RuneScape Forum Archive | The Weapons of Destiny

Dantalian

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Amatsu turned from his plans and smiled as one of his soldiers ran into his tent and hastily saluted.

“It's time then?” he asked.

“Yes, my lord, Dantelion has withdrawn his attack, and it appears the Deva are giving pursuit,” the soldier answered

“Excellent news,” said Amatsu, “Tell the troops to gather their things and prepare for the march, I have a few preparations to make, and then we begin our attack. That is all.”

“Yes, my lord,” the soldier replied, before turning and exiting the tent.

Nodding to himself, Amatsu leaned back, and began recalling the words for the spell he intended to cast.

Far way from Stork Capital, stood the quasi-legendary Palace of the Sun King. Built by the Arch-Deva of old, the palace was the pride and joy of the entire Deva race. Thirteen towers reached skyward, each built of a mix of wrought gold and luminescent crystals, and thus shining brilliantly in the light of the suns.

In the times of the Sun Kings, this palace would have been bustling with activity; vendors would have set up shop outside the palace, selling refreshment and souvenirs to those who visited for either official business or sightseeing. The twelve towers surrounding the main one would've also been fully staffed with servants and an armed retinue; for each would hold some emissary from one of the twelve Deva lords.

The center tower itself would've been the busiest of them all; the public bathes on its ground floor would've been nearly filled to the brim with travelers from every corner of Muspellheim and beyond. The higher floors would have a mix of citizens, foreigners and officials, either on official business or vying for the attention of the Sun King and his family. And on the middle floor of the tower, the Sun King himself would be seated in court, surrounded by splendor and wealth. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:21:15

Dantalian

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But it had been many days since a Sun King had ruled Muspellheim, and now only a small honor guard and a skeleton crew of servants remained behind, ensuring the palace did not fall into disrepair, but doing little else.

Seeing the palace again for the first time in many years, a wave of memories washed over Seth. Still he could remember setting out from the palace, his armies behind him, all determined to halt the encroaching invasion led by Setkul Akyros and Mephos Nidhogg, whose armies had already engulfed a quarter of Muspellheim, and had been dangerously close to the palace. Seth, or rather, as he had been known in those times, Elior Hyperion, heir to the throne of Muspellheim, had realized that should the palace fall, the will of the Deva would fall with it, and that should such a thing happen, Muspellheim would be lost.

However, the ensuing battle had taught him not everything was as it seemed; there were powers at work that were beyond him... He had forgotten the truth of the battle, or rather, he had been made to forget by the powers of darkness. Yet, being here, either because it was where Aither's power was strongest, or because he could see *IT” from here, he found that the haze concealing his memory vanished. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:21:48

Dantalian

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“IT” was the sight of the last battle between the Deva and the invaders; once a rare open plain in Muspellheim, the battle had left it scarred horrendously... Looking at it, Seth was inclined to nearly laugh at the thought of Gielinor's wilderness, for what was desolate earth compared to this place? At least in the wilderness, one could tell it was land; the battlefield of Muspellheim, on the other hand, was not recognizable as anything from this world. The once flat plain was now a series of spirals and columns which went every which way. These columns should've obscured the land beyond, but for some inexplicable reason, they didn't. One could look at the “plain” which now stood several meters high, and yet see the jungles behind it, as if the plain was flat, solid ground.

No one could make sense of it, and already there were plans to hide the plane with a strategically placed wall, or a row of trees. Of course, when the Sun King had vanished, these plans were scrapped, and people simply avoided the palace and the surrounding area.

Leaning back, Seth let his memories break free, and remembered what had destroyed the plains...

The plains had all but vanished, replaced by a sea of blood with the bodies of the slain appearing like islands in its midst. Elior himself could barely stand, his right arm was nearly torn from its socket and hung limply, attached by a mere strip of flesh. Nearly everyone had died, fled, or been ordered away; only five living people now stood on the battlefield. Elior had given up this battle as lost, and thus a certain change of events had caught him off-guard. Setkul, who had single-handedly destroyed almost all of both his and the Deva side was now being opposed by Mephos, who supposedly had been on the same side. As for the two others, Elior had no idea who they were or where they had come from; all he knew is that they now stood on either side, one behind Mephos, one behind Setkul. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:22:06

Dantalian

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“Mephos,” said one of the newcomers, “You know what you have to do. Setkul has become consumed by Akyros; his only wish now is to destroy all that is.”

Elior turned to the speaker; a young, pale man. Even though he had never seen this man before, he somehow seemed familiar to Elior. As Elior stared, he noticed an odd fact; the young man's eyes were prismatic; every color that Elior had ever seen, and some he hadn't thought possible, were reflected in that man's eyes.

“Take this,” the young man instructed, tossing a spear at Mephos' feet. Elior gasped at the sight of this spear; it seemed to be made of some sort of gem, one which Elior had never seen the equal of; light and darkness were there in a myriad of colors, the crystalline structure of the spear was perfectly ordered, yet the interior colors swirled chaotically.

Mephos hesitated, but reached down to pick up the magnificent spear.

“Hold it,” said the person behind Setkul.

Again Elior turned. This speaker was one of regal bearing; he possessed long, flowing golden hair which reached down to his hips, and was dressed in brilliant white robes adorned with gems. At first glance, Elior found himself drawn to this man, but then his gaze fell upon the man's eyes; devoid of color and emotion, they were nothingness embodied, and sent a chill down Elior's spine.

“It is true,” the man continued, “That you could kill Setkul with that spear; not even the power of Akyros can go against an eternal weapon. But are you sure you want to do that? Setkul has something you need, doesn't he?”

Mephos hesitated, the spear still in his hand.

“Besides, Mephos, your life hasn't been very good has it?” asked the blond man, “So much suffering, so much loneliness. Didn't Setkul help you escape all that?

Which master do you prefer, Mephos? The one who hurts you and put you into this situation, or Setkul, who cares for you and would have made you prince over the whole world? "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:22:26

Dantalian

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And if you think about it, how many times have you asked to be utterly destroyed, as if you never existed? The pain of living, of existing, is too great for you, right?

Setkul realized this; and that is why he gave into Akyros, to get the power to destroy you; to absolutely free you from your pain. Are you going to kill him because of this? Because he was thinking about you? Why don't you try another way, one that will stop Setkul until you can bring him back? You have that power don't you?”

Mephos froze at these words, and dropping the spear, looked down at his hand. Now that his attention was called to it, Elior could see something glowing violet on his ring finger.

“I'm sorry,” Mephos muttered, hanging his head, “I know he's probably lying... but I just can't let this go if there is a chance, no matter how small...”

The pale man sighed, “Mephos...” and shook his head solemnly.

Hesitantly, Mephos raised the hand which bore the shining object, and pointed at Setkul. Elior never knew what was supposed to have happened, but he knew it didn't work; suddenly the plains were twisted and distorted, becoming the form they were stuck in even today. As this happened, Mephos shouted in pain and collapsed. No sooner had he hit the ground then Setkul was next to him, ready to slaughter the incubus with a single slash of his sword.

The sword came down at Mephos, and was stopped by the pale man, who had gotten between Mephos and Setkul to take the hit.

Mephos looked up and stared in shock. “Why?” he asked, “This is the second time... and I ignored your command, there was no reason to save me!”

“Your heart was torn, right?” asked the pale man, “Once again your will was split in two... I understand, so I'm not going to neglect you because of it. But, there are consequence to your actions. Had you listened, things would've gone better... I'll help, but it will take many years to undo the damage you unintentionally caused today. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:22:52

Dantalian

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Some day Mephos, you will have to decide, you can't keep putting it off forever. But for now, I'll buy you some time.”

This seemed to enrage Setkul; power surged from him and struck all around the young man who had stopped him; everything the power touched seemed to decay, except the young man himself.

“You can't defeat me with the power of Akyros,” sighed the young man, “Such a thing is useless against me, and now, it shall vanish.”

Something happened at that moment, but Seth still could not comprehend what he had seen; Light more brilliant and pure than the brightest of lights, Darkness more obscuring and incomprehensible than the darkest black; Law which held sway over every other law; Chaos more vast than and dynamic than the sea of chaos from whence the world was born; everything that was, everything that would be, the universe; all spaces, all times, seemed to be concentrated into one point, and then, silence.

Elior had slowly picked himself up, not comprehending what had happened. He was so lost in a daze he nearly didn't notice that his arm had healed; when he did notice he was shocked. But it appeared that not only his arm had healed, all around him, people he had seen killed were slowly getting up, as if nothing had happened.

The only evidence he had that the had not imagined it all was the still distorted and destroyed plains, and what he thought to be the corpse of Setkul, lying at Mephos' feet. He later discovered that it had not been a corpse; that instead, Setkul had been frozen in a stasis similar in appearance to death, but able to return.

Looking over at Liam, Seth wondered if he was doing the right thing by bringing him here; the incubus was asleep now, and it seemed as he needed to sleep more the closer they got to the palace. Elior had noticed the same effect on Hekate, although she refused to admit it, and could only assume it had something to do with them being so close to the point of Muspellheim Aither was said to favor the most. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:23:16

Dantalian

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“Huh, that’s odd,” commented Ayumu, snapping Seth out of his thoughts.

*What’s odd?” questioned Seth.

“The guards appear to be sleeping,” replied Ayumu, “I’m assuming that’s not normal behavior, since being assigned to guard this palace is considered a great honor among you Deva.”

“Sleeping?!” demanded Seth as he looked around. As Ayumu had said, every guard seemed to be asleep; most were propped up on their swords, and none seemed to have left their posts. Seth quickly turned and shot Liam an accusatory glance, but found the incubus was still fast asleep.

“Did you do this?” he questioned Ayumu.

“I can** use my power over a large area,” answered Ayumu, “My method of dealing with these guards would have probably been a bit more direct… and fatal.”

“Then how did this happen?” asked Seth.

Ayumu shrugged. “My guess is we’ll find out when we get inside the palace. Take a look up there.”

Seth turned to where Ayumu was pointing; Deva love open spaces, and thus rarely incorporate actual walls into their buildings, preferring to use columns to hold up succeeding floors, and using curtains to separate “private rooms” such as lavatories and bedrooms. The palace of the Sun King was no exception to this rule, and as such, it was possible to see into almost every floor of the palace.

From where he was, Seth could make out three people on the throne room floor, none of whom seemed to be asleep.

“Those people better have a good explanation for this,” Seth muttered under his breath. “Even if it’s just putting the guards asleep, an action like this could be considered to constitute an act of war.” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:23:39

Dantalian

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Ayumu ignored Seth. Something about those three people seemed familiar. As he stared longer, he noticed one of them; the one who was dressed in gray, take something out and hold it up to his face. Whatever the object was flashed silver in the light of the twelve suns for a moment, then went dark as it was returned to wherever it was normally kept. The person who had used it had no sooner returned the object than he turned to another of the people as if he was talking to that person.

Out of habit, Ayumu muttered angrily, “Oh come on, we’re not taking that long.” Puzzled, he stopped for a moment and pondered what he had just said. In a few moments he realized why he had made that comment, and groaned to himself.

“What is it?” asked Seth.

“Nothing,” sighed Ayumu, “You should probably wake up Liam and your wife, we’re almost there.”

Seth stared at Ayumu for a moment longer, but finding that no answers were forthcoming, shrugged and gave up.

“They’re taking their precious time,” muttered Tyr, looking at the slow moving carriage as it approached the palace.

“Patience,” said the cloaked lady, “We have plenty of time.”

Tyr mumbled something about “efficiency” under his breath, but did*’t push the matter.

Ignoring the others, Aion, now in his child form, was walking around the palace, looking out at the surrounding landscape glumly. He had enjoyed his time running around and doing as he pleased, and was admittedly unenthusiastic over what would be happening when the approaching group made it up here. Of course, he knew what he had to do, and that it was for the best, but that unfortunately that did*’t make the prospect any more pleasant. He had half hoped that the approaching group wouldn’t show up, and even now was holding some secret, unspoken hope that they wouldn’t listen to what the lady told them. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:24:07

Dantalian

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Of course, it would cause harm to a lot of innocents if they ignored the lady, so either way Aion figured he wasn’t going to like what happened. Finally, after what felt like hours to him, but was actually no more than a few minutes, the approaching group entered the throne room.

Leading them was the Deva who went by Seth, in actuality Elior Hyperion, Heir Apparent to the title of Sun King. Only a step behind him was Hekate Numatenma, his Asura wife, who was trying her best to hide the fatigue she endured just by being in this place. Behind her was Ayumu, a half breed, the product of love between a human and a type of Fey known as a Baku or a Sandman. And although it was slight and apparently unnoticed by his own group, Ayumu made a slight bow to Tyr, who returned the same. Finally, lagging behind the rest, and showing clear signs of exhaustion, was Liam Nidhogg.

Seeing Liam up close, Aion felt a piercing pain shoot through him; starting at his chest and moving outward toward the limbs. But he had expected this, and remained stoic, even as the pain became excruciating.

“Welcome,” greeted the cloaked lady, “We have been expecting you.”

“Have you?” questioned Seth, “I’m guessing you’re the ones who did this to the guards?”

“If it had been up to me, we would’ve just killed them, so much faster that way, and we wouldn’t need to worry about them waking up,” sighed Tyr, “But I’m afraid the lady here insisted that they only be put to sleep.”

“We would discuss this further,” said the lady, “But I’m afraid we under a bit of a time constraint. Even as we speak, Muspellheim is being pushed dangerously close to an all out war.”

“Slow down!” demanded Seth, “What makes you say we’re near an all out war here? And while we’re at it, who are you?”

“We’ve met before, Elior Hyperion,” replied the lady.

“Have we?* asked Seth, “I don’t recognize you.”

“Well, she is wearing a cloak,” Ayumu commented sarcastically, drawing a reprimanding look from Hekate. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:24:29

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Still, you think he would recognize her,” Tyr chimed in. “Look, we’re already pushing this close to deadline; can we please hurry this up, Seima?”

“Seima?!” Hekate and Seth exclaimed together.

“How blunt of you, Tyr,” sighed the lady, “But I suppose there’s no helping it.” Saying this, she let the cloak fall from her shoulders, revealing herself to be an Asura lady who appeared to be in her early twenties, with flowing silver hair, and wine red eyes.

Seth nearly fell over in a mix of shock and fear; out of the four Asura said to be the most dangerous, those who were called “Masters of Darkness” Seima was said to be the most powerful; even the gods of light were said to respect her, even as they disliked her.

“Are you happy, Tyr?” asked Seima, “This will speed things up, for better or worse.”

“Seima,” Seth interjected, “Why are YOU in Muspellheim?!”

“As I said, your land is on the brink of an all out war,” replied Seima, “As such, Aither has permitted us a deal.”

“Aither has?” questioned Seth, “What sort of deal?”

“Allow me to explain,” answered Seima, “It’s a trade of sorts; Muspellheim is divided by petty squabbles between lordlings, which will cause the entire of this world to fall into war. In order to prevent this, a strong, central power is needed; a Sun King like those of old.

However, even as we speak, an army is about to arrive at Stork Capital; this army is not of Muspellheim, but it works for some of the lordlings here. Because it is not of this world, this army does not play by Deva rules; and shall not simply capture the city, it will put it to the sword. If Stork falls to this form of brutality, it will cause a split between the lordlings, and this land will be engulfed in a war that will lead to its destruction, even with a Sun King trying to establish order. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Apr-2011 13:24:55

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The Weapons of Destiny