Eban Za'Darmondiel.
***
Many were disappointed in Amun, for he showed little interest in the history of Zimysta Falls. More were frustrated he didn't display his fighting prowess at the Tower of Might; illogically so, for nearly all had either seen or heard of his walk through Shujen and felt his march through Nydorden Halls. But alas, the eyes of the avaricious remained unsatisfied in both House Za'Darmondiel and Mii'etus Praesyris.
In both places, he learned. Yet at the Tower of Might, he took mental notes and, in turn, gave suggestions for improvements encompassing both architectural design and curriculum- suggestions that were revolutionary, might I add, but suggestions that would be fed to some spider and forgotten because, Champion or not, he was male. Despite that, no one could keep his name away from their hands or out of their mouths, not for what he had done, but for what others had done in his name.
My scrying eyes noticed the blue wave before any other- save perhaps the matrons. But only because I felt, heard, and saw its catalyst- the 'disappearance' of Mala and Daulery's families and the boons they gave our House. Consequently, I saw, heard, and felt the yield of such a wave, a once characteristic cavern of cascading water reflecting an aura of bioluminescence became a dreary depression of plummeting mud and dust in moments. A cloud of darkness and divine foulness had been spreading through the Falls ever since. Yet sparks of holy radiance bloomed within, granting a few of us the means to see through the abyss.
Some of those Sparks took my baby sisters- and good riddance! Yet, days later, another Spark killed a matron's youngest daughters, her sons, and a few slaves and turned them into something terrifying, so that was something. But then, the Spark of Sparks took my father, and now, the Tower of Might was no more.
When I saw him drifting toward my tower in the form of a wraith I naturally assumed the same would happen to the other Eyes and Legs and no doubt here. He would give me revolutionary ideas to bring this tower I cared nothing about to greatness. Then, perhaps his goblin would come and show me some legendary ability while the Elven Devil stared and toyed and stressed me out until I sinned and had no choice but to agree to join him; or die and join him.
What I got instead was the arcane daughter of this devil and the renowned hedge wizard of Bakewia escorting an excitable drow child. Something that was rarely, if ever seen in the halls of Arcanis Praesyris; much less tolerated.
He had no suggestions to make for this tower, as he had everything to learn, and the enthusiasm in which he did was uncanny, for it was beaten out of every drow child, male or female, as soon as they could walk and talk. Even if such was not the case, it was drilled into our minds by the macabre nature of our home. Sights of slaves being tortured; detailed stories of killing, maiming, and crippling with both might and magic; magical darkness encompassing a house, then dispersing to reveal its disappearance.
While still a child, he was too old to have such an attitude beaten from him. Being one of the Nox, the stories of gore only amused him, spurring his fascination to the point that he and his two companions learned many things before I could even teach them; and all things in a matter of hours.
The machine woman correctly surmised the tower was structured like the Tower of Might. Faerie Flames, Stepping Plates, Woven Lights, Levitation, and Darkness were all innate drow abilities one needed mastery of to even reach the tower's entrance and spend centuries climbing in hopes of reaching my position. Foolishly so.
Indeed, Amun surmised I was tasked by those up high to rise to my station just as my brother ascended to his. Or… perhaps he already knew- that he was told such things. On the other hand, the de-matured Wilson Koorb correctly assumed an Arcane Wizard's prowess came from the number of natures they could make of mana. Yet, that was just the beginning of this maddening endeavor.
"Your brother tells me you have much to teach me about magic."
"The walking God of Mana knows nothing about magic." I scoffed derisively. Both at his words and the thought of my brother's fate. "How is that even possible?"
He only blinked at me with that placid gaze of his for a long second. Long enough to make me realize my foolishness. "I'm the God of Mana. Not magic."
"Right." I sighed, taking into account the wandering hedge-wizard and the strange girl. "Tell me, then. What do you know of mana?"
"It is a catalyst for change." He answered immediately. "From what I've come to understand, it is a type of radiative energy with material properties that both acts and reacts to matter, energy, life, and conscious will; in order of weakest to strongest. It permeates all realities, albeit at varying densities, replacing itself whenever used by some process of Telin's design. Its effects are based on evolution or change, yet the effect is limited in lower concentrations."
"While true, you know next to nothing, so my point still stands, hah." I huffed, spawning some mana hands to pull an assortment of tomes and scrolls from my shelves while muttering how unbelievable this was- and I wanted him to hear me! If he read those tomes upon my return, however, he did so with his divinity, as the action was so fast all I saw was him touch them before they were left spinning lazily around his head, waiting to be grabbed by his companions.
"Let me guess, you're an arcane caster as well?"
"No," Wilson huffed without averting his eyes from a tome about Arcane Glyphs. "I'm a sorcerer."
"What kind?" I dared ask.
"A necromancer, of course." He raised his arm, allowing his robe to fall and reveal an arm of bone shrouded in an all-too-familiar metal. "A Nox Lich."
"And that arm." I looked at Amun. "Your doing?"
"Of course." He smirked. "I'm the only one of the Troupe that's not augmented, and they're all sorcerers."
'All of them.' I echoed, glancing over to Iris. "And what of your magic cores- your affinities?"
"Corrosive, Chemical, Decay, and Disaster Magic." Wilson offhandedly said while still reading through his tomes. "Too destructive, they are. So could you not ask to see it? That comes later."
The thought had not crossed my mind, for I was speechless and dumbfounded until Iris conjured a ball of mithral from her very own spirit. "You do not have an affinity for mithral!" I shouted.
"Nope!" She beamed; then proceeded to accent her words like a child. "Even better. Molecular Magic."
"I do not know what a molecule is."
"You'll learn." She snipped, then proceeded to blast a stone chair with her magic, causing it to spin with a terrible grating sound until space itself warbled, warping the chair behind her. She sat with the cheekiest of smiles. "I also have cores for Rotational and Warp mana. And mana itself."
"Of course you do." I signed in defeat, turning to Amun. "And you?"
Rather than say anything, he smiled and held out his hand, allowing the blue veins around his wrist to spread to his palm and grow a… mushroom. Silver in color, this shroom saw fit to emit a cloud of cubic spores throughout the casting hall, each showcasing Amun using a deep purple mana in various ways. Gravity, it was called, and mostly used for practical means, I quickly saw.
It was indeed what he used to walk on walls and fly in that strange way that was more like falling through the air. The only other spells to use such aberrant mana seemed to involve ripping the ground into the sky and using its immense crushing force to create isolated realms through the act of destruction. Once crushed smooth and spherical, he set those 'woven worlds' to loom high above the surface; or, in one case, it was used to create weapons.
"God Craft. A fitting name for such a spell." I chortled at the sight of that sentient weapon Novl whines about till this day, forged by the same spell. Yet it was hard to be awed by anything that followed. No matter how fascinated I was.
Spatial and Temporal magics in one core. With such a revolutionary transmutation affinity it was almost frustrating to see him have it. He claimed to have experimented with it, learning he could only send things to the future, not the past, but that was it. And he openly admitted to having no interest in reading far into the future. Thus he only made small distortions in space and time with it. Teleportation; Time dilation; Stealing and granting lifespan. It could be used for so much more! Divination, of course, but the Schools of Warding, Charming, and even Mirages as well.
Electromagnetism was the same. Revolutionary, yet mundane when grasped in his hands. He used it for Divination almost exclusively. Or, in rare cases, bolstered himself with the potent energies. And from what I saw, his last affinity was even more paltry. He could irradiate things; much like the negative radiation in this world of darkness, only lighter. And of course, he used it to summon the force of Tiatus to destroy an army at the end of his Walk.
If only I was to be his teacher instead of Etan. That thought had plagued me since I first learned my brother ran off with the Eternal Champion. Now, however, I had some solace.
"If I may offer two bits of advice."
"Please." He nodded- leaned forward, even.
"Sorcerers differ from wizards in that you are born with a unique type of mana that affects your physiology. Your sorcery is as much a part of you as your brain. Thus there is no structured way to use your magic, unlike wizards. Each sorcerer must develop ways to use their magic that suits them best. Now, you've trained in martial arts for practically your entire life. So first, I recommend casting spells through martial arts. That will greatly simplify the act during combat. And, mastering that is, after all, one of the prerequisites to becoming a Magus."
"Interesting." He nodded. "And the second?"
"A bit like the first." I shrugged. "You are a monk. Your mana was used to form the circuits your ki now follows, yet they should still be able to cycle mana. If not, you can always make new paths. Either way, meditating while cycling your mana through such paths should yield some interesting effects."
His eyes widened at the revelation. A sight I can only huff and shake my head at. For a few moments, at least. "I know not what the results would be, mind you. At the very least, I assume you could gain some insight into new spells. And at most- at least with your space-time mana, I believe you should be able to glimpse into the past of your surrounding environment or any object of your focus. Perhaps even the future."
"Any other advice?"
"I highly advise you to study each College of Wizardry and learn how to cast such spells with your sorcery and all your affinities," I said, gathering the appropriate books from the shelves as well as many more. "The College of Charming is that of emotions and mental manipulation; Conjuration is the creation of controllable entities from mana; Manifestation is creating matter from mana; The College of Mirages is about illusions or altering the senses or perception; your affinities are all Transmutation abilities, as its the conversion of mana to another type of energy; and, according to the Colleges, your sorcery is a Summoning type, as your necromancy and darkness is summoned from Underworld and Shadow Realm respectively.
"Lastly, there is the College of Warding, which encompasses defense and auras for positive or negative effects. Knowing these are of great benefit to both elves and those with magic cores, even if they are without arcana. You, however, are a sorcerer. Casting with this darkness around us is akin to lifting your leg, requiring no mana. One could only imagine what such knowledge would do to an ability.
"In addition." I tapped at a particularly thick and crusty tome floating at the bottom of the stack. "This is everything those old elves of the Motherland shared with the Necro King and the Iron Magus about evolution, divine trees, classes, and mana; as well as everything we kept to ourselves."
"Why thank you!" He beamed. "In exchange, how about I show you something."
"…Such as?" I dared ask; and did not regret it once his childish beam turned into a devilish grin. "My divinity. But I warn you, Eban. I am a God of Change. So pouring my magic into this cavern will change you. Into what, that is your choice."
That was just gravy on the meat pie. I was sure the matrons were already in a state of semi-panic because of him. Like me and everyone else, they realized their plans were ripped apart the moment he descended into these accursed Falls. And that was without his companions roaming about the place freely, including the huge 'drow' who waltzed into the house.
Unlike me and everyone else, however, they adjusted their plans accordingly.
"Although I was born a divine soul, I did not ascend until I evolved. And even that wasn't my real ascension." He said, beckoning me to the balcony to gaze upon the many, many onlookers and the darkness that had been spreading since his arrival.
While it was the same darkness that had always persisted here, so far beneath the surface, the presence of a similar energy pouring off Amun turned it into a living entity even we could not peer through. Such was the power of the Nox, those who brought death and darkness to the Mortal Plane; the descendants of those divine creators of the Void Tree, the Underworld, the Shadow Realm, and the Darkworld. They were sovereigns of those things so foul. That was the main reason, in truth, for the matrons staying put in G'eldantaar.
It was the only place that remained theirs.
"Before all of that, however, I had a long talk with Telin."
"You spoke to him?!" I gasped. And gasped again upon hearing my echoing inquiry. Yet Amun's childish snort remained as low as a whisper.
"I met him. Before I was born."
"W- what did he say?"
In true drow or devil fashion, a wide smirk erupted across his face while he began speaking, echoing his words across what I was sure to be all of the Falls. "He first told me about the multiverse and those who preside over it. The hierarchy of Eternals, and beneath them, the hierarchy of Gods who travel between those universes. He then told me of this universe- created by him in anticipation of my arrival in the multiverse.
"You see, the Eternals knew not what my station should have been, so they decided to test me. I would live as the Eternal God of this universe. All so I may be judged and deemed capable of joining him and his peers in the multiverse once this universe comes to an inevitable end.
"After that, he told me of this universe as he held it in his palm. A universe far larger and far more expansive than the Mortal Plane, mind you. He's done a bit of…tinkering to it, in his words. His later words led me to assume he meant his intervention with the elves. He is the source of mana and classes, and he's the reason the portals appeared between the realms. A domain that has since been passed to me.
"He then told me that he made the humanoids of Maru too weak so he gave them help in the form of affinity cores, as they were on the verge of extinction after too many catastrophes." He explained, making me and many drow around us send echoes of laughter into the darkness. "He then vaguely discussed magic, stating power lay in one's understanding of an element or phenomenon, then combined with imagination and force of will to create a spell. A calculated design by him, I'm sure, as there would be nothing more troublesome to grasp for a logical mind like his and mine.
"He then discussed the benefits of my godhood, mostly that I could choose how I would look but neither my abilities nor the circumstances of my birth were up to me. That, and I have perfect recall of both this life and my past life."
"Your p- past life?" I stammered. For I had heard nothing of the sort in all the tales told of him.
"Yes." He grinned madly. "I was born in a place much like the woven worlds above. A magicless world of humans and nature. I was relatively poor. Then I was a soldier. Then I was relatively wealthy. The world changed drastically twice in my lifetime. We developed technology- er, machinations that could come close to rivaling the enchantments of this universe, thus I became a researcher and spent a century or so learning how to do… everything.
"Anyway. After that, I was told the basics of classes and was given a warning. 'This life is a test. I would be privileged and cursed all the same. Yet no matter how glorious or gruesome it may seem, it is neither Hell nor Paradise.'"
"I see why you are so militant now." I sighed after a long pause. "Why do you think he chose you?"
"Indeed." He nodded. Then shrugged as if my question didn't matter. "I assume it's because we're similar in many ways; brutally logical introverts made to be charmingly manipulative extroverts by reality- I'm a cunt hair away from being an antisocial psychopath, essentially. Born as skeptical cynics, experienced in ways that led to a general disdain of humanity and the Culture we created- a Culture I've seen both above and here, in the Falls of Zimysta.
"It is a Culture of pointlessness, expanding in perpetuity until it inevitably self-destructs. Telin and I were powerless against this Culture, as many are. Yet we were both dreamers. Thus we devoted ourselves to a lifetime of research, development, and progress; morally ambiguous in our endeavors.
"And so, I am here. The walking God of Mana, blessed with exceptional abilities, cursed with exceptional bloodlines."
"Exceptional indeed," I muttered, looking to those who bore the brooch of my house. And most likely his. "And…" I turned back to him, "You had no choice in this?"
He turned to me incredulously, as if the thought had never crossed his mind. "Well, that's not entirely true. I suppose it would be apt to say I was the catalyst for all this happening. I have no regrets coming here, to this universe allegedly tailored for me. In this galaxy, he called Meighen. Under the light of this star, he called Tiatus. Quite the contrary. I decided a long time ago that I had no ambitions to join Telin and his peers. I decided, shortly after being born, to remain in this universe as its Eternal God, exploring the realms to uncover all its secrets; and when there are none left to uncover, I'll change everything to create more things to discover.
"And so it was, I made a plan. I devoted myself to training this body and my vassals. I educated them in the ways of war we mastered in that magicless realm. I shared with them the technology we created. I founded the capital of what would become my empire before even arriving at the Bodhi Tree, and once at the Bodhi Tree, I founded a guild and the industry to support it. Thus my ascension saw me become the ArcaTech. Not the architect, but the Arcane Technologist. The Divine Engineer."
He paused to slide his hand across the aged railings, spawning silver spores that gave rise to more of those strange shrooms and more of those silver cubes, all depicting the same thing. House Za'Darmondiel, of which, not even a trace remained. Usurped and destroyed, it was, by the de-matured wizard before me and the giantess of a drow they called Sovereign. All that remained of it was the smooth stone carved by long-dead slaves.
"But before even that, I developed my most revolutionary powers. One is for the surface, in a way." He lifted his left hand, funneling light through his pinky and darkness through his thumb to fuse them into a pale blue light. "Moonlight."
"That, however, is not what I wish to show you." He said, closing his fist and in turn, shrouding the Falls in that pervasive darkness. "Or rather, that is not what belongs here, in the Darkworld."
With his other hand, Amun withdrew a stream of light and a filament of darkness in parallel. They swirled around each other as it arced across that darkness, leaving in its rippling wake of violet, gold, and blue waters, a speckled trail of gilded motes that illuminated the Falls in its entirety.
It was through their light that I was made to see what lingered in the darkness. Countless beasts of light and darkness, some draconic, others boasting the same black feathers Amun wore on his shoulders, corrupting everything they came across. But it was beyond that which truly stole our breath.
Far below, in what had since become the muddied basin of Zimysta Falls, was a sprawling web of finger-like roots that bore countless branches and vines. Readily, they reached up the walls and subsequently blossomed upon making contact with those glimmering globes; them and the countless beasts only seen or heard of in records. Both onto each other and those glowing crops, those beasts pounced, skittered, and sailed, uncaring of the many spiders rushing to meet them.
"Twilight." The God finally declared. "Light in tandem with Darkness. Aspects of Twilight that exists both far above the skies of the Mortal Plane; and here, in the Darkworld. And yet also Purity and Corruption. Living and Dying. Drow and Devil, and yet still someone who simply wishes to explore and learn.
"Not to mention... the Exalted Gloom."
I grew fascinated. And for the first time in many years, frightened as the wave of twilight finally reached the uppermost reaches of the Falls, the head of this accursed spider, in which the Matriarchs have spent their time praying and worshiping.
"However." He groaned, shifting both his tone and the million motes around us into something more… gloomy. A darker blue, close to black but with hints of purple. Something, again, that felt alive and menacing. "Telin's slaves- or rather, the elves who enslaved themselves to Telin's whims, seem obsessed with making things difficult for me. Caelarin despises me for slaying a unicorn. Or at least his followers do, as King Corym of Rhar has sent mercenaries to smite me in his name already. Not to mention the followers of a certain demonic goddess of eight-legged creatures. Not entirely for what I have done, but for what my cult will soon do.
"So, Eban Za'Darmondiel, the students and faculty of Arcanis Praesyris, drow, and slaves of Zimysta Falls, the time for you and everyone else to make a choice has come."
"To join you? Is that it?" I asked, masking both my interest and despair at the thought masterfully. Or so I thought.
"To be free." He corrected. "You can join us, remain here, go elsewhere, or be taken by the Spider Bitch like the others who expressed interest in me or doubted the Matrons. I can't exactly see what she's doing to the rest of them. But I can see what they've been trying to do with your brother. Though they struggle, for he has already changed."
"Changed." I shuddered at the mere thought. So much so that I nearly panicked when I found myself asking. "What did you do to him?"
"He made a deal with the Elven Devil. The same pact I'm offering you, Eban Za'Darmondiel. He is my teacher. I am his leader. I gave him my power and knowledge in exchange for his knowledge and power. In other words, he is my champion. Yet he became so on one condition. That I free you. You, your little sisters, your father, and every other drow in these Falls who secretly wishes for a better life outside the demon spider's webs.
"And so, I am here!" he shouted, turned, and spread his arms about the tower, now rumbling with the threat of collapse. "I am here, bottling the anger of watching my champion be tortured by the hand of his dearest mother. A cardinal sin for the Nox. For even we, the family of death, do not kill kin.
"And so, I am here." He growled more grimly, spreading that deep rumble against the entirety of the Falls- his newest unholy land. "Whether you like it or not, I am here to free you from her demonic webs."
He held his gaze on G'eldantaar with a great sigh whilst reaching into the shadows beneath him, withdrawing a handbell that positively radiated the foulest necrotic energies. Divinely so, once he fiddled with the enchanted rings encircling the neck and gave it a good swing.
"Report."