[center][h1][color=gold]Sundown[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] Grey and ominous colors tracked over the clouds as the winged avatar burst past them and lingered in the sky just above. Aveira's powerful wingbeats forced them to whip and whirl away like fleeing cattle, and the spirits of wind and water gathered and bunched themselves up uneasily, threatening to bundle into a thunderstorm to ward off Aveira's presence. Luckily for them, the avatar was not interested in tormenting the clouds further, but instead rocketed away with another beat of her wings. Before long, she was a tiny dot in the sky, speeding towards the west with breakneck speed. Aveira was frustrated. Not only had she been made to abandon her project in the north early after decades of silence from the goddess, but now Neiya could not wait a full week before interrupting again to give her new instructions. She had abandoned Mekellos and his Acadian puppets without much more than a simple goodbye, yet she doubted that he would need her assistance to fulfill the cleansing of the forest that that they had begun – indeed, the only thing that truly bothered her was that the goddess had begun to speak, and now did so with neither acknowledgment or concern for their previous plans. Her only solace as she drifted through the clouds on wide colorful wings was that intervention in this new place would directly benefit her own little merelli project – now that Neiya seemed to have forgotten or stopped caring about the task she gave her so long ago. The horned angel toyed with a few thoughts of playful rebellion. If Neiya no longer cared about the northern merelli, perhaps she would return herself and rule them as she saw fit. She had been much too lenient – decades had gone into shaping their minds, yet she doubted her trained youth were ready to handle the task on their own. The only benefit to this current task was it’s possible boon to the merelli project; Aveira cared about the Westfold about as much as she did Acadia. In another life, perhaps she would return to Acadia and raze it just to show Mekellos what real power looked like. He had let mortals make his mind soft, there was no doubt. The winged avatar zipped across the sky, whipping up the colorful sky into a frenzy as she passed. Finally, when she could sight the mountains beneath, she came to an abrupt halt with a single beat of her wings. There she hovered, no more suspended by actual flight but rather willing the air to hold her up, as she extended her mind to feel and grasp at all that Galbar could be coerced to feel. Tendrils of black, blue and gold snaked from the ephemeral feathers on her wings, feeling out slowly in the air and sky, and crawling out over the void to root herself in the world. The world around her grew agitated and fearful, the very fabric of the world trembling with a building dread from the terror angels’ budding onslaught. Even from after she could sense those same emotions for which Neiya had once instilled in her a deep love. This new land, the Westfold, was rife with hatred, pain, and fear. It was almost intoxicating, but it also made for a clear understanding of the goddess' interest in the region. Surely Neiya's words of mercy towards a people could be carried out in a way that bolstered these nascent troubles. She raised her hands into the sky and closed her eyes, readying herself for the ritual she had in mind. There was nothing quite like making an entrance that would captivate the entire region. [hr] Solus had flown a fair distance upwards towards the sensation that had first caught his mind. There was no mistaking it now, these energies and the unnatural dread warping all of the world around him as he flew through the sky was the same that he had been struck with several decades ago. It was like a beacon, infecting the world with pulsating enmity, growing stronger for each inch he cleared towards the source. It didn’t take a solar giant to figure out that something nebulous was taking place. He broke through the clouds and found her. Tendrils ran from her wings into the sky, trying to corrupt all the world as she had the aiviri. The Betrayer, the Fearspawn, the Hatred that Bloomed. Aveira. What was she doing? It didn’t matter, as he approached, for whatever it was he needed to stop it. “AVEIRA!” His voice boomed like thunder, the clouds crackling with solar energy. “MY OLD ENEMY!” His voice, unrestrained now out of fear of mortal ears, shook the heavens. Spears of sunlight formed in his hands, letting her speak would be foolish. For nothing she said could be trusted. He lent back his arm, and threw a spear at her. The angelic avatar shot her eyes open as Solus voice cracked like thunder across the sky, and that simple threat inherently borne in his words was enough for her to react. Her wings whipped and thrashed, battering the spear aside in protection of her form. It was enough to distract her - the tendrils began to dissipate and the tension carried in the air began to ease. He had interrupted whatever despicable act she was intending for Galbar next, and that fact seemed to make her focus entirely on him. [color=paleturquoise]"I leave one fool behind to find another,"[/color] she boomed with a palpable hatred, her wings whipping to carry her higher at first, like a hawk preparing to dive for prey. [color=paleturquoise]"I have longed to finish what we started!"[/color] Solus’ only reply was to heft his other spear and throw it at her, before he himself started for her in a burst of lightning like speed. He was ready for this and this time, he could not allow her to continue. The fate of all depended upon it. Aveira stabilized in the sky above, drawn out of her impending attack by the second spear. That too was sent careening to the side by a slap of her massive wing, but it was enough to keep her still for just a moment. It allowed for Solus to collide with her, the giant tackling the smaller avatar with a force that sent shockwaves, blasting apart the cloud cover as they were sent careening down. Solus punched Aveira time and time again and she did the same as they tumbled ever further to the mountainous terrain below. Each blow was as loud as thunder, as fierce as lightning and as dangerous as anything ever could be and neither yet relented. Ephemeral wings beat with a fury to both try and break away, and alternatively swipe angrily at Solus like a set of large blades trying to batter and cut at his glowing body. Aveira seemed to grow more and more bestial as they struggled, her features contorting with a rage and fury that made her fists seethe with darkness and her eyes burn with dread hatred. Each punch of his furious sun-tempered boulder like fists enraged her further, and like a frenzied bird she clawed and beat angrily, caught in the cycle of violence. They fell towards the mountainside, exchanging violent blows like a falling star at war with itself. They spun and whipped around erratically as Aveira tried to break loose, but eventually they ran out of air to fall. With a deafening crack of stone and a thunderous boom, Solus felt the stone of the mountain crumble and crack around him as they slammed into the mountain range as beyond lethal speeds. Aveira was undeterred by the shockwave, smashing her fist down at him like an angry ant, trying to beat him down into the mountain with each smash, and whipping at him with her wings like a restless gnat - if that gnat wielded a lethal blade. When her efforts met resistance from Solus, she found a newfound focus, staring down at him with glowing, deep-seated hatred. Her eyes burned with a fire that seemed to evoke the primal reactions deep with the sun, and her body seethed with a heat that echoed and carried across the mountain. In response, the ground began to crack and blister beneath them, as the same burning light in her eyes shone from underneath Solus, casting rays of blood-red light into the sky before a turbulent heat gathered and built beneath him. Aveira ripped herself free and shot up into the sky as the ground cracked, and hot flame and liquid stone erupted violently from the mountain, rippling up around Solus to drown him in molten fire. Scalding stones and unbearable heat shot into his frame and scattered into the sky as his crash site rapidly turned to a burning inferno of roiling flames and lava. Solus was made from the sun, this heat and anger meant nothing to him and he exploded from the bowels of his confinement, emerging from the lava as an inferno of anger and might. His gaze fell upon Aveira again and he jumped at her, breaking apart the stone at his feet. This caused another fiery explosion as he was propelled towards her, scattering molten stone and heated debris over the mountainside. The winged avatar met his charge with a wicked fury, her hands collating some manner of dark energies that she was forced to dissipate once more in order to raise her arms and defend herself. Still, despite her height she was a tiny figure beside the charging giant, and dodging away from his assault quickly became a fool's errand. He threw a fist at her and it collided with her arms, the force of the blow sending a shockwave that blew dust and rocks into the air, with the ground below her exploding. Aveira was flung into the mountain, shattering the side like it was a clay pot. As boulders the size of houses fell down around her, she barely had time to reorient herself before Solus came crashing down once more. Two arms slammed into the rock beside her as Aveira clambered out of the way to save herself from the blow but Solus caught her by her foot as she tried to escape and then threw her through into the mountain. The giant did not relent as he battered her into the rock, each blow like an earthquake. He punched her hard again and Aveira erupted out the other side, stabilizing herself with quick wing beats as she braced for him to come. Yet he did not. Where had he gone? Her malevolent gaze scanned for the giant from whence she came but only rocks fell. She flew further away for safety's sake, rapid wing beats keeping her in the air but ready to shoot away over the horizon. The volcano was but a small glow now, on the other side, on another mountain. It sent out ash and dust into the air as it shook, the sounds heavy in her ears. She looked up into the sky but the sun was… Brighter? She could feel Solus' presence bu- A spear slammed into her shoulder and Solus came down from the heavens above with a fury in his voice. Aveira did her best to evade but the giant was too large. His glowing fist smashed into the colorful war angel and his weight pushed her downwards with rocketing haste. Like the last flash of a shooting star, they burned across the sky before smashing deep into the countryside, leaving a crater behind. Solus smashed and beat the horned avatar into the dirt, seizing all opportunity to crush her with overwhelming force while he had the advantage. A divine beatdown that would leave even a deity gasping for air, each strike pounding a new dent into the crater. A strange shimmer made him pause, and that momentary pause gave him enough clarity to watch Aveira in the crater beneath him. Her image rippled and shimmered, and he understood the ruse. The horned avatar's image dissipated in his fingers, and at the same time a flash of prismatic light shone behind him. It struck him in the back with a violent burst, searing and piercing with unnatural force. An invigorated assault like the one in their first battle. But unlike that first battle, this time within seconds the beam pierced his flesh. He did not scream but instead grunted as he was pushed forward, losing his balance as he fell further into the crater. Her assault did not relent as he struggled to turn over and Solus felt the beam rip apart his divine flesh more and more by the second. Dark energy rippled and raged over his form, the horned avatar descending from her hidden perch in the sky as her assault shredded him piece by piece. Finally the attack relented, allowing Solus to complete his battered attempt to turn over and face his opponent. Aveira hovered in the sky not ten feet away from him, clearly convinced he no longer posed a threat to her. Her face was locked in a frown of haughty, arrogant fury - the true malice within Aveira carried openly. The giant coughed, something strangely mortal for a being so divine. Ichor and essence poured from his wounds, covering the ground in liquid light. Aveira raised her hand slowly, and in her palm a metal barb began to form and elongate, like liquid slowly being stretched to take form. It warped and twisted until a long black blade manifested in her grip, and she twisted both hands around it firmly as she turned it down to point towards Solus in the air. [color=paleturquoise]"Today, the war is won. Everything else is just a rat hunt. Breathe your last, Son of the Sun; a good death is it's own reward."[/color] “You…” He spoke in a whisper, broken. “You… Will be… Defeated… One day.” He coughed again as Aveira flew in close. Solus tilt his head back, looking to the sky. “Mother… Forgive me…” Like a falling guillotine the winged avatar let herself fall freely towards the ground, piercing blade lifted with unerring aim towards one of the many wounds on Solus' body. Aveira's weapon impacted his ichor-flowing wound, and the immense weight of the divine creature fell upon the blade to push it deep into the giant's body. Her entire form twisted with a beat of her wings and the large blade twisted with her, turning and carving deep into the divine giant. With another powerful beat of her wings, the pressure on her weapon grew immensely and it sank deeper into Solus, stabbing into his body until her feet stomped down on him. With new ground beneath her, the horned avatar twisted the blade again, roaring with unabated desire to kill. The giant gripped the sword in vain as his body began to shake violently. Great fissures began to spread out from the wound, like snakes glowing white hot. His luminous color grew blinding, as if the sun had come to Galbar, taking from the world all of its color and vibrancy, while replacing it with white. Then, when the light was all consuming, the avatar of the sun exploded with a flash and then a roar that shook Toraan. Rock and boulder alike turned bright red for as far as a godly eye could see, then farther still, as heat swept the land. Eventually it became too much and even the stone began to melt into slag. Trees, grasses, flowers, and anything green burst alight with roaring fire and within the time it took to blink, they were but dust strewn about in the hateful wind as it whipped ever on, towards the mountains in the west. Lakes boiled, turning to steam as rivers clogged with sand and debris. That which walked on four legs and two legs and which swam with fins and flew with wings were not spared. There would be no savior, no great hand to block the vicious heat. Nor would any prayer reach the gods in time, save for those farthest away from the blast, at the foot of the mountains and to what lay in the east. There was no time and so they died. Whole villages like tinder for the storm of heat. Turned to sand and dust, their after images forever haunting their places of death and the moment it happened. Their only saving grace was that it was quick and painless. The blastwave at last struck the mountains, sending debris and dust into the skies, like a blanket reaching for the heavens. The mountains held firm as they took the brunt of the heat and force, but down into the dunalands would come fearsome storms as the cooler air met its match. The land on the other side was changed. Scarred forevermore. Aveira, bruised and battered by intense pressure, flame and debris, raised the blade where she stood in the center of the chaos, watching her creation. The weapon had been turned to slag and drawn on the pure essences of Solus, creating a new blade that shone with a seething heat and fury, dripping slag and molten metal as she whipped it in the air. Rather than be cooled by the air, it seemed to cook all it came close to, such was its inherent blazing heat. What remained was a weapon of pure death, the remnant essence of her foe lingering eternally. And he raged at her, at least what remained of him did. With furious appetite and dripping with the wrath of an oppressed sun. All around her, Aveira bore witness to glassy plains and sandswept dunes. There was no sign of life, no sign of anything really. Just an angry storm that struck at the ground with lightning as its thunder boomed. But soon, she was not alone. For from the sands, they came. Thousands of creatures that resembled beetles made of white sands and glassy mandibles. They chittered as they approached, followed by humanoid creatures that resembled Solus. But they were far too small and made of dust and sand that swirled. Their very hands were made of glass and sharp. They sensed her, for what was divinity but not life overwhelming? And they were not afraid, as they began to attack her. The avatar of the war goddess accepted the challenge with gleeful wrath of her own, a single beat of her wings bringing her into motion to battle these new creatures. Like an angel of death she descended with the molten blade to sweep and swing, bringing death in arcing scythes against these furious and reckless new creatures. She raged for an eternity, meeting the endless fury of the storms with a hunger for battle and violence that could never be sated. So intense was her malice that her divine hatred seeped into the energies and creatures she cut apart, and with each new creature that came at her, it seemed to be more and more enraged until nothing but burning, cold hatred remained. And Aveira stayed in that blissful malice until the skies turned dark and it rained embers. [hr] In the Heavens above, a Goddess screamed. [hider=Summary] Aveira is wanting to cause some trouble but before she can, Solus attacks her. The two then fight and the heavens above the Dunalands become the sounds of thunder as the two butt heads. They eventually end up crashing into the western mountains in the Westfold and Aveira makes a volcano to try and stop Solus’ brutal assault. It doesn’t work and the giant avatar smashes Aveira over and over again until they break the mountains asunder and come out on the other side. Aveira ends up duping Solus and then cheap shots him in the back with a laser beam that pierces him. She keeps this up and doesn't allow Solus to recover. Read the post to find out what happens next for the very land is changed and the Highlands will never be the same again. Or just cheat and read the mp summary you losers. [/hider] [hider=MP] Oraelia 5/5 -2MP the Glass Wastes. This biome was created when Solus was murdered at the hands of Aveira. Due to the heat of the avatar’s explosion and the divine energy that rapidly expanded, the surrounding lands were annihilated in the heat of the sun. Massive dunes of the finest white sands, long stretches of mirror seas and the remnants of those caught in the blast, forever standing vigil as glassy statues in the Glass Wastes. The weather here can be calm and eerie or violent and oppressive. Nothing grows here, for a place such as this was not meant to be. Drier than any desert, hotter than the fires of man, this place is not meant for the faint of heart. Due to the high pressures that were released here, exquisite diamonds can be found here, as well as other valuable gemstones. To those brave enough to scour the wastes, may find themselves rewarded. -1MP (split cost) Glass Wraiths (3MP) - Echoes born from the anger and fury of a dying sun, these creatures are mindless and full of rage. Made of glass and sand, they do not sleep, they do not eat, they do not want for anything but violence. They attack anything that is not made of them, going so far as to lash out at the smallest of creatures if they sense them. As Glass Wraiths are attracted to living creatures like a moth to flame. Wraiths come in a few types and sizes, to the small swarm like rippers, to more humanoid builds, varied in appearance but capable of the same. They are incredibly swift and agile, using overwhelming numbers and quick strikes to attack and overpower. Because of this, they do not have a lot of natural defense and as beings made of glass, they are easily breakable. One simply needs to be able to hit them with a heavy blow to shatter them. They come about naturally as a byproduct of the storms and heat of the Glass Wastes. -2MP for the ability, Life Sense. Glass Wraiths do not see by normal means, as they have no eyes. Instead, they can sense when a living creature is nearby by tracking their life force. When one Wraith senses a living creature, it is capable of signalling to others and a great frenzy gets underway. When nothing can be sensed, Glass Wraiths are rather docile and seem to wander without purpose. -5DP (+2 Sunlight Titles) Requiem VII - This blade contains the wrathful spirit of an avatar. To wield it is to yield absolute power if one can dominate the sword. The heat emitted from this blade melts surfaces, cuts through anything leaving it molten slag or ash and slashes from the blade send arcs of solar energy that explode when coming into contact with surfaces. This blade cannot be wielded by lesser mortals, for it would destroy their very bodies in a torrent of flame. Only the strongest of heroes could even attempt to do so without sustaining bodily injury. -1DP (Reduced to 0 by sunlight) Multiple uses of sunlight stuff. Neiya start: 5/5 -2 mp - (split cost) Glass Wraiths (3MP) - Echoes born from the anger and fury of a dying sun, these creatures are mindless and full of rage. Made of glass and sand, they do not sleep, they do not eat, they do not want for anything but violence. They attack anything that is not made of them, going so far as to lash out at the smallest of creatures if they sense them. As Glass Wraiths are attracted to living creatures like a moth to flame. Wraiths come in a few types and sizes, to the small swarm like rippers, to more humanoid builds, varied in appearance but capable of the same. They are incredibly swift and agile, using overwhelming numbers and quick strikes to attack and overpower. Because of this, they do not have a lot of natural defense and as beings made of glass, they are easily breakable. One simply needs to be able to hit them with a heavy blow to shatter them. They come about naturally as a byproduct of the storms and heat of the Glass Wastes. -1 DP - Made a weapon of war capable of hurting divine beings. - 2 MP - Minor landscape change - Created a volcano on the Westfold Mountain range - in Solus face. -1 MP - Shot lasers at Solus -2 dp- Infused the Sand Wraiths with an Extraordinary Ability: Feral Fury - The Sand Wraiths are consumed with an endless reservoir of fury and wrath, and will keep attacking until they are dead. They do not understand fear. End: 0/2 [/hider]