcharging Belligerence and his other spells, he’d have been able to do so with the Charismata now – and instead focusing on coming up with a new plan.

But no matter how hard he tried, Lex couldn’t think of anything.

He had plenty of spells left, but none that seemed remotely capable of slowing the sphere down, let alone damaging it. Fleeing was not only irresponsible – even if this thing wasn’t allowed to absorb more divinity, it was still capable of inflicting catastrophic damage – but outright impossible; Lex knew that he was fast now, but that meant very little against a teleporting opponent. And his tulpa was well and truly expended, at least with regard to what it could bring him; his foresight was telling him that “capacity exceeded” was the only response it would give him for any request he made now, no matter how minor.

But if magic couldn’t work, retreat was impossible, and no new armaments could be summoned, what was left?

The only answer Lex could come up with was divine will, and between its speed, its ability to teleport, and its power to negate a single force brought to bear against it, Kryonex had no chance of using that against the orb.

And the demigod was the only one who could try.

Lex’s own ability to command reality was impressive, but only with regard to himself. Any attempt to directly manipulate the existence of something external to his own person resulted in a precipitous drop in efficacy, to the point where he could only manifest minor effects, most of which could be easily replicated – or even surpassed – with magic. Willing something like that sphere, which could damage even gods, to simply cease to be was far and away beyond what he was capable of.

Or at least, what I’m capable of now, Lex realized with a jolt. But I never tried it while I was transformed into that wire-bound state.

There was no time to think it through, no opportunity to evaluate whether or not he could even reenter that form, let alone if it would let him bring power similar to Kryonex’s to bear. With the Netherweave Dominion only seconds away from dissolving back into whatever ephemerality it had been summoned from, and the sphere undaunted despite their best efforts, the only thing left was to try that last, desperate, ill-considered effort and hope that it somehow worked.

It was, quite literally, a do-or-die attempt.

But first he needed to effect that transformation again, and there was only one way Lex could think of to do that.

“Will me out of existence!”

If Kryonex was surprised, it showed only in how his eyes flashed, darkening and then lightening in an instant. But when he spoke again, he seemed to have understood what Lex was planning on. “Will that work?”

“I have no idea, but nothing else has!”

“So be it,” answered the demigod. “Halt its movements again, and I’ll do my part.”

Not giving himself the chance to consider the consequences – not to himself, but to Solvei, Nenet, Thermal Draft, and everyone else he cared about – if this failed, Lex immediately brought his foreleg up again, pointing it at where the sphere was chasing Kryonex. “STOP!”

Immediately, the sphere ceased moving, and the demigod’s eyes darkened as he turned toward Lex-

That was when the sphere made another vortex around itself.

Lex immediately sprang back from it, Kryonex doing the same, the duo fighting to put more distance between themselves and the inward pull as the fabric of the universe again sank toward the black orb. It won’t catch us with this, Lex knew, willing himself to move faster, putting more space between himself and the sphere even as that space was pulled into it. We’ve seen it before, and we can outpace the rate of its inward pull.

No sooner had he thought that than the sphere gave a single beat, signaling that it was bringing its negation power to bear-

And Kryonex abruptly tumbled toward it, a shrill cry of alarm coming from the demigod as the manifestation of his will was once again shut down. Except this time, it wasn’t an outward projection of it that had been nullified.

This time, it was his ability to will himself through space that had been deactivated.

Lex reacted immediately, his horn lighting up as he caught the demigod in his telekinesis, trying to pull him back. But he could immediately tell that it wasn’t going to work; although he was capable of lifting hundreds of tons without any effort – indeed, he still wasn’t sure what the upper limit to his strength was, now – the demigod’s presence was more than simply physical, and the strain of dragging him across space was immense.

“THE WARDS!”

Lex didn’t need to ask what Kryonex meant, immediately deactivating his spell that blocked dimensional travel even as the demigod slid to within inches of the sphere-

Which suddenly deformed again, irregular protrusions reaching outward from its surface to plunge directly through Kryonex’s abdomen. It was no small hit this time, the lightless surface of the distorted orb stretching out further than Lex had ever seen it, opening a massive wound in the demigod’s body that nearly bisected him.

Kryonex spasmed, legs kicking wildly for a moment before he vanished, disappearing even as the vortex suddenly ceased, the world falling back into recognizable order.

And the sphere was once again undulating wildly, protrusions appearing on its surface.

This time, Lex knew, they wouldn’t die back down.

Their every attempt to keep this thing from gaining more power, let alone defeat it, had failed.

Whatever it contained was now about to emerge. And with Kryonex’s having fled, there was no one else to face it when it came through.

Gripping Belligerence tightly, Lex took the only course of action left open to him now.

He prayed.

Author's Note:

Despite Lex's best efforts, the sphere deals a telling blow to Kryonex, and begins to transform!

What sort of creature is about to be unleashed? Does Lex have any chance at all against it?

Comments

[TheVirtuousOne]

You know, I adore the tension you bring, to the fights that your characters have, I almost never figure out what will happen next, and it's a great feeling! Here's my personal theories:

Lex takes on Kryonex's godsblood to overcharge his will.(this seems unlikely as even though Kryonex has been dealt a heavy blow, I can't imagine a Demigod dying from that if Lex could regenerate his whole body from a skeleton, albeit not without cost)

His diligence of praying to the Night Mare, in his time of need, is acknowledged. (Fair chance, he only asks her fore help when he's truly in need, but she's been asked not to interfere so it could go either way)

Solvei/Akna,Mei Li, And also Nenet are unaccounted for so far, and while Adagio is dead that doesnt necessarily make someone useless either! (There's always room for the sidekick to deal the killing blow, even with 1 damage )

What if he let the Egg absorbs him? (This seems unlikely, Lex is a notoriously sore loser)

There's also the fact that the more people he gets to worship the Night Mare, the more power he has. With him saving so many doggo's recently, I feel that him being empowered by his followers, would the most likely from your exposition so far.

Kryonex may be helping him for now, and I acknowledge their similarities in their calculating brains, but if/when they win, will it still be a stalemate, or will Lex win purely because the entity dealt Kryonex a deciding blow in his favour?

There's also the fact that he turned into a creepy barbed wire construct from a Nighmare.(Ha! ) There are so many ways this could go and i cant just choose one...

I do like the fact that all the gods are basically putting their faith In someone much weaker than them just because The Author said 'I want to watch this good TV don't change the channel!'

[Not so New Brony]

Shame the Author forbade the pony pantheon to act since Kyronex did technically run from the fight so Lex won the confrontation so they would have been able intervene. Still, Lex probably knows praying to the Night Mare or Kara or any of the pony pantheon might be pointless due to his precognition so his action at the end baffles me. Either the Night Mare will answer him in defiance of the Author or perhaps the act of praying is part of a ritual to empower himself?

[Booster Spice]

Im wondreing if Kronex has been eaten or just absorbed, like Excession and his power is floating around some doimentionally challaging internal space that could be klein tesseractal etc?

After all, if the egg wants to hatch something that destroys realities, it could just as easily be Cozy Glow?

[Alzrius]

11757305 Your comment really put a smile on my face. I'm glad to hear that the fights are engaging, and keep you surprised; my take on fight scenes (at least in a high-fantasy setting where there's lots of magic) is that they should keep ratcheting things up, with limits being pushed, then surpassed altogether, only to find that it's still not enough, and so something completely unexpected is needed. That last part is often the hardest to make work, because very often it relies on foreshadowing which makes the twist hard to predict beforehand but completely obvious in hindsight. That can be a very hard tightrope to walk.

Also, yeah, The Author is kind of being insensitive with their whole "I want to see how it unfolds, even if that means the world is doomed" thing, aren't they?

As for your guesses, well, I suspect we'll find out if any of them are right very soon!

[Alzrius]

11757446 For all that Lex has made himself an indispensable player in the Night Mare's religion, he's not one to actually engage in prayer, so his actions at the end of the chapter do seem rather odd, don't they? You make some notable points with why he might be doing that, but at this point it's hard to say for certain. (Though, don't forget, his foresight doesn't work with regard to gods.)

[Alzrius]

11757461 The idea that Cozy Glow is something other than a pony is a persistent fan-theory, but not one that I subscribe to. I mean, don't get me wrong, it'd be funny and all, but that's a bit too much bathos for me.

[Booster Spice]

11758113

At the moment, the only other way I can even think of Lex and reality getting out of this is Pinkie class.

The eggs hatching.
Lex is making the egg hatch.
Lex is there when the egg hatches.

Lex is going to end up with Nick Cages cat as a pet?

[Alzrius]

11758349 As funny/intriguing/horrifying as it might be, I somehow don't see whatever comes out of that egg looking at Lex and going "Mama!"