896 - Lex Deicidus
The Night Mare had restored everything that he’d lost.
Already, Lex could feel his powers returning as the wire that made up his left foreleg twisted and contorted, maintaining its overall shape even as its component strands writhed and coiled around themselves. Its barbed edges tore through the smothering effect of Kryonex’s divine realm like knives through a shroud, allowing his strength, speed, and other abilities to reassert themselves more with each passing moment.
It wasn’t progressing toward the greater integration that he’d had only a short while ago, when his entire body had become wire; Lex could feel that instinctively. There was no merging of his intellect and instincts, no restoration of his tulpa into his greater mind. It was as though a single leg wasn’t enough to renew everything he’d gained in that uplifted state.
But Lex couldn’t bring himself to care about that, far more taken with one particular aspect of his recovery:
The Charismata was back, and with it, his connection to Solvei and Nenet.
Already, he could feel the pair starting to stir, as though the merest touch of his mind to theirs was enough to coax them back from the brink. The sensation caused a howl of pure joy to tear itself from his throat, reveling in the knowledge that he didn’t have to be alone again. I still have them! he screamed inwardly. I STILL HAVE THEM BOTH!
It was almost enough to make him forget the one who’d very nearly thrust him back into that unbearable life of isolation.
Almost.
“YOU COULDN’T TAKE THEM FROM ME!!!” Lex roared, his voice louder than thunder as he brought Belligerence down. “YOU COULDN’T TAKE THEM FROM ME AND I’LL KILL YOU FOR TRYING!!!”
The pitch-black quill went through the demigod’s head without the slightest hint of resistance.
And Kryonex’s body shattered like glass, a piercing scream of agony ringing out as the giant spider crumbled to pieces, his body falling apart into frozen chunks that littered the ground.
Except for his eyes, the blue orbs remaining right where they were on either side of the ebony weapon. A moment later those orbs darkened as they seemed to lurch backward, and the space around them seemed to blur-
As a massive ice elemental – its features rough and unfinished, like the ones that Akna had summoned before she’d merged with Solvei – appeared in its place. Humanoid in shape, it brought its arms up with impossible speed, lashing out with a punch to Lex’s left even as the other unleashed a massive beam of gelid energy from his right, trying to catch the titan between them.
But rage hadn’t robbed Lex of his wits. If anything, his renewed determination to see Kryonex die had sharpened his resolve, making it easy for him to find a way out.
Immediately, the ray of super-cold energy was stopped as Lex raised a massive wall of black crystals – the barrier once again strong enough to absorb the attack – even as he swung the quill in a wide arc in the opposite direction, destroying the ill-defined arm before it could make contact with him. Nor did he stop there, rushing forward as he brought the weapon back around for a follow-up strike.
The ice elemental that Kryonex had become was already backpedaling, using its realm-enhanced speed to put more distance between them even as it conjured up thousands of icicles, lancing out from all directions directly toward Lex.
It was a feint, he knew. He was supposed to use Belligerence’s vortex to swallow the icicles, allowing the demigod – who by now had taken the measure of exactly how far away he needed to be in order to avoid the pull that the weapon generated – time to get clear. He’s betting that if he puts enough distance between himself and Belligerence, it won’t be able to negate his powers. Then he’ll be able to teleport away.
That wasn’t something that Lex was willing to let happen.
Which was why he kept the weapon’s negation power firmly directed toward the demigod’s ability to teleport as he rushed through the icicle storm.
Even as the frozen missiles rained down, Lex was dodging them, using a spell to increase his speed and reaction time. It was a boost so small as to be infinitesimal when compared to what he was already capable of, but that was still more than what Kryonex had apparently been counting on, giving Lex the barest edge as he blocked some hits, dodged others, and grit his teeth against the few strikes that he had to accept, allowing his recuperative powers to deal with the worst of the blows.
All the while, he doggedly pursued his enemy.
For several seconds, the chase remained at a stalemate – almost a resumption of when they’d both madly dodged the void creature’s attempts to catch them – before Lex threw Belligerence.
But not with his claws. Instead, he used his telekinesis to hurl the weapon, maintaining his aura’s grip on it even as the quill sailed forward, crossing the distance between himself and the fleeing demigod. It wasn’t going to connect, he could already see that, with Kryonex outpacing the weapon’s flight-
That was when Lex activated its vortex again.
This time there was the slightest lag between his order and the weapon’s activation, the blue runes having dimmed ever-so-slightly in direct proportion to their distance from him. But the pause lasted for only a fraction of a microsecond, the weapon suddenly drawing everything toward itself, Kryonex struggling not to be pulled backward.
Even as Lex was pulled forward.
Rocketing toward the quill, Lex pushed himself as much as he was able, waiting until it was almost within reach again before canceling the vortex, grabbing the quill in his claw even as he was catapulted forward at speeds far greater than anything he could have achieved even with his powers were back. And Kryonex wasn’t able to outpace him, nor alter his own course before Lex caught up and drove Belligerence directly into the demigod’s center of mass.
Just like the spider, the ice elemental shattered into nothing with a wail of pain.
And in its place was a massive yeti, with two long tentacles where its arms should have been.
These are the aspects that I saw when Kryonex came through the portal, Lex realized, the yeti bellowing as it intensified the storm around itself. I’m destroying his divine manifestations one at a time.
Was Kryonex somehow sacrificing those incarnations of himself in order to cling to life just a little longer? Or was destroying each aspect an inherent part of what it meant to try and kill a deity? Lex didn’t know, nor did he care overly much as he tore through another flimsy defense, fighting to reach the yeti hiding within the storm.
Less than thirty seconds later Belligerence pierced its hide, which shattered to reveal a mammoth with white fur and tusks of ice.
Minutes passed as Lex doggedly destroyed each of Kryonex’s manifestations, the demigod screaming each time another part of himself was destroyed, the blizzard surrounding him growing calmer with each shattered aspect.
But he didn’t stop fighting, forcing Lex to work for each victory, until at last the demigod collapsed to the ground and ceased moving...
In the form of an oversized white wolf.
The lupine wore a caparison of folded sheets of ice, each one overlayed with runes in Koloss, akin to those that decorated Belligerence. But it wasn’t the runes themselves which caused Lex to stop his assault, staring at the demigod’s remaining form in shock. Rather, it was what the runes spelled out.
Hrothvitnir.
The name of the wolf in the creation myth Solvei had told him.
Nor was that the only epithet the caparison bore, as another set of runes spelled out the name Nuti-Amaguk, the adlet name for the same being. Nor were those all, as numerous additional names were spelled out along its length as well, ones that Lex didn’t recognize, such as Fenrisulfr, Vanagandr, and Fenrir, among others.
And from where it was sprawled, the great wolf laughed in Kryonex’s voice. “Recognize this one, do you?”
“You’re the one who created the adlets and the utvalgte?!” Lex slowly stalked forward, pointing Belligerence at the lupine’s head. “The wolf who demanded that they fight a war against his fiery counterpart?!”
Another dark chuckle escaped from the massive jaws. “I am now. I inherited his past, along with the rest of his essence, when I absorbed him.”
Lex’s mind instantly flashed back to that eight-legged creature he’d merged with in Darkest Night.
“Why?” he hissed. He knew that the question had no bearing on their battle now, that he should keep destroying the demigod’s incarnations until he had none left. But with his renewed connection to Solvei still fresh in his mind, Lex couldn’t bring himself to ignore this newest revelation, needing answers for no other reason than because he knew she’d want them. “What conflict did you have with him?”
“The road to godhood is a long and hard path to traverse for those of us who have no divine patron,” replied Kryonex, still making no move to rise. “In order to fuel my ascension, I had to overcome and subjugate many powerful beings of cold, grafting their spiritual substance onto my own.”
“You weren’t always a demigod?”
Another laugh, this one bitter and mirthless. “You yourself noted that I was the afterbirth among my pantheon, the thirteenth member of twelve gods who claimed the primary Elemental Planes for themselves. While divinity, in greater or lesser quantities, was something my siblings all had, I was left bereft.”
“The runt of the litter,” murmured Lex.
Kryonex snorted. “As apt a metaphor as any. And so I resolved to surpass my brothers and sisters, earning through my own effort what they took for granted. I overcame the many creatures who had carved up the Plane of Ice among themselves, subjugating the weak and absorbing the strongest. This wolf, having expended so many of his followers on his endless war, was one of my earliest triumphs. The one that made all of the others possible.”
“Until you challenged me,” answered Lex, deciding that he’d heard enough.
The winter wolves had revered their ancestral spirit rather than worshiped him, and the adlets had resented their creator, but the very idea that the wretched creature in front of him now had any claim over the two races that made up his beloved Solvei’s heritage was yet another reason to kill him.
“You should have stayed in your frozen wasteland, subsisting on the worship of those wretches you bullied into submission,” he spat as he prepared to drive Belligerence home.
But Kryonex wasn’t quite done yet. “Kill me, and an entire pantheon will hunt you down.”
Lex laughed, the sound as cold as anything that Kryonex had thrown at him. “Your siblings won’t care to avenge your death. If what I know about them is accurate, they’ll thank me for saving them the trouble of dispatching you.”
“Not them,” corrected the demigod. “The Aesir.”
Lex frowned, not familiar with that name.
“They’re one of the more prominent groups of gods in the multiverse,” explained Kryonex. “And they were quite upset when they found out that I’d absorbed this wolf. Apparently, there was a prophecy that said it has some part to play in their pantheon’s future. But I was able to appease them when I swore that, since he was an aspect of me now, I would fulfill that role.”
“And if I kill you, they’ll blame me for ruining whatever destiny they’re trying to navigate, is that it?”
The corners of the white wolf’s lips turned up. “Their war god kills titans for sport. Their all-father has magic that that puzzles even other gods. Their allies are many, and their surviving enemies few. I’m just a demigod, and you struggled to best me even with that weapon you now wield.”
Lex chuckled, the animal within him amused. It had witnessed this countless times before, a defeated rival growling and snarling its last, empty shows of defiance once the fighting was over. What came next was always satisfying.
“Allow me to return to the Plane of Ice,” continued Kryonex, “and I’ll swear a solemn oath never to interfere with you again. I’ll pay restitution for your trouble, and will-”
“The only restitution I’ll accept from you,” Lex declared, bringing his face within a foot of one of Kryonex’s glowing blue eyes, “is this!”
Then he brought Belligerence down for the final time, piercing the demigod’s brow.
The scream that accompanied the injury was familiar by now, but unlike before the demigod’s form didn’t shatter. Instead, a slow dribble of clear, shimmering fluid – godsblood – dripped down from the injury.
Immediately, Kryonex sprang upward, but Lex was ready for him, thick bands of black crystal coming up to encircle the demigod’s body. That they held the wolf’s struggling form down confirmed what the becalmed blizzard had suggested: Kryonex had already lost a great deal of power.
And now, he’s going to lose his life.
“YOU FOOL!” howled Kryonex. “THE AESIR-”
“If that pantheon’s fate depends on a wolf,” roared Lex, “I’ll show them one far greater than you!”
“IT CAN’T JUST BE ANY WOLF!” screamed Kryonex, still trying to free himself despite the head wound. “IT HAS TO BE THIS ONE! THIS SPECIFIC WOLF’S ESSENCE!”
Lex grinned savagely, his gaze turning solid green-and-purple.
When he’d given gifts to his soul-bound servants, Nenet’s had been better by far, the sphinx receiving her mother’s bracelet along with several of its magic rings.
Solvei deserved something more potent than his old circlet.
“THEN I’LL JUST GIVE HER SOME OF YOURS!”
His wire-leg shot forward then, the lengths of barbed metal still churning as he grasped Kryonex’s eye and pulled.
The demigod’s scream was louder then. It saturated the air, which forever after would carry a trace of it as it blew through the valley. It sank into the stones, cooling the flowing magma and ensuring that the ground there would never be warm again. It shattered every flake of snow for miles around, leaving the water freezing but unable to crystalize, which would happen to all liquids brought there for the rest of time.
All of which Lex’s trans-temporal sense told him as the divine realm dissolved away around him, marking the end of the demigod’s life.
A moment later, he yanked the glowing blue eye – as large as his own head – free from its socket.
And then Kryonex died.
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Damn! that was cool…. Pun entirely intended.
And yet, with all that power, the Elves all Father doesnt play in the lower realms, for he has drank tea and eaten cupcakes by She Who Pronks Behind.
Now Lex, remember the Evil Overlord List.
I will not consume any energy source bigger than my head.
11773073 Thanks for saying so! (And for not making an "ice ice baby" pun!
)
11773159 You know, for all the jokes that get made about Pinkie being some sort of eldritch creature, everyone forgets that it's canon that the Slenderman made an appearance in Equestria.
11773446
You Rang, Mz Pie?
This is why the Night Mare gave Lex so much of her power, he's learned that it doesn't matter how powerful you are, you can't win everything alone.
11773656 It took quite some time (at least in terms of narrative progression), but he does seem to have learned that lesson. Even without Solvei or Nenet being there, their powers helped Lex repeatedly during his fight with Kryonex. Heck, even the clasp that Mystaria gave him came in handy!
this part confused me. is it missing 'her between or maybe refer to Adagio by name instead of calling her it? Or am I misinterpreting things here?
Regardless, it seems the aftermath of Lex's battle with Kyronex has left an indelible mark upon the region though its not surprising since the death of a demigod is bound to have a major effect and consequences. Now he has to check up on Nenet and Mei Li and of course keep his promise to Adagio though the latter will probably be best left for after he's ensured the former's safety and wellbeing.
However, a part of me is worried that he won't get the chance to do so if the other pantheons, especially the aesir that Kyronex spoke of might appear soon after given Hrothvitnir or Fenrir's importance to their own prophecy.
11774718 Whoops, yeah, there was supposed to be a "her" there. That was indeed a reference to Adagio without actually saying her name. It's fixed now.
As for leaving a permanent scar on the region, as you correctly noted, that's inevitable. As it is, the battle devastated the area anyway, what with the mountains being destroyed, the eruption, etc. Now the aftermath has to be dealt with, though there's a good chance that something else will happen, simply because something else always seems to happen. Knock-on effects, when you're playing at this level, are a very real thing.