"Everyone!" Uruk called out, addressing the rest of the insects in the room. "He is not to be trusted! Our father cares not for live beyond the creation of it! We are not people to him, just extra limbs! As long as we follow him, we will not truly live! If you do not believe me, look to the skies!
Look at our houses! Look at those groups outside! We should be following in the footsteps of Memphis, of Babylon, of Pella, of our siblings, not following his orders! By his own ruling, life is for the living, if Litorius gave us the power to evolve and the gateway gave us the power to choose our paths, why should we be walking down the one he laid out for us!? He wants us for nothing more than to expand his reach!?" Uruk asked.
Vaol blinked, slightly out of sync. "...Interesting."
"If he made us and walks among us, then he is no god! I cannot follow a false god that walks in front of us any longer! If you are with me, then stand aside and let this happen!"
"...Wait, what exactly is your plan here?" Vaol asked, tilting his head in confusion.
"NOW!"
In that moment, the white-eyed guard to his left raised up their spear
and drove it through Vaol's back, it pierced through his chest and clanked against the ground. For a moment, Vaol shook, before his mandibles went wide, unhinging and spilling out a godly amount of slime onto the ground.
Within seconds, plantlife was growing on a puddle in front of him, microbes and worms appearing on the spear. Vaol's eyes went pitch black and his head lolled forwards.
"V-Vaol! My lord!" Athens cried out, about to grab onto the body.
But at that moment, Vaol raised a hand, head twisting to face the guard that had just stabbed him. "...Was that your plan? To stab me?" He asked, he didn't sound terrified, or angered, or even concerned. Vaol only sounded curious. Turning to look at Uruk, who's mandibles were hanging ajar, antenna flaring up above him."I may walk among you, but I am still a god. I cannot be killed, not even by the goddess of death herself." He explained, as the life that had just appeared on the weapon started eating away at it. Already the spear was rotting away, falling apart and turning into nothing but sustenance.
Several of the other insects there drew their own weapons, pointing them at the white eyed traitor and at Uruk alike, who remained steadfast at the entrance.
"We may not be able to kill you, but you cannot keep us on your path any longer." Uruk said, approaching him. "I will not run from you."
"Even if in remaining here, you are increasing your own chances of death?" Vaol asked, tilting his head. Colour had returned to his eyes, he brought his claws up to his head, snapped his neck back into place and adjusted his jaw manually."You're a fun one, aren't you?"
Uruk lunged forwards, and Sparta lunged forwards in turn, both pointing their spears at each other. Uruk aimed for Sparta's head, only for them to duck and instead thrust the spear up, piercing it through Uruk while he was in midair. Sparta pulled himself up to his full height and stabbed the spear into the ground, with Uruk dangling from it, clutching at it with one hand, gasping in pain.
His eyes went completely black and his antenna dimmed as he twitched in place, slime and blood spewing from his mouth onto the ground below, where small bits of plantlife would start to grow.
"Uruk died, of course. But word spread fast.
If I could be stabbed, was I really a god? Were Uruk's words truthful? A lot of people had witnessed the scene, and dissent started to spread nonetheless."
It cut to some time later, as a team were preparing for their trip to a new planet, a spaceship took off into the stars earlier than anticipated. They all ran out, jaws agape and antenna brightly gleaming as they stared up at it, watching as the containers attached to it were released and left to fall onto the ground below.
"Some followed his word and left of their own to make their own path. Even now, I don't know where they went. But others... they remained, and they fought over it."
A battle, spears, viscous blue blood, the works. A insect ran out of a building, pressing a button and crying out "For Uruk!" As it exploded.
The same insect from earlier, with the black and white eyes and the wreath on her hair was standing atop a large machine, a tank of sorts, both hands outstretched. Positioned directly between two large turrets.
"Some used their inventiveness to create machines that... I wish never to see again."
That insect raised her hand into the air, as a crowd behind her did the same. Overlooking the battlefield and the chaotic waste that lay in front of them.
"Let us now send these sinners to the afterlife Morsaga has prepared for them!" She cried.
"FOR MORSAGA! FOR VAOL! FOR THE HOLINESS OF LIFE AND DEATH!" The crowd cheered.
She gave the signal and both turrets opened fire, laying waste to everything.
And from the sky, some time later, a whole other form of weapon would fall.
Then, even after that, in labs of their own, a team of insects in labcoats would be typing at their keyboards, watching as the large machine separated from them by a large screen twisted and turned.
Seeing that it was ready, they would activate a crane, opening the skylights above it to pull it out from the lab. It continued to turn and spin, glowing with untold energy.
Right until a projectile fired by enemy forces would hit the crane itself, targeting the weakest spot so as to blow it in half. It would drop the bomb, which would hit the very lab it had been created in. It stopped turning, the shell encasing it shattering apart...
Then everything would turn white
"I could see the signs, so I took those that were still loyal and some who simply knew that if they hung around they would die with me and we left to continue our work elsewhere.
We weren't able to recollect much materials, but luckily we didn't need to. We were able to salvage the lab equipment and all of our records, that was all we really needed."
Post by Master Psychic on Sept 16, 2021 15:33:33 GMT
"...How despicable. You gave them the gift of life and this is how they reward you for that? Such ingratitude, it makes me sick to my stomach." Dorcalla scowled.
To Vaol's left, Sparta bristled notably. "That's exactly how I felt."
Vaol tilted his head. "That is a sentiment quite a few of them shared, yes. I wouldn't call it ingratitude though.
They had their feelings, they acted on them. They lived, then they died. Now, personally I don't agree with what came after it, but I see no problems with how Uruk specifically handled the situation himself, convincing one of the two I had chosen to be a guard was most clever of him and if it were not a impossibility for me to die, he would be remembered as the one who gave his kind the freedom to carve out their own path. His reasons were explained very well, so I can see how they convinced the others."
"Some of us think he planned to die, to act as a martyr to motivate the others to overthrow our god." Sparta offered.
"That would've been his first mistake. If he is not alive to see the fruits of his efforts, then on a individual level, all he accomplished was getting himself killed.
Something that's alive should fight with all its power to remain alive. If it needs to take out anything constraining it, it should attempt to do so. But there's no victory in a failure that ends in death. Nor in one that does this much damage to a world that was previously flourishing."
Post by Master Psychic on Sept 16, 2021 16:02:29 GMT
"Hm." Dorcalla simply said.
He then turned around.
"I need to discuss this with Morsaga, I have to find out for myself if this is just a coincidence or it's the start of something ominous." Dorcalla decided.
Post by Master Psychic on Sept 16, 2021 16:10:15 GMT
"You know how that woman is, she barely takes anything seriously and too egotistical to let any of us know if something wrong is going on. If I were to ask her, she would just change the subject and talk about the pleasant weather, her garden or brag about her daughters' achievements instead." Dorcalla said.
And then, he remembered something, jumping off the chair onto the table on all four limbs. "Oh! But do remember, we'll have some descendants of that friend of yours all up and running by the time we see each other again!!"
Post by Master Psychic on Sept 16, 2021 16:15:02 GMT
"I'm just dying to see the results." Dorcalla said, if his tone is any indication, the descendants won't be enough to heal the hole made in his heart by the death of his own planet.
A black hole appeared right underneath Dorcalla, swallowing him slowly before the hole closed up.
-----
Meanwhile, somewhere in a distant part of the universe.
There was a gigantic floating mountain with plants growing out of it, two large giant white wings sticking out of the mountain and on top of it was a large shiny palace, the palace had a mix of colours from Vitala's necklace and gravitating around her palace were 9 planets, each named after her daughters she gave birth to by splitting bits of her life force to create them: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia and Urania, muses of epic poetry, history, music, comedy, tragedy, dance, love, hymn and astronomy, at the moment, most of them looked exactly like Vitala but with different hairstyles to tell them apart and were still children but they were demigods to their people, a species called the Neonytes, each Neonyte born with a colorful bloodline were living on those planets, the days were eternal and it was never night on those planets. And above the palace was the Sun.
Inside the citadel, Vitala was in her throne room, the room itself was gigantic and also incredibly shiny, for any mortal to step in here, they would be blinded by the place itself and giant windows on each side of the room.
Vitala was sitting on her throne that was shaped as a V, eating grapes from a bowl with a fist on her cheek before she decided to snap her fingers to check on her daughters and creations, reflections of the planets appeared on the windows.
Planet Calliope was a planet where new stories were being born every day, most of the buildings were actually libraries, each library contained books about the Domain, the Gods, their planets, species, multiple languages, mythological characters that were being invented by the second, including clothing stories with outfits that resembled clothes that were worn by legendary characters from the books. More and more buildings were starting to appear on the planet spontaneously.
Inside a floating castle that was floating above the planet on a giant cloud, Calliope, having white short hair reaching her neck with a line on the center of her head that split both sides of her straight hair while her ears were covered by her hair styled in two rounds, wearing a dark green long sleeved dress with a dark green cravat on her chest, sitting on a pile on books as she was writing a poem at the moment, too concentrated to be disturbed.
Planet Clio was made entirely out of stone and rocks, including houses and buildings made out of the same material, Neonytes were being taught how to fight, hunt, creatre weapons like swords, spears, shields and use them in battles, there were also schools teaching children about history of the universe itself.
At the center of the planet, in a giant battle arena, a lot of Neonytes gathered to watch warriors sword fighting in a honorable duel and whoever wins they will have the honor to face Clio herself who had messy white hair reaching her shoulders, wearing armor with a long sleeved yellow shirt with line patterns on it underneath that armor and watching the match with great interest as she waiting for it to be over and face the winner.
Planet Euterpe was a forest planet, Neonytes mostly lived in cabins in the woods who wanted to live in a quiet and peaceful environment and the air was filled with pleasant magic and sounds, including floating musical notes flying from evey direction of the planet.
At a music venue, Euterpe who had short white hair covering the left side of her eye, wearing a white and black sleeveless and shoulderless dress with musical patterns on it was playing her flute in front of a large audience with musical instruments playing in the background without anyone actually using them, releasing the musical notes everywhere and giving all the Neonytes beautiful music to listen to.
Planet Thalia was a gigantic carnival planet, complete with rides, amusement machines, entertainers to please the children, gigantic balloons floating in the sky, colorful parade animals, all the works. No one actually lived on this planet, Neonytians would mostly bring their children here to entertain them.
Inside a theatre, Thalia, white hair with a bowl cut style with four ball shaped hair puffs stuck to her hair, wearing a green witch hat with a yellow ribbon on it and bells attached to it, two smiling pumpkin earrings on each ear, a red domino mask put around her eyes and a clown nose, balancing herself on a yellow ball while juggling crests in the air that suddenly turned into beach balls as a crowd of spectators roared with applause.
Planet Melpomene was more of a memorial planet for deceased Neonytes who died from old age, diseases or unknown causes, the planet was filled graves and tombstones being visited by the families of the dead Neonytes.
Standing on top of a giant hill overlooking the entire area was Melpomene, she had plaited white hair running down on the left side of her head while the right side of her forehead was not, a thin plaited ponytail landing on her chest with a small gold ring wrapped around the ponytail's tip, wearing a dark dress with a dark cloud hanging over her, frowning sadly at the grieving people as it started raining above her head and the wind was blowing through her hair.
Planet Terpsichore had a very pompous city fit, for a society of Neonytes from the upper class, all of them wearing rich and elegant clothes to match with the city's style.
Inside a large grand mansion, there was a dancy party going on and the main center of attraction, Terpsichore, long white hair styled in dreadlocks that went down to her chest, wearing a sleeveless and shoulderless Victorian red tango dress with pointy red fingernails and a necklace with three rose buds on it, dancing on top of a piano with shiny red high-heels made out of crystal, she was enjoying herself as she was starting glow, capturing everyone's attention as she wasn't getting tired from dancing at all.
Planet Erato was a planet was a gathering for all couples even though there were villages for Neonytes to live in but it was the planet that had the highest birth rate for newborns and the number kept growing.
Sitting at a lake was a young Neonyte couple and above them was Erato, white hair, with two buns stuck to the top of her head with two long strands of hair going down to her back with two thin ponytails coming out of the back of her head, two red heart symbols on her cheek, two small wings on her back wearing a pink chiton, sitting on air right on her belly with her hands placed underneath her chin, playfully kicking the sky as she was watching a man and a woman having a tender moment.
Planet Polyhymnia had 6 large temples, built for each god and they mostly exist for Neonytes to pay their respects, offer tribute and worship them. There was also a haunting humming heard in the sky.
In a church, Polyhymnia, white hair with a plaited ponytail wrapped around her head with two big pigtails coming out of the top of her head, each pigtail was held by atleast two white strings, a white veil around her mouth, a necklace with a cross, wearing a white church gown and standing in the middle of a choir in a church room, while the choir was singing, she was silently humming, not allowing herself to raise her voice.
And the ninth planet, Planet Urania, the entire planet itself was made out of metal and steel, with floating buildings, ships and weapons that were being constructed by Neonytes wearing lab coats, examining rare creatures, gathering data on planets and species that were being born by the second.
Standing at the top of a observatory, Urania, clean white hair wrapped in a bun, two pigtails from each side of her head landing on her shoulders and exposed forehead, wearing a small pair of blue square glasses, wearing a black buttoned up dress with exposed legs and black slip on shoes, a brightly orange coloured bow tie with a opened up lab coat, was staring at planets that belonged to Vaol through a giant telescope while in the observatory, scientists were at their computers, gathering more data on the parts of the universe that were expanding.
One of the scientists in the observatory let out a small gasp, stepping out of her seat and putting a gloved hand to her mouth as she looked down at the monitor.
It was one of the younger ones, her black hair -littered with yellow star-like highlights- pulled into a braided bun at the very top of her head. Wearing a light blue turtleneck jacket, with matching trousers, goggles and gloves beneath a pristine white labcoat. Black slip-on shoes beneath them. A id tag of sorts was dangling from a belt she wore around her waist.
"No..." She whispered to herself, staring at the scene on Dorcalla's planet through said monitor.
Post by Master Psychic on Sept 17, 2021 12:40:33 GMT
Urania's face was filled with concern as she walked off the platform, instead of using the escalator, she was literally walking on air as she used it like a set of stairs to climb down and reach the scientist, looking at the monitor herself.
"...Hm. That's odd. We saw one of Vaol's planets come to a unfortunate end but there were no signs on civil conflict on a planet inhabitated by peaceful herbivore's, we need to get to the bottom of this crisis by analyzing it's cause." Urania suggested, adjusting her glasses as she began typing on the computer, using a troubleshooter program to determine the cause.