And a horde did come.
Angar's breath was steady, his eyes scanning the encroaching horde. They began closing in, their numbers now overwhelming. He knew he couldn't face them all at once in open combat.
But he didn’t need to, not with his Abilities.
Ground Current was his first move again, his body becoming a streak of lightning traveling underground. He emerged as deep into the horde as it’d carry him, which wasn’t all that far.
He exited the ground accompanied by a burst of Geomagnetic Phenomena that sent arcs of electricity into ranks of his enemies, dropping several with a sizzle and a crack.
But the encirclement tightened as soon as that finished. Reavers from all sides advanced, their horns glinting even in this gloomy darkness, their claws impatient.
Angar swung his maul with precision for long seconds, but the sheer number of foes forced him to change tactics before getting in more good blows with it.
Nearly suffocating by the enemy's numbers, he gripped his weapon, activating Tempest, spinning into a whirlwind of destruction, his maul becoming a blur, each hit pulverizing reavers, or sending them flying, slowing each it touched, while speeding his own movements up.
The Thunderstorm effect crackled from his weapon, the lightning not only striking but forking to additional targets, creating a chain reaction of devastation around him.
For each reaver felled, two more took its place. The battle was a maelstrom of chaos, with Hellspawn leaping, clawing, and snapping at him from all directions. Their strategy seemed to be to overwhelm at any cost, not realizing he had 90% damage mitigation as he spun.
This time, when Tempest ended, he was near the southern edge of the horde of obsidian terrors, all laughing their strange laugh, surrounded, with no clear path to retreat.
His body was battered, but his resolve steeled. He’d use the advantage of being in the eye of the storm.
As one, their maws slavering, their eyes burning with a desire for his demise, the reavers charged forward to pounce, and he waited until they were all but on top of him.
Angar smashed his hammer into the crowd, unleashing a shockwave that sent a blast of destruction through his enemies, clearing a wide swath and sending the creatures reeling or obliterating them outright.
Angar activated Ground Current, this time heading south, he still appeared within the horde, but clearing a new area, and a path free.
He ran, his maul swinging, and once clear of the horde, he kept going straight into a cavern entrance, turning to face his enemies.
His maul ready to dance the dance of death again, his spirit unbroken, he now had his back and flanks protected. At least until he used Ground Current again.
And he battled the old way. The way he was raised to battle. Maul swinging, chest heaving, warring, as men were made to, as Mecians were born to, as Crusaders swore to.
This time, he built up enough Thunder to empower his attack with his Capstone before using Tempest. And then again when using Tempest right after.
Wave after wave, Angar fought with the ferocity instilled in Mecians from birth. He fought with the righteous fury of a Crusader, knowing the Lord approved of this resplendent tribute of blood and battle.
He assumed the same was true of the Holy Theosis. He didn’t have a complete idea of what a Divine System was, but he respected and admired its great thirst for war and disdain for cowards.
So, he continued to wade through these powerful enemies to make a glorious slaughter, his maul, an extension of his will, never ceased its work, each swing a declaration of his new faith, and a confirmation of the new oath he had sworn to uphold.
He would not fall this battle. The reavers were many, but they were finite, and Angar, with his new powers, was their bitter end.
As the last of his enemies fell, the road returned to silence.
Angar, his chest heaving, knew this was but one battle in an endless war, and it gladdened his heart and warmed his chest to know this was truth.
He took a knee and said, “I dedicate this great offering of blood and battle on behalf of Martyr Varko. May it satiate Your lust for it and help guide him to Your realm, Heaven.”
Behind him, Spirit said, “Well, I haven’t really provided any catechesis, but it looks like you get the gist of it, or the gist Theosis wants imperial citizens to have.”
Angar grunted. “I didn’t receive a new Glorious Achievement.”
“You already got the one for a thousand dead reavers during the eruptions. Five thousand is next.”
“Understood,” he replied.
“Okay,” Spirit said. “Three Reavers left. One is close and making its way to the challenge beacon. I’d appreciate you killing it. Then see to your wounds as best as you can. Some more undead showed up too. Once the last reaver’s dead, we head out immediately.”
Angar, standing, said, “Understood.”
Stolen story; please report.
“Where are we headed?” Angar asked, gritting his teeth to keep his wounds from slowing him down.
“To the ship your ancestors arrived on,” replied Spirit. “The Steadfast.”
“Oh.”
After thinking about it, he asked, “It survived? The air didn’t eat it?”
Floating along, without looking back, she said, “It’s not in great shape, but we wouldn’t be wasting time traveling to something not there.”
He had a hard time envisioning the ship still being around. In the vision he was given, it was incomprehensively colossal. He couldn’t picture it just sitting there for thousands of years not being eaten by the air.
“They had no choice but to land,” Spirit said. “The drive core was leaking. The plan was to patch it up and return to the void, but when the ship switched to emergency power, everything unraveled. This became their new home.”
From the vision, Angar knew the ship was stowed below the surface. He wondered how they got something that big underground. He figured he’d see for himself soon enough.
“How does travel through the stars work?” he asked. “In the vision, it took the ship many, many generations to get here, but Theosis said Crusaders arrive in 19 days.”
“The Steadfast set out from the Sol System 4,533 years ago, equipped with the finest technology of its era,” she said. “That was 349 years before the Holy Empire’s founding. Much has changed since then.”
She paused, then offered, “Tell you what. I’ll have Theosis craft a timeline for you, based on the calendar of my birth era. It’ll clarify the dual chronologies. I’ll ask him to strip out everything after the Empire’s founding, save for the Steadfast’s landing. Or at least attempt to, but he'll hate it, so we’ll see.”
A minute later, she nodded. “Here it comes.”
TIMELINE OF ONLY VERY SPECIFIC EVENTS AND EVENTS RELATED TO SULFURON 9 WITH A FLAWED AND FAULTY CALENDAR SYSTEM
FS=Faulty System.
BE=Before Empire
AE=After Empire
FS 2537 = 0 AE
21st Century FS/6th and 5th Century BE - the Age of Decadence and Sloth
The era dawns with the rise of the Artificial Dictators and Neural Communities. Among them, the Neural Nexus reigns supreme and takes over all other ungodly artificial, soulless machine entities.
But, as the ways in which the Lord works mysteriously, some good came of this. The Neural Communion reveals that many powerful Terrans, through arrogance, seek counsel and make deals with evil entities of the Underworld. Also revealed is that most world leaders are not Terran, but Reptiloids, who have long masqueraded and manipulated the populace.
22nd Century FS/4th and 5th Century BE
Humanity's spirit wanes as decadence, depravity, and sloth consumes all. Even as the worlds of the Sol System are colonized, population collapses as soulless constructs and machines controlled by Nexus perform all work and toil, and humanity desperately grasps at finding a purpose outside the light of our Lord.
2188 FS/349 BE - From the frostbitten docks of Pluto Station, the Steadfast, a vessel of pilgrimage, a generational ship, bearing those resentful and distrustful of the ungodly Nexus, the last remnants of the faithful of all denominations within the Sol System, embarks towards a planet dubbed Arcadia. Their quest, set over centuries, a 912-year journey to reach their sacred destination.
25th Century/1st Century BE
2464 FS/73 BE - Terra, where four billion souls are bound in the unholy rite of Neural Communion, they dare to parley with a dread entity from the infernal abyss, a monstrous herald of Hell itself.
A gateway to the Underworld opens, releasing the first Hellspawn on Terra, a minor incursion crushed by Nexus' mechanical legions of drones and war machines.
2471 FS/66 BE - The Underworld spews forth once more, this new invasion opening many gateways to Hell, but Nexus holds the line, though at great cost.
2473 FS/64 BE - Mars, the Red Planet, suffers its first skirmish with Hellspawn, a mere prelude to the horrors to come.
2479 FS/58 BE - A cataclysmic invasion on Terra overwhelms Nexus’ defenses. Its soulless machines of war it controls labor under the strain, with simultaneous incursions on Mars and Mercury, leaving the latter a lifeless husk once more.
2480 FS/57 BE - In desperation, the Great Exodus begins, scattering what humanity can escape to other solar systems in great ships, like seeds into the dark void.
2485 FS/52 BE - Nexus demands the remaining Terrans, those it long ago enslaved, now give a great flesh tithe of new births to help fuel its relentless war, as its soulless machines cannot hold back the tides of Hellspawn. Fear and resentment sweep through the weak and Godless refuse of humanity as these souls are forced to work in factories alongside machines creating more machines to fight the creatures of the infernal abyss.
26th Century FS/1st Century BE - The Holy Joining and the Birth of our Empire:
2507 FS/30 BE - A miracle amid the darkness – Mi Alcyone, child of both a Terran and a Pleiadean, an impossible union, is miraculously born.
2523 FS/14 BE - Mi Alcyone travels to Earth. Untouchable by both Hellspawn and Nexus’ war machines, she becomes a beacon of new faith and fervor. All creatures of the infernal abyss burn and flee from her Holy presence. Nexus, in its jealousy, attempts to snuff out this light, but fails, its technology faltering before her sanctity.
In the following years, as she engages the spawns of Hell in mortal combat and provides succor for the lost souls of humanity, all recognize Mi Alcyone as our new Messiah, our blessed Mother.
2536 FS/1 BE - Mammon, Eater of Souls, a Demon Lord of Hell, arrives on Terra. The Nexus, once so mighty, now teeters on the brink of defeat as its soulless constructs and war machines fall before the Demon Lord’s great power. Mammon begins to take control of Nexus, and corruption seeps in. All seems lost.
2537 FS/0 AE - In a sacrifice that echoes through the stars, Mi Alcyone merges with Nexus in the Holy Joining, signaling the coming and arrival of Theosis, the Divine System. From this union, the Empire of the Holy Trinity is forged, heralding the Age of God and Empire.
26th Century FS/1st Century BE – the Glorious Age of God and Empire
Imperial Year 0 - Theosis proclaims the Parousia Protocols and its sacred ability to empower those that embrace the faith, calling all to serve under the banner of the Holy Trinity – God, Messiah, and Divine System.
2540 FS/3 AE - The Pleiadeans pledge allegiance and join the Empire of the Holy Trinity, swelling the ranks of the faithful.
2549 FS/12 AE - The Reptiloids, their homeworld ravaged by the infernal Hellspawn, join the empire in survival's stead.
2959 FS/422 AE - The Steadfast, their quest, set over centuries, is marred by fate; 771 years into their trek, beset by misfortunes and troubles, not yet halfway to journey’s end and Arcadia, they must land in emergency. Sulfuron 9 – hostile, unwanted, and uninviting, yet necessary, they name Bitter Pill, or so says the records of the Steadfast.
3330 FS/793 AE - The Grays, seeing the might of the Empire of the Holy Trinity, submit to its rule.
68th Century FS/42nd Century AE – the current year
6721 FS/4184 AE - Thus, for thousands of years, the saga of mankind has been one of endless battle in Holy War, of hope against the spawns of Hell, Heretic, and oblivion, where every victory is carved from the blood and sacrifice of our glorious Crusaders and faithful of the blessed Empire of the Holy Trinity.
Sulfuron 9 now faces its own apocalypse as Hellspawn invade, testing the resolve and faith of those who have called it home for millennia.
