The Last Oddetsey

[kodster]

A short time passed, and Eudial began to get up again. ...weird, it didn't seem like it had been that long since the battle ended. In fact, it had only seemed like minutes... she must have supposed that the rift powers she had obtained had fixed her up. However, she still felt ache-y...

Wait! The courtyard!

"Yo!" Eudial called to George over the com-link. "I don't know if everyone said so yet, but I get the feeling we'd all like to go back. And the courtyard is supposed to be where "this affair was ended". So if you could send us all there... that'd be prime."

Eudial scowled.

"Please," she added.

[alex_holt]

EVERYONE

The entire surviving party and associates are teleported from the deck of the ship in a single movement, plus Leland Gaunt from the ground far below.

They arrive in the courtyard to find it looking substantially different to when they left. While it had been coated in plants before, now the vines have expanded into thick wooden roots and encrust the courtyard like the floor of a rainforest. More notable though, the tree at the centre of the area has gone, and the stone that that had lain the body of Doomforall upon all that time ago is now bare. The space between the roots is filled with thousands of fallen acorns.

Caspasian turns to Aurelia - the work of my warriors is now done, they will leave now, though I will remain for a while should you need my advice for what comes next. Aurelia clutches Meander's books in her hands as she watches them go, and feels accurtely aware that a little less than half of the warriors who had arrived will be returning to the Sun.

But for the rest of the group, the most notable thing is the figure now sitting conversing with the Botanist. Wearing casual plain clothes with no hint of any symbol on them, and carrying just a slender staff of knotted oak. He stands about 6 foot tall, has thick eyebrows and grey eyes and is recognisable to most of the beings standing there...

Doomforall.

Yet... not quite... While he has the same features, this being carries himself in a different way to every image they have seen. Gone is the black and the trenchcoat, gone are the rift-black eyes that some of the earlier pictures of him had back in the church, but even more so, gone is the brooding vaguely frustrated feeling that all records of him seemed to show. This figure is not really Doomforall at all. As the magic users in the party can attest, and even from the flecks of golden light that permeate the courtyard, he is overflowing with Old Magic.

He turns away from the Botanist, who starts to inspect the roots through various lenses, and faces the party.

"Ah, you're here. I'm afraid you have now reached the point where we must discuss this final piece of preventing the end of the Multiverse".

[majinb]

Aurelia, now practically wingless, hovers to Meander the donkey in an energy bubble provided by Wentworth the mammoth.

"Good day Meander the donkey, I am pleased to inform you that the first contract job of The Spanish Inquisition has been a great success, and through great labor, and the fact the perpetrator happened to arrive at our doorstep, I have been able to retrieve your missing books.

"You, water mother and water daughter, your help has been invaluable and with the demise of evil Vengeance, your protection is now guaranteed.

"And now, Wentworth, hover me to this place's medical facilities, I wanna see if I can get my wings in working condition again!"

[shadowflare]

Marisa touched down in the courtyard and looked around in wonder.
"That's a whole lot of sudden plants!"

She stopped looking all over though when she realised that Doomforall was standing there and now was probably not the time to make too many observations on plants. She gripped the vial of old magic, "What's the thing we gotta do now?"

[NFX]

With a flash, Twitch appeared in the Courtyard of the castle, and almost immediately collapsed in a disoriented heap. Teleporting really shook him up at the best of times, but after a fight like that, he felt worse than ever. It took him a moment or two to stagger back to his feet, after which he began meandering around a little to try and get his bearings back.

Once he had, though, he heard someone addressing the rest of the group, and turned his attention towards them...and immediately felt a little worse when he realised who it was, and worse still when they told the group what they now had to do. A faint groan escaped his lips, and Twitch trudged over towards Marisa, not in any way eager to get started with the final job.

[kodster]

After the shock of the courtyard's newer appearance and realizing who exactly had addressed them, Eudial felt a strange forboding... but nodded and waited for the man with Old Magic to continue.

[NWOWWE]

More? There was still more to do? Any other time Gaunt left the scene of large scale destruction it usually meant that business was concluded. The end. Case close. Move on to the next town and start up fresh. At this point he didn't really want to know, but what else could be done?

"What..." He paused, his voice was strained rather badly. "What now?"

[playzooki]

[what? another? dammit, this is dumb. we've just samshed thigs up!]
"ugggghhhhhhh what do you want now?"

[alex_holt]

AURELIA

Handing over the books, Aurelia is confronted by an overjoyed Donkey who is very happy to have his collection complete. Meander is a creature who likes a very particular and steady order to the world, and losing his books had been horrible for him.

"Thankyou great Aurelia! You and your oddly named "Spanish Inquisition" truely are great heroes. Thankyou!"

He ponders for a second and extracts a tiny box with a large lock from somewhere in his fur, and unhooks a key on a string from his neck and hands (or mouths anyway) both of them to Aurelia.

"This is an artifact of great power, I believe you truely are worthy of it, and it is quite possibly the last of its kind..."

He continues to narrate as Aurelia opens up the small box and examines the contents - amidst a teflon coated inside, sits a tiny nub of chalk.

"It is the last remaining chalk of power - anything drawn with it will come to life - they were used to build the great Crayola Duchies in the mountains to the South - drawing beautiful citadels straight onto the mountain faces. But then the chalk mines ran dry and the people of those lands waged war over the last few pieces. This is probably the only bit left in the whole multiverse, and it's probably only enough to draw a few people at most. I believe you will use it wisely".

EVERYONE ELSE

The not-Doomforall speaks softly, despite some of the rudeness of certain members of the party:
"I will cut to the chase. The multiverse is not safe while the Rift remains inside the Universe. All the rift that is left resides in one place, and I am sorry to say this, but for everyone everywhere to live, Eudial must die."

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt stared blankly at the Not-Doomforall for several moments, letting that statement sink in. He slowly turned to look at Eudial and then back to Not-Doomforall. Back and forth slowly. He had zero qualms about the task itself of course, but the potential consequences of rash decision on his own part could be... unpleasant. Annoyingly he doubted she'd be the type to sacrifice herself (not that he would be himself. And he really, really did not want to have to do any more fighting now, and particularly not with someone as unstable as she was. Well, let's see how she takes the news at least, I'll get some amusement from that at least Gaunt thought.

[kodster]

(OOC: Majorly weird post time. :P)

Eudial must die

The Witch stood stock still as the magnitude of this revelation hit her.

Eudial must die

She had felt something bad was going to happen, but not like this.

EUDIAL MUST DIE

...

Eudial fell to her knees, staring straight at the ground in front of her. She was sure that every single glance in the vicinity was fixed on her, but it didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. "Eudial must die"... those three words kept repeating themselves in her head, overlapping, in perfect harmony as with a ticking clock.

"I don't want to die..."

The words came out of her mouth as though a stranger had spoken them. Indeed, it was almost as though someone else had spoken them, for surely no one could have expected such fear in the voice of the accused rift-wielder, especially now that they had learned of her true nature, and her powers.

Sure. She could obliterate them all within the blink of an eye now. It was what she desired over all else in the beginning, wasn't it? Absolute power. And now she had it... surely no one could stand in her way right now, could they? She was invincible!

No. No she wasn't. She was far from that. Lord Doomforall was proof enough. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It would take control of her. And in any case, all Eudial was... was an abominable Witch from a far away nebula, a villain bent on conquering worlds; she didn't deserve such power.

It was only now that these revelations came to her mind. She was much wiser now, or so it felt to her... having bled through all these battles of cosmic magnificence; she had actually FELT like a hero. And those she counted as worthless pests in the beginning, she now felt at least some sort of kinship with them, and especially after the final battle, as they fought alongside her against Lord Vengeance with their very lives... hell, even Leland Gaunt had stood with her, though not literally beside her, and that was something.

She didn't want to be any sort of villain anymore.

Eudial looked at the palms of her hands, felt the pulsing of an actual heart, beating in her chest. She had never appreciated so much before what it was like to be alive. And she was still young. She had so much to live for now.

And before she knew it, tears started to fall from her eyes. And soon, she couldn't help it. She began to sob, and then started crying heartily as she looked right down into her lap. She didn't care how anybody reacted, only three words mattered at the moment... "Eudial must die"...

"I-I d-don't wanna d-diiiieee..." she blubbered fearfully.

[shadowflare]

Marisa's golden eyes widened at the next task. She felt a kinship with the witch, because, you know. Witches and all. She didn't really want to kill anybody, exactly, or at least anybody she actually knew.

"Whoa whoa whoa hoooold on a second here, ze. She didn't have this power all along, if she did it would have shown up sooner. There is a way to knock it out of her and into someone else, right? I wouldn't even care if it was any of the rest of you that had it either, I'd look for another way first. Now." Marisa took a deep breath before continuing, looking at the other witch, "If we can't knock it out of her into someone or something more squishy, if we did kill her and the rift was gone, could we bring her back or what? It's never gonna be as easy as offing someone, that sounds, well, way too easy! There has to be something more to it!"

She gestured to herself, trying to feel a bit braver, "I know things about final battles, there is always something after, and sometimes a tea party after that. If I slug back this vial, can I just pull it out of her or do something else about it?"

[NFX]

Twitch froze. After the last battle, he was already in some trepidation about what they had to do next, and now he was even more apprehensive having heard what it was they had to do. "We..."

He looked over at the red-haired witch, down on her knees, trembling.

He looked back at the reborn figure of Doomforall.

Back to the witch. Back to Doomforall.

"...we've gotta kill Eudial?"

Clearly the shock of the task had hit all of the group (aside from Leland, he guessed), but none of them harder than Eudial herself. Shortly after the group had arrived, the parrot had noticed Eudial's fearful side emerging as they ventured to the Church of Vengeance, but he never imagined she would be brought to this level, openly weeping before them, begging for her very life. "Why-" he began, trying to figure out some way of keeping Eudial, his companion...his friend, even, alive. "Why can't we just get the rift out of her the same way she did with Sally?"

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt gazed down at her, still not showing much outwards signs of emotion. Not yet at least. He had became familiar enough with Eudials random outburts, but this was a new extreme. Inwardly he could laugh. In the end, no matter how high and powerful someone thought themselves, when they stared directly at the prospect of their own mortality they were almost always the same.

But...

But he couldn't kill her like this. As self-serving and evil as Gaunt was in general, he had to admit that she had played a key role in saving all of them. And there was not much personal gain in it for Gaunt anyway.

Finally Gaunt broke his silence.

"There's never a simple solution around here is there?" He said, annoyance steadily creeping into his voice. He then looked back at Eudial. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you can relax. I don't think you'll be needing to die today."

"Anyway, I don't think it would be as simple as that. Ever since we've been here, it's been go here and kill this person. Now find this and kill that person. Then make a stand and kill the evil clone. It's just having to jump through one hoop after another." Gaunt was now speaking through gritted teeth, which in demon form was rather more disturbing than normal. "I'm not buying this new line about someone from our group randomly needing to be killed now."

He paused, taking a few deep breaths and regained his composure. He pulled out the Golden Gun and began taking it apart. He pulled a cigarette out of the holder and light it with the lighter portion. Smoking as a demon was decidedly more awkward, but he didn't much care at the moment.

"I'm willing to let Marisa try out her idea at least."

[alex_holt]

Not-Doomforall closes his eyes with a look of concentration, and then a fter a few moments, opens them again...

"Ahh I see. I'm afraid it cannot be removed from Eudial in the same way as it was from Sally - Sally was not directly a rift wielder, she merely had been a counterpart to Doomforall that the rift flowed to when he died, and Eudial was able to siphon that power away into herself. Even if Eudial were not a direct rift wielder, it would require a true rift wielder to absorb it, and there are no others - and then we would have to kill whoever that was. No, Eudial must die...

But..."

*he stoops to the ground to pick up one of the acorns*

"Although your death is needed to safeguard everyone, that is not to say that "a" Eudial cannot go on as Doomforall's thoughts linger in me."

He turns to Marisa

"Though even the Old Magic is very powerful, it cannot remove rift powers from someone, any more than the Rift can remove Old Magic from someone, although, there are some options having a second wielder of the Old Magic would bring to the table..."