[center][h2]There are still lands left to be conquered[/h2][/center]

It had been a long long time since Xavior had seen an unstabilized realm but there on the horizon one loomed, coming closer and closer with each paddle of their turtle ship’s claws. He saw all this from the central tower of the city built atop its back, a towering spire of dark stone that held up the reinforced volcanic glass dome that sat in place of the turtle's back. Two large curved horns swept out of the top of the tower, piercing the dome in a fit of narcissism and practicality, the twin spikes being the arrays of a magmatic weapon made to defend the ship from other grand foes.

Around that tower were large sprawling buildings, the sharp brutal angles of their rapid construction softened by the gardens and farms that topped every rooftop in the self-sustaining city.  Above, Tonikalla danced and played in the enclosed sky, flitting between chimneys that took the infernal fires of industry out of the shell, while below the mortal colonists went about their days, or gathered around the edges of the dome to see the same sight the god could from on high.

Below them the turtle (of the snapping variety), a mix of buoyant stone scales, Ambroisen musculature and divinely crafted flesh, glode through the oceans waves just as easily as it could have swam beneath them.

“So, there it is. You know in hindsight it's the only shape that makes sense given what I learned about the eternal depth of the nodes. They must all link up in the center somewhere down there, at the beating heart of this sphere of a world” Xavior said to his traveling companion as they approached the proof of the Shepherd of Shadow’s words regarding the shape of the world. 

Benea leaned over the rails of the balcony and looked beyond the city towards the glass dome. Between the turtle and the unstabilized land, the water sat eerily still. There was no motion from a stable land to thrust life into the water, and without guidance in the sky other than the nightly painting of stars, it was a cold black glass. The goddess blew a stray hair from her face and refused to stand back up as she addressed Xavior. “You know dear, I could have told you it was round.”

“And yet you didn’t” Xavier replied, though not in an accusatory fashion. It wasn’t like it had ever had a reason to come up when they had talked in the past, as far as the god could recall. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t take the opportunity of the moment to ask “So are there any other fundamental truths of the world tucked away in that mind of yours you think would be useful or even just moderately interesting?”

Benea chewed her cheek for a moment. “That’s a hard question, sweet Xavior, there is so much to this world, where would I even start?”

“We’re making landfall shortly, so I suppose whatever you can fit in in that amount of time that would be immediately relevant?” Xavior replied, not actually having expected her to offer to answer that question directly. 

“Let’s see…” Benea trailed on. “Here you pick: either I can give you a small history lesson or regale you with some of Garravar’s theories — either or is useful for someone like you to know.”

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of reasons to discuss Garravar in future, so let’s go with the history lesson shall we?” Xavior decided after a few moments of thought.

“Easy enough.” Benea twisted around so she was facing Xavior while she leaned back on the railing. Looking him straight in the eye she started. “You know, I wasn’t the first god to be in multiple crucibles.”

“I… huh” Xavior was a bit taken aback by this, but not as much as he had been by Benea’s first revelations. He had kind of got used to being hit with head turning information buy the ancient goddess at this point “How do you know that?”

“The same way I learned a lot of the intrinsic formalities of the crucible, dear.” Benea stood up. “The pillar that took my sister’s sanity. Oh yes, it spoke about another god before my time, and not in a favorable light.”

“We’re two for three then in terms of returning cast members being something of a problem then. Wait…  oh my…” the got floundered for a moment for a curse that would make sense for him to use and then just gave up and went straight too “ was it a warning that they would return again?”

“Oh no, they were certainly dead and still are — if not erased from existence completely.” Benea poked her cheek. “His name was Falbach, and he was in three crucibles…” A pause. “Same as me, I suppose.”

“Then why the documentation of his…” Xavier began to ask, before getting it “ah, historical archival. Wise. I’ll stop interrupting” and then doing just that.

“His story is one I wish I never confided to Garravar, if I’m being honest, dear,” Benea looked down. A simple chair formed underneath her, catching her descent into it. It creaked and she leaned back. “Originally, Falbach was a mighty warrior and a man of love and compassion. He was unfortunate to have been born to a crucible of only five where two were violent and macabre. If the story rings true, one wished to bathe the world in an ancient and slumbering fire while the other wished to end the world entirely, and cause the end of time.”

A pause. “But Falbach was great and his love for life united him and the two remaining gods and together the three defeated the fire lord and the lady of nothingness.”

Xavior for his part created a small stool upon which to sit on, setting it next to the banister so he could lean against it and sit at an angle such that he need only turn his head to switch between looking at Benea as he listened and checking the approaching coast for any signs of danger.

True to his word, he simply nodded, and let her continue her tale without comment till she reached its, he suspected, grisly end.

“Well you see, after that — everything went perfect. Falbach and his two friends decided upon naming him the heir to the crucible and he did just that but as the triggering event ended and his will was thrust upon the world, for but a brief moment that only he could notice — his friends were deleted.”

“Simply… gone?” the god asked, confused. After all, the person speaking with him was proof that it was possible to pass from one to the next should the creator will it. So then why, he had to ask, had this occurred. 

“For a moment, at least,” Benea continued. “In so many words his friends were then reconstructed as per Falbach’s will, as was everything else and thus began Falbach’s second crucible. It consisted of his two friends and seven new faces as well as several universal curses. I don’t know them all, of course, but I do know that one of these curses actually affects you and I! Falbach’s will saw our innate knowledge of the crucible to be taken away from us, hence why I relied on a pillar and you on Peninal.”

“That… is a lot to unpack.” Xavior took it back, you could never get used to the revelation wagon’s wild ride. “ As per his will… Do you mean he willed them back into being, or that they were created as per he understood their existence. As Peninal understood yours?” he asked, because if it was the latter, he could see the origin of Garravar’s seeking for a third option in this tale of uncertainty. 

“Well let me continue for you.” Benea nodded. “So you see, that same issue arose for Falbach. He had no idea if he did either or and as time went on he became suspicious that his friends weren’t truly his friends but some strange creation of his and as his paranoia grew, his will began to crack and loosen, and as that happened, he began to lose his nodes. Before long, the world fell into a mad rush for the nodes as one would expect of a crucible. It was god against god, who would win? Well, Falbach won once again. He was the greatest after all, remember?”

“And then the paranoid man with a cracked will remade the world a second time…” Xavior said, seeing only a ruinouse ending to this tale.

“He did indeed!” Benea sounded almost surprised that Xavior guessed correctly. Her storytelling definitely needed some work. “Granted what he did was create seven new gods but this time, he had no delusions of peace and began to hunt them all for violent fun, or so it was perceived as such. He would laugh and smile and smash his enemies into dust and pulp and then one by one he killed each and every god… except for one, the writer of this tale and my original paragon if you will. Her name was Voittaja and as far as I can tell, there was none like her.”

“How did she overcome someone with so much more power and experience?” he asked, just a hint of desperation for that knowledge hidden in his tione, for that was almost exactly the odds he would face if/when he had to stand against Garravar.

“Luck was on her side, as was time,” Benea explained, “She hid for two hundred or so years, waiting for the perfect moment. She knew that Falbach’s bloodlust would turn into boredom eventually and his violent will would crack again, and once it did and his power started to slip, she struck. She was lucky the triggering event did not come sooner, like it did for me.”

“And unlike you or Falbach she decided she did not want to live once that event occurred?” Xavior asked.

“She lived.” Benea leaned back and smiled. “She lived longer than I have, longer than Falbach ever did — probably longer than both of us put together.”

“... was that not the one before yours then?” Xavior said, realizing he might have jumped to a conclusion. She had said she knew of seven, he now recalled, and that had only been three of the missing 6 before the ones Benea had been in

“It was.” Benea was giving Xavior a wide, fox-like smile. “But it wasn’t a crucible.”

She 100% earned that smile, given Xavior’s jaw was left hanging open and the god speechless.

“So, there have been 8 crucibles now but there is another sort of form this world can take, and as far as Garravar was concerned he found it impossible to count and so we only know of Voittaja’s. It’s called an interim. Basically, the difference between a crucible and an interim is that a crucible always starts when multiple gods are born. In the case of Voittaja, when she won the final crucible of Falbach, her will was so against creating new gods that the world instead was cast into an interim. It is basically a crucible with one god who already owns all the nodes…” Benea slowed down and pursed her lips.

“Um, Xavior dear, perhaps it is best if we don’t share this story.” She pinched her chin. “I am starting to realize how tempting this could be to some.”

“Perhaps, but she dies in the end though does she not? Or eventually changed her mind. Else we would not be here, but instead it would be, what, a chain of her own worlds over and over forever?”

“It was one world, one existence.” Benea held up a finger. “And it lasted longer than the six known crucibles put together. I don’t know why it ended, the story ends with her victory and the birth of her interim. Voittaja’s interim.”

“Then how do you know it lasted so long? Xavior asked, scratching his head thoughtfully ”either way, it is odd that it lasted so long, and yet that was the only thing left in the node that was not remade is it not? The temptation is there, but the unknowns do seem… grim.”

“The pillar was made after the interim had already been going on for a while, and from her account, just that small portion was already incredibly long, as for why only the pillar survived in the end — I have no idea.” Benea crossed her arms. “This story is one of the things that drove Garravar to where he is today, so be careful with it. Don’t make me regret this.”

“I won’t. I swore to not follow his path, and I stand by that oath. I will not kill our kin chasing these gambles of fate” he said, holding up a hand as he reaffirmed that commitment, before adding “though when it comes to other reasons I am as yet undecided.” 

Benea frowned for a bit. “Dear, after I murdered my sisters I swore I would never take a life again. For my entire reign, I ruled as a pacifist and even continued that tradition into this crucible. Now I realize I was foolish; you and I are going to have to kill anyone who opposes the decision of our alliance. Containment didn’t quite work when I tried it on Anak’thas. If I name you heir, myself and Tsunya will have to see that decision through.”

“That… is perhaps not the optimum attitude to have when going into negotiations with a neutral power with territorial holds that seem to rival our own if the merchant tales hold true” Xavior replied cautiously, somewhat taken aback by this turn around on her attitude. He himself had only been thinking in terms of an eye for an eye and had expected push back on that, so being forced into the opposite corner of this moral quandary put him off balance to say the least “Besides, we will need to devise a form of containment or imprisonment if we are to deal with your icy shadow.”

"That much is true," Benea folded her arms and sat back in her chair. "Killing him doesn't work, nor does trying to break tolbog. Containment ironically is the answer in that case."

“So we would need a prison of some kind, one that can hold a god. You managed to hold Anak’thas with only a box after all, so it is possible as long as we add more reliable wardens. More defenses. A better box…” Xavior replied, mind suddenly whirring at the technical challenge such a feat would provide “Well, at the very least, we do have test subjects available to prove the viability of such an endeavor” he mused grimly. They certainly did not lack for divine foes after all.

"He is rather tricky even when compared to other divine, considering his ability to shatter." Benea chewed her cheek. "Off topic, but we should split up at the isles. Recapture Monica's node and I'll claim the other two. It's about time we start to put our claim out until we can convene with Tsunya and pick an heir."

“I believe Tsunya was promised one of them,” Xavior pointed out once he had caught up with the rapid topic change, “specificity  traded my claim to it too her, and I would prefer to keep that bargain”

“Besides, if she links up one of her nodes to the nexus here, claiming it won't have much of a delay. Not one that will matter anyway, as it will take plenty of time to settle and make use of just the one habitable node”

"As long as it is expedient, dear…" Benea twisted her lips into a frown. "I have an anxiety in my gut that tells me time might not be as long as we wish."

“I suppose all we can hope for is our roll of the dice being a high enough one” Xavior replied, “and take things at an even pace, neither rushing to folly nor being so slow that folly catches us anyway ”

“Then I’ll take one node and turn it into a prison, I’ll leave one for Tsunya, and you’ll take Monica’s…” Benea paused. “Maybe the southern gods can see reason now that we are further into the crucible. I’ll offer them a chance to convene with us over the heir, I think.””

Xavior nodded at her and suggested dividing up of the land and then went on “Maybe. At the very least we need the information they have on Grym’s abominations and, if possible, support in combating him. Collaboration now may lead him to be more open to additional cooperation and eventual unification with our cause” Xavior suggested optimistically.

“I’ll take it; I’d rather not have to repeat the events of Lon and Galina.” Olipha looked to the ocean and stared until her hair erupted in a white flame. “I’ll summon a mount for myself —”

With little else, the black gloss of the ocean was disrupted by quaking vibrations and violent waves started to lap at the turtle city. A deafening roar pierced the sky, blasting the waves into the air as beast as big as the city rocketed out of the ocean. It had the head of a lizard, with eyes as black as coal. From its toothy snout it had golden scales leading down its back all the way down to a long and spear-headed tail. Webbed wings shook the clouds from its back, and claws hung off of strong arms and legs. It let loose another roar, but this time a tornado of white flame blasted outwards and into the sky, lighting the ocean into a cream color for but a moment.

A smile formed on Benea’s face. “Isn’t he wonderful, dear?”

“I’m certain you’ll make a dazzling impression” Xavior semi-agreed. He would have gone with black with gold trim personally. Sill, there was no denying that with two 5 star beasts at their command, taking the node should be a breeze.

“I had prepared an escort for taking the node, but I suspect with this fellow at your beck and call they’ll only slow you down. Still, Shelley will be available to provide fire support should you need it” he said, regarding that task which was swiftly approaching, the great turtle and its new escort now within spitting distance of the chaotic coastline.

Literally within spitting distance in fact, as the chaotic guardians of the node, legions of wretched toad like creatures, announced their existence by sending globs of sparking bile hurting towards the invader’s with croaks loud as cannonfire.

Much of the first volly fell short, but some splashed the head of Shelley, who groaned and then returned fire, magnetic energy flowing up the central tower the gods were standing on and arching onto the twin horns at its tip, there the power coalesced into a mighty fireball, which hung in the horn’s grasp. It swelled larger, larger, and larger still, and then the fireball the size of a merchant vessel was lobbed forth in a lazy arch before crashing down among the toads, vaporizing scores of them in a single blow.

“Boom” went Benea, and thus the battle began much as it went on till its end.

[hr]

    Benea stood by the 34th node, her hand hovering next to it. All around her, the chaotic storm of the realm was ablaze with white flame and high above, cyclones were ripping from her dragon with every beat of its massive wings. Standing the fiery hell of heavenly flame, Benea let her hand fall on the node and all turned to light.

    The ground groaned and creaked as stones rubbed against each other. The crack of wood growing faster than it should joined the cacophony and in an instant, the realm was reformed. It was a strange land, different from any of Benea’s previous. Along the border was a ring of simple life similar to node 12, but the center was a vast and empty desert ringed by a pentagon of volcanoes that were angled towards the center of the region, forever blasting a stream of fire upwards to a spot floating far above the node — an island in the clouds.

    This island was cloaked in flames and made out of pure metal, fit with a sea of chains and locks. Benea folded her arms — she knew who would be living there.

[hr]

“So, have you decided what you are going to do with your life?” Xavior asked the Shepherd of Shadows as he finalized claiming Monica’s node, reopening access back home via the nexus, and sharing the claim with Dzallitsunya and Benea.

The guardian of Maelite, who had already tidied up the feral bugs of the ream, eventually replied that it had not.

“So, and this is just an offer not a command, but how would you feel about being a prison warden?”



[hider=summary]
We meet Xavior and Benea traveling north inside a living turtle ship along with numerous mortal colonists. Their destination is the southern island housing nodes 33,34 and 35.

When approaching the island Xavior and Benea have a conversation atop the ship’s central spire, where Benea tells Xavior about the god Falbach, a wise and noble god who won a crucible, but then when that creation briefly destroyed his allies and then resurrected the as part of remaking the world he started on a downwards spiral due to becoming convinced his friends from the old crucible where not themselves, but false duplicates created by the crucible.

First he started to go mad, losing nodes due to his will loosening. THis caused a mad rush to claim them by the other gods which sparked a war. A war that Falbach won. He made a second world, but his broken mind made a nightmare where he hunted a new set of gods for sport, killing all but one, Voittaja, who hid and then struck Falbach when his mind and will started to slip.

Then she made the world in her image, but it was not a crucible, but something called an interim. If a god remakes the world, but does not create or bring with them any other gods, then the resulting period of peace and singular rule can last for an unknown but lengthy time. What happened that caused it to end, and for all that remind of it to be the pillar from which Benea learned this story, is unknown.

Benea does not particularly want knowledge interims to get out, but only realizes this after she has told Xavior about it. He promises her that he will not kill gods in the name of ploys for eternity, be it an interim or Garravar’s plan. 

That brings them to talking about the killing of gods. Xavior considers it valid in an eye for an eye sense, while Benea has considered simply killing anyone who stands in the way of their alliance.

Given that they can't kill their biggest threat, Garravar, however the two resolve to instead make a realm sized prison to hold the gods who would stand against them.

Finally, Benea makes a big dragon and then they attack node 34 and take it with relative ease. Benea then tunis it into a prison, while Xavior goes west, claims node 33, reopens the nexus, shares the node with Benea and Dzallitsunya and then finally ives the Shepherd of Shadows a job offer as a warden of their new prison.

Node 35 is left unclaimed so Dzallitsunya can take it, as agreed upon some time ago.

[/hider]
[hider=might]
Bae-nea: 5 might

5 might creature: a giant golden dragon the size of a ocean-city-sea-turtle (really big). Its wings summon massive storms of wind and it can breath pillaring tornados of white flame, fit to scorch whole areas. A veritable monster of titanic proportions. 

Xavior: 7/8 MP

5 might creature: A giant turtle, affectionately named Shelly, with a shell about the size of a fortress. Said shell is clear like glass, and acts as an environmentally seal-able dome within which is a settlement filled with brutalist buildings with rooftop gardens, capable of housing a sizable population. A large tower sits at the middle, and at its top are two great horns that stick out of the top of the dome, forming a giant fireball launcher.

2 mp: shared node 33 with Benea and Dzallitsunya 

[/hider]