Salvation

by voroshilov

THE SCOURGE OF THE UNIVERSE

A fundamental law of nature is that a creature will do anything to preserve its own life.

The thought flashed through Penumbra’s mind as she clasped the controls of a planetary defence gun from three miles away. With a sharp crack of air behind her, she broke the sound barrier, rapidly skirting the very edge of the courtyard’s surrounding walls.

To her right was the Worm.

It was immense and grotesque. Each of its dozens of segments seemed to have a life of its own, each one essentially being dragged along by the head - that was little more than three long jaws. With magic coursing through her veins, Penumbra could hear with heightened senses the workings below its hide. Blood - or whatever the Worm had instead of blood - seemed to shoot around it, as if coming from a pressure hose. Unlike most other creatures whose insides she had listened to, there was no rhythm: just a permanent and violent flow.

As she rotated the planetary gun, she sent out a thousand magical probes - trying every possible avenue of entrance into the creature’s inner soul, scouring it for a weakness. She had tried every frequency of magical projectile she could think of - barely a couple had managed to even make contact with its hide and none had done even superficial damage.

The fight must go on. You must survive.

She pulled a twenty g-force turn and charged the Worm. Calculating that the time it took for the creature to react would be enough to get her to safety and allow her to target the inside of the creature’s jaw with the planetary gun.

The gap between two of the Worm’s jaws was barely a few metres when she passed through it, widening as its body shifted to follow her path. With the minute tip of a feather, she grazed it and began quickly to consider its damage threshold.

Moments later, she arced upwards, then descended vertically. The Worm’s head, focusing on following her, did not notice the glowing orange barrel of the planetary gun before an arc of fleet-killing lightning struck it on the inside of the jaw. In an immense explosion of smoke, completely shrouding the Worm in its hundreds of metres of entirety.

The ringing in Penumbra’s ears was so loud as to block out all else and she only became aware of the planetary gun’s powering down when she reached out for the controls again and found them temporarily offline.

If that didn’t work, she thought, not much point trying it again anyways.

The black cloud of smoke surrounding where the Worm had been took what felt like hours to clear. With an almost intentionally aggravating slowness, it became thinner and thinner, though revealed nothing.

That was until a giant three-jawed head came bursting from its cover, with only Penumbra’s magical reflexes - enhanced by the adrenaline that had now become synonymous with her blood - allowing her to avoid simply being eaten in one.

Immediately retreating across the courtyard, she swore internally. From what she had seen, the planetary gun had done no damage whatsoever. Even though she guaranteed to herself earlier it would not - the knowledge of it still stung.

What now then?

She needed to think. She needed to stop and think. Without a plan of attack, the Worm was just going to grind her down.

With a single powerful thump of her wings, she came to a stop on top of Legion’s Hold’s outer wall. Some kilometre behind her was the Worm, seemingly content to wait in its spot.

It knew, didn’t it? The damn thing knew.

Penumbra pawed the pommel of her sword - what a comfort it provided for something that was literally useless in the situation.

The planetary gun had done nothing!

A head-on impact hadn’t so much as singed the Worm! A fleet-killer had just vanished in front of it! Just what was this thing made of? If a planetary gun couldn’t harm it, then what could Penumbra do?

She would try magic. Specifically, every telekinetic or generally manipulative spell she had. Hopefully she could find a way to rip away at least some part of the Worm’s hide, from there she could launch more conventional attacks. If not that, there was nothing else.

The fight must go on. You must survive.

To Penumbra, the kilometre distance was practically nothing. She reached out with a simple - but powerful - telekinetic spell and grasped at the Worm, whatever part of it she could find. It was silent, but stirred physically, no doubt it could sense her.

Putting all her magical weight into it, she pulled at the part she had grabbed. Whatever it was seemed to budge, flexing under her magical grip - but refusing to give way fully. It took her five seconds to give up, recognising futility when it stared her in the face.

She grasped instead one of Legion’s Hold’s observation posts, lifting it effortlessly from the wall and hurling it at the Worm’s jaws. The beast seemed staggered by the impact, shaking off its jaw in what Penumbra considered to be confusion.

Good, she thought, let it think I know more than I really do.

On a piece of debris to her left she quickly tested a matter manipulation spell. Upon it crumbling into tiny motes of black dust, she was satisfied as to the spell’s efficacy. She turned her sights to the Worm, only to realise the spell’s effects were so diluted by the distance as to be ineffective.

She groaned audibly. Time to get in close.

Like a rocket, she shot herself forwards, angling her wings back like an arrow. With a boom, she broke the sound barrier, and within moments was in range of the Worm.

Time seemed to slow around her, almost to immobility. She let the magic flow into her horn and focused it against an inch squared spot on the Worm’s hide. Satisfied she had made a connection, she poured as much power as she could into the spell, boosting it as far as it could possibly be boosted - this had to work.

The strength of her spell made the air around the point of the Worm catch aflame, which spread towards her horn to form a burning pillar. Bursts of magical lightning - excess energy uncontainable by the spell - arced off the pillar, though nothing could even singe the Worm’s hide.

When time began to speed up again, Penumbra felt her heart sink.

Just what would this thing take? Maybe it wasn’t possible to kill the Worm after all.

No, stop, she admonished, don’t think like that. We can kill it because if it is alive that necessitates a future state that is not alive. Just keep on fighting.

The fight must go on. You must survive.

She needed another new plan and she needed it fast.

Her physical weapons were useless and so apparently was much of her magic.

Spells. She needed spells. The dangerous spells, the ones that she’d learned in secret back on Equestria, the ones she hadn’t even dreamed of using until Emperor Nicholas had come along and given her another set of even more dangerous spells. The ones for fighting gods.

The Worm was a god. Not a creator deity, like those in the ancient myths of primitive species, but simply a creature so strong and so separate from anything else it could only be described as a god. But, as Penumbra knew from experience, even gods could die.

In her home of Sanctuary’s Watch she knew - hidden behind a dozen tomes heavier than bricks and disguised to look like nothing more than loose pages - were three scrolls Emperor Nicholas had penned in the sixth millennium. She uttered a silent thanks to him for them. For, hate him as she may, she could never rightly deny he wasn’t helpful. He had written them as a precaution, or so his writing would have its reader believe, in case of dire circumstance.

These, Penumbra had decided, were dire enough circumstances.

Higher Beings - she recited from the first scroll she had committed to memory - know my name and my power. I am Nicholas, Emperor Everlasting, The Master of all of Time. You have given to the numberless masses a belief, a belief that you are invincible - this belief is false and will be corrected. Higher Beings, I am your scourge.

Young Beings, you wretched of the universes, I gift you true power. Young Beings - from whose stock I arose and to whom I owe and shall give all - I gift you the knowledge to burn away your shackles. I gift to you the power to kill your gods.

As she let the memory of the spell wash over her, a part of her rebelled. What were the risks A little part of her demanded, what would this spell really do? Emperor Nicholas had created spells that even in ancient times would have been considered monstrous, what if it simply burnt away the whole world - he was known for such things after all.

But, perhaps, it was worth it. One world to save thousands. It was a very Nicholas idea, a very “no cost too great” kind of idea.

The spell she had in mind would take up all of her remaining energy, she thought, no doubt it would tax her to the point of unconsciousness. There would be no do-overs, no follow-up punch, this was all she had.

She brought herself to a safe landing in the courtyard. High above her loomed Legion’s Hold, even its battered spires still gave the impression of an invincible bastion. Far on the other side of the base, separated from her by miles of fortifications and two violent Worms, were her friends. She wondered how they were faring, she hoped as well that they were doing okay. Perhaps, if her plan worked, then she could recover quickly and move to assist. Maybe - though it was rather flagrantly optimistic - the spell would take more than just her Worm out of the picture.

The spell, one of Nicholas’ god-killers - it was worryingly simple. How many times, she thought, had such a spell or similar been used on Equestria during ancient times? How many murderous warlords had fought each other with spells so purely destructive they had to be casted by a proxy of the wielder - lest the wielder themself be killed with their target? What a strange thought, she thought, to have before you kill a god.

She focused all her energy inwards, to her soul. Emperor Nicholas demanded only the purest of catalyst - no horn would suffice. She could feel its heat radiating from her chest, it burned bright and painfully - but that only told her it was working.

With no further fanfare, the spell fired.

“Get her back!”

Joyous-Seeker yelled out to a Maniple of Warriors. A pair grabbed her by the forelegs and hauled her towards Legion’s Hold.

Her vision was going dark, her hearing buzzing violently. She did not have the energy left to question anything.

Before her, the Worm coiled.