Fortress of Millennia
Trifas, Romania
2004
The Fortress of Millennia is, or rather was the headquarters of the Yggdmillennia magus clan. Days before the dawn of the Great Holy Grail War, the mighty castle still stood.
Risa Cadmus Yggdmillenia walks through the stairs of the palace to the main hall.
Eyes up, back straight, maintain poise, stride with purpose, be perfect.
To be a magus was to divorce yourself from humanity and control your emotions, lest they get the better of you, or worse, your enemies pry a weakness. Although her face betrayed no emotion, Risa was terrified.
She is not escorted, the dozens of homunculi were either serving as an external foot guard, were reduced to nothing more than batteries or essentially tortured to death by Celenike. Risa had been judged not worth the required resources to be spared. That was enough of a condemnation already.
As the doors opened, Risa walked into a large hall, a needlessly large hall. Adorned with regalia and a throne at the end, a literal throne fit for a tyrant. All to feed the egomania of one Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia slouching like the despot he was.
Risa has been confronted by Darnic, she’s been brought to the main hall with Darnic in his throne.
“We of the Yggdmillennia will acquire all the mysteries and miracles of this world!” The elderly magus smirked before raising a hand to salute himself before lowering his gaze toward the teenager before him, almost but not quite frowning. “Girl. You stand accused of attempting to summon a servant of your own. Some would consider this treason.”
How messed up was it, Risa thought, that all her life she wanted to prove herself to this man.
Risa remains the perfect picture of stillness, staring at her master's feet. She knew better than to look him in the eyes. She kept her hands tight and balled behind her.
“My lord,” Risa spoke, swallowing balled up spit and ignoring the beads of sweat beginning to form at the base of her neck. “The mysteries of my forefathers precede even Ancient Greece which surpass one of our anticipated Ghost Liners. The Phoenican alphabet served as the foundation for the original Greek script. As a Carrier of the Letter myself and my forefather’s craft are the foundation for all of that mystery. The Great Cadmus slew the Divine Dragon of Ares even and was the first mortal to challenge the authority of Zeus, our calibur is inherently Anti-Divine and made for challenging things infinitely greater than ourselves. In this Age of Man, mystery has diminished to the point where my household has had to collect the spells of others and carry their letter while I preserve the foundations of the great palace that is Mediterranean mystery.
Risa paused, a terror had suddenly stabbed her in the heart. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t even breathe. Her legs wobbled and threatened to buckle.
In her need to prove her worth she had committed the cardinal sin of a magus. Letting slip secrets of her magecraft.
“My dead, stupid child,” said Darnic, glaring with now open contempt yet smiling as he did, he was enjoying this. “If you are foolish to reveal secrets that should never be spoken allowed, what make you think you are - or have ever been anything more - than a liability?”
He outreached his hand and before Risa could react, before her heart could even beat a sudden otherworldly pressure pulled on her as what she had tried to hide in her hand was telekinetically wretched out of her grasp.
“Ah, this must have been the catalyst. A phoenix feather from Thebes. This must have cost every coin in possession of your family.”
Risa screamed as Darnic destroyed the relic from the Age of Gods in his hand.
“You were not made to bring the gods to heel, you are an ill-made wretch and were created to serve Yggdmillennia. I have entertained your desire for power but you shall never supplant me.”
Now
Three years later in another war, Risa watches two gods clash in the sky.
Knowing this is the only time her magecraft will ever function at full power.
“Win Seigi, win.”
[BGM]
Seigi Nomikata: Akashic Anchor vs Morgan-Persephone, Machine God Terminal: Auxiliary Spirit-Ether Cultivation System Persephone
Final Round
Morgan’s physical form is already undergoing a form of mutation. As a vessel of divine authority, their physical body has now literally swollen and grown in order to house the physical strain. Is the physical divine core of a Divine Spirit within their body? Either way, they’re at least 10ft tall and their mass has magnified as well…
Is there a physical divine core in there? Either way they’re now at least 10ft tall, who knows how big they’ll grow again. Perhaps they’ll just keep growing and growing indefinitely…
The two of us stare at each other as we approach slowly. Call it combat meditation, analysis, insight, I call it a silent rage and allowing the primal instincts within each human to rise up.
I jump into the air and swing a fist with pure strength. Morgan raises a hand and catches it in their palm, our hands collide with a sonic boom, the wind rush blowing through our hair and the crumple of debris behind us. Somewhere, the temple tumbles to the ground.
It barely registers as a proud smile stretches across Morgan’s face. It feels too wide, unnatural, wrong.
“It appears you are catching up. How does it feel approaching godhood?”
“Feh, I’ve always been surrounded by beings of power that I shall never surpass in my life at Clock Tower, but this feeling? It’s incredible.”
“Ara? I see, it is taking you time to realise what you can do with it.”
The surging power rushes up to meet me and I elevate away from the ground from my point in mid-air and my pseudo-sibling rises in turn. Flying? No, Morgan’s power is pushing against the planet’s magnetic field and I experience the same phenomenon in this range.
Slowly but surely we rise above the newly destroyed temple, above the skyline. The only ones in the sky are us as we look down on the rest of the world. My position, my power? I’m above everyone.
Morgan attacks, their arms flowing free live weaves of light, I tap to the element of sanguine and feel the flow, even if Morgan were to move at light speed the sanguine commands movement, as long as I maintain contact I move in advance, parry in advance.
The dance is interrupted as Morgan swings their head forward with a skull bash. My nose explodes in a cacophony of blood and the impact knocks me flying-!
I sway my body from left to right - not flying but rather a guided fall. Ducking and weaving avoids the bashing of the forest against me, woodland and concrete alike before I twist my body in the air like an olympic diver and unleash a blast of elemental air through my veins toward the ground and I fling myself skyward again!
Slowly but surely my arc stabilises as Morgan flies toward me as I am pulled into their gravitational pull. They still smile with that unnatural wrong smile
“Now you’re getting it.”
I could say something smart, like one of those stupid quips from a poorly written comic book movie, granted I say many stupid things but honestly? After all the rush, am I… No, I'm still struggling just as I always have. “Eh. Not that special on introspection”
“Becoming a deity is underwhelming?” Morgan’s face twitches. “I beg your pardon but care to fucking explain?”
Morgan seemingly has sacrificed a lot for this state, my disdain for it is an insult clearly.
“A level of power I will never be able to achieve on my own? A power that came at a horrendous cost? If you want to settle then fine but truthfully I find this state beneath me.”
I duck, I weave, I punch, kick, the feeling of your younger brother reaching out, the heavy fist of the elder, our blows meet in turn, we accept each strike and retaliate in turn. Like meatheads we do not back down.
We strike.
We clash.
My body does not break.
We clash and the world shakes.
Buildings shake.
I shake.
With fear.
Anticipation.
Excitement.
Motivation.
However as we exchange in a conversation of violence, Morgan glares at me with nothing but contempt. Not the hate of an otherworldly god beyond mortal comprehension but a very human hate, they want me to understand why I deserve this.
“So you hate your strength because it is not yours? Do you hate the love and support of your friends and family, too, because it's not power gained on your own? Does their love diminish you somehow?”
A bold accusation, and is that… jealousy? Just a twinge but a very human emotion.
But of course they are. Everything Morgan has done for this power and I have attained a similar state by virtue of existing. They didn’t have to worry about position as they’re still the stronger of us too but we could have at least bonded over how good the power feels?
They didn’t know how to but they tried an olive branch of sorts. For a moment I felt the power, saw how drunk I could get off it. And I spat it out.
I rejected the power, rejected the connection I could have built with them.
I see what happened to them… but it’s not an excuse for everything they’ve done. To me, to Lancer… Well, as much as I can also dabble in being a petty bitch I do not do this for the sake of cruelty. I need to push further. If I can understand Morgan I can win.
“Is that what happened to you? You said you fought for someone you loved, well where are they? So where are the people you love? Did you throw them all away for Hiro?”
I lean into it further. Look at me thinking myself higher, how ungrateful I must look in Morgan’s eyes.
“NO!”
Morgan’s eyes widen, an aura of electricity manifests and bolts of lightning cry to life. The authority of Zeus… understandable, Persephone was a daughter of a Sky Father after all.
They strike with Godspeed and even with all my newfound power, I am struck in the chest and in a moment of extreme pain I lose all control of my muscles and am smited downward.
Falling toward the docks, I cannot fly like Morgan as the wind rushes up to crush the life out of me, all I can do is guide my fall-
“Shin Nigredo!”
The earth splits, the ocean splits
I fall and spin and slowly cease as I am caught in Morgan’s field once more…
They flew faster than they struck me-
As we float in this parted ocean, the two of us rotate. I can feel the tension winding up and close to snapping. It’s clear Morgan is still leagues stronger than I but…
Was it what I said? Are they that unstable?
…Time to be an uncivilised little bugger
Morgan and Seigi spin and rotate as the tension grows.
“Who is it that you love dear step-sibling of mine?” I declare loudly, it is not the question that is the point as I roar to an non-existent crowd and swing my arms around like a second-rate actor on a soap opera “You have a brother or sister of blood you fight for at home? A lover? You couldn’t have loved them that much, you’ve abandoned everything to be our fathers lapdog. Why would you abandon them? You threw them away for our father… wait, I get it. You didn’t abandon them, they abandoned you. No wonder you’re so desperate to hold only daddy dearest, he’s the only one who hasn’t thrown you under the bus yet.”
“Shut up and die!”
Phantasmal Sea-dragons burst out of the walls of water.
“Gale: Shinra Tensei”
A sphere of repulsive force dispels them.
Morgan grinds their teeth and starts to twitch again, it’s visibly notable now and even a blind man could see it.
“He’s all I have left… The only one who hasn’t left me, if I don’t do right by him then what am I Daughter of Zeus is a hollow title if you have no name of your own is it not?”
I understand now. I was too far away from my father, Morgan is riddled with his influence.
“So he’s the only one who stayed? Are you sure that’s not just what he wants you to think?” I bite my tongue and pause, something in my head begins to click. “Wait, daughter of Zeus… bride of Hades, but those were water phantasmals? how does Poseidon- wait.”
The ancient Mycenaean cults before the concept of Zeus as the Sky-Father or Hades as the Lord of the Underworld. In Greek myth Persephone was referred to as Kore, meaning ‘Maiden’ before her abduction. In the Mycenean Greek, the "two queens and the king" are mentioned as the precursor divinities of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. The Despoinai or Two Mistresses and the Earthshaker respectively with their conception in the form of horses.
Persephone as Despoinai was referred to separately, albeit once in 200 A.D but it was universally recognised that the two were one and the same even though we can never know the certain as mystery cults keep their secrets after all and that Despoinai’s true name was never to be known. Thus the connection of Kore as Despoinai. The underworld deities were generally referred to in titles as their attention was not wanted.
The arcadian mystery cults as well predate the greek speaking immigrants so Demeter and Persephone could have very likely been an altered version of ancient eldritch Earth-Mother deities.
All the names and pseudonyms give weight that Persephone’s oldest and truest incarnation must have been truly terrifying in a “do not speak her name lest you gain her attention” sort of manner.
If my theory that Hades is a mere offshoot of a pre-mycenaean Poseidon; underworld/ocean god, connection to the two earth goddesses and a horse thing… then Persephone, dread queen of the underworld, daughter of the Sky-Father and Earth-Shaker. Persephone must have had her divine core selected as she was the candidate to have a connection to all the other lead deities and the most fearful.
…Bloody nora dad you really know how to pick them.
“How can you be so strong?” Morgan asks. “You’ve never lost anything.”
I look to where I imagine my friends and new family are over the horizon.
“Strength isn’t about loss, it’s about fighting like hell to protect what you have. It doesn’t matter that you’re a god, it’s no wonder you’re so weak.”
“W-weak?”
Morgan seems to dissociate “Weak? No I can’t be. Strength is everything, I’m a god, I AM strength…. Yes Hiro was the one who uncovered and found the machine core but that was because I was better suited to handle it right?”
This fight is Morgan trying to prove to themselves and everyone else that following Hiro has been worth it. That losing all that they have is worth it. That they haven't wasted their time and effort and trust and devotion. They’re slipping and I’m the sledgehammer.
I open my mouth to speak but Morgan clamps their ears and recoils… but as if they heard someone else “No no, I’ll show them both I’ll prove it.” They flinch again, motions are jerky and twitchy like an automaton is glitching, “I didn’t lose her! They must have taken her! He’s all I got left, so what if people say he lied, I’m just too sensitive!? It had to have been my fault, he’s the closest thing I have to a father who loves me…”
Morgan seemed off but now they were outright unstable. It couldn’t have been me, my quips aren’t that good. Bugger, how bad has Hiro been gaslighting them?
Not just that.
It’s the divine aspect, the more they heavily lean on this in this form… Persephone is devouring Morgan to fuel their return.
Morgan starts to visibly shake and glare with anger at me.I need to take them down before Persephone erases Morgan…
Wait, why am I planning how to save Morgan after everything they did?
Monsters need to forgive monsters after all.
Jin… damn it you edgy poetry spouting Hamlet wannabe.
“You’re right, Morgan. You’re my sibling, it’s my job to take care of you.”
They’re monsters.
They’re victims.
What they are not is someone free from my father.
Someone free to make their own decisions.
Besides, I’m a gentleman. And I decide that heroes help people.
Morgan charges like a divine beast; lumbering, predictable, a sphere of golden energy in their hand.
“Nigredo”
As they swing I deflect and it recoils returning to sender - Blasting the goddess who is trying to steal Morgan’s face… well, in the face. Morgan twitches, I spin in the air like a corkscrew and kick Morgan in their perfect damn jawline.
Pain
The field drops and I drop, recovering on the sea floor in a three point landing and the split ocean starts to come crashing down. All I do is smile, let my magic circuits sing and whole two glowing spheres of magical energy in each palm of my hand in turn… And no one ever says how the three point landing is so tough on your knees.
Like a virtual ragdoll caught in a poorly coded magical-metaphysics engine, Morgan’s swollen body jerks and a blast of energy erupts from their mouth - no spell, just pure magical energy.
I feel the flow of the dance of war. I spin my body in a half-cartwheel, using one sphere to ‘glide’ across the wave of waste radiated mana and complete my motion in a flip across their frame, ending up behind Morgan. As they turn to face me, I punch a god in the face.
“It’s not their body I can harm, even now they’re still too powerful… but their mind however.
“ArE yOu TrYiNg t0 ATONE Me BrOtHeR? wHaT dId I dO wRoNg?”
There is no malice, there is pleading, like a child who does not understand why they are being punished, all they know is that their parents are angry with them.
“AlL i WaNtEd WaS tO bE lOvEd AnD pRoTecTeD! I dId EvErYtHiNg I wAs AsKeD. B u t a l l w e f e e l i s a h o l e i n o u r c h e s t.”
Two voices, Morgan’s and another maiden. Something ancient, something terrifying.
We pretenders at divinity swing again but rather than the blows clashing, the shockwave from our swings meet and the land shatters and explodes, propelling me skyward…
My heads spinning and as I come too, I realise the indirect shockwave from Morgan’s… or is it Persephone’s attack has sent me skyward.
How strong are they? Attrition will never work.
A voice comes from downward. It is Morgan’s voice, but yet clearly not them.
“Do you know why I hate your forgiveness, why I spit on your redemption? To reach a hand down to someone they are therefore BENEATH YOU.”
Clearly the olympian is talking.
“No wonder father disliked the pantheon, being a poor conversationalist seems to run in the family with your kind. Is Zeus as insecure as his nameless daughter?”
I open up my circuits as wide as they go and let the energy bleed out into my body. I raise an open hand to the sky. A vortex of destructive power swirls around the arena as I call upon my magnum opus.
This spell, it’s something I’ve spent years working on when I can. The magical formula is complete and I’ve worked on the theory, but I’ve never had the magical power in me to invoke it. But now this accessway to The Root before me and this transformed state, I might be able to pull it off, even if it’s only the once.
“O’Sky Father; Jupiter, Anu, Ra-Horakhty, Thor, Dyaus Pita, Ouranos. Behold my declaration of destruction.
“Our arms reach everything, tear anything, and clear all paths. Eventually it will reach even beyond the stars in the sky!”
I imagine a vessel, a crystal containing infinite possibility.
“Call forth our almighty limbs. Power of man. Power of light.”
I pour in the infinite potential of destruction, after the earth is wiped clean anything can grow afterwards. Gods, men, beasts. This blow is the might of the primordial patriarchs of the sky.
“O’Elements coalesce to give birth to the crystal where entropy is woven. Power beyond the Sky-Father and the stars.”
The first matter of the stone is the very same with the first matter of all things. The vessel is filled and broken, reforged and refilled over and over ad nauseam. My origin of destruction and the chaotic elemental nature are combined into an encapsulate of my magecraft. This is my almighty blow.
“Fallen ash brings new life to the ground!”
In my hand is a philosopher's stone, the pinnacle of my school. In this photonic crystal lies infinite potential for creation and immortality. Here is my soul-spear to strike at the heart of god.
Storm King’s Call
Philosopher's Stone: Destruction
Kalligeneia Anodou - Beautiful Rebirth Towards the Skyward Way
But it is nowhere near enough the full unadulterated wrath of the nameless Queen of the Underworld.
[BGM OFF]
I feel a sharp tug and everything falls backwards. My head is wet, it’s hot. Hitting my head on the way back down, my body is crumpled in a smoking crater in the ground where the temple once was. Something else painful is poking into me, some sharo concrete or brick debris?
Ah I see, my head is cracked. I’m bleeding. Bleeding a lot.
DoonDoon
Are those steps or my head?
Thinking is hard.
I feel Morgan approaching, they look smaller. Namely due to the fact that they’re 5ft tall and their old attire rather than being a 30ft tall goddess.
All that divinity, burned out? I don’t know if the juice seems to be gone.
I see them looking over.
They’re smiling.
They’re angry.
They’re crying.
I… panic.
I feel my body move without command and i am flung toward morgan, and I bite.
And they scream.
Morgan throws me off and they curl up into a ball. The sweating, the panting, the fear…
“Don’t eat me grandpa…”
Well, I know what Hiro must have saved them from… no wonder they clung onto him so tightly. Bloody hell with how much of a manipulative bastard my old man is, Morgan didn’t stand a chance.
“Prometheus - Chains of Olympus”
I see Risa step over, and golden chains restrain Morgan’s form as they screamYes, it was always meant to be this way from the very start. SHE was always the hero.
“ALBEDO!”
Risa…the perfect magus…
But in my weak mind and body, I feel an impulse, foreign impulse. A cold rage.
A hunger, a need.
Power, we need more…
That’s not my voice, that’s not my brothers voice.
“Aoi, what are you doing?”
I can feel her, Aoi is trying to take control.
They want to kill Morgan
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Lunasilverhart
A wise and beautiful woman who exudes an aura of grace. She is a sly, cunning, manipulative person who always gets what she wants, whether through trickery or ruthlessness. Her own fighting abilities are low, but she should not be trifled with. What does she ride? Men, of course!
