New chapter y'all, right before Christmas or on Christmas, whatever your time zone is.
Anyway, I worked kinda of hard on this chapter but ITS THE LAST CHAPTER FOR THIS ARC. FINALLY.
I hope you all enjoy it I don't know if I'm gonna write the next arc, make a new fic, or a novel, I've got a lot of ideas swirling in my head that I want to write and I'm burned out on this one.
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Melkor sat before the Great Other. The three mighty gods sat in an eerie silence. The wind howled around them, whipping Melkor's hair behind him.
"So, you're the one they told me to destroy."
The willowing smoking god nodded to the banished god. "I am."
Melkor stood from his chair, bringing his hammer over his shoulder. "Then let's get started then."
The shadow raised its hand, stopping Melkor in his tracks. "Before we begin, I'd like to ask you some questions."
Melkor watched the Great Other warily but nodded and sat back down, humoring the shadowy god. "What do you want to know?"
"What did they tell you, what did my brothers and sisters speak about me, and what do they wish you to do?"
Melkor smirked at the ghostly god. "They told me quite a lot. They told me of your wish to bring winter to the south, how you wish to destroy your siblings, and how you wish to rule.
I feel inclined to tell you that this path you are taking, one where you wish for total domination, does it not bring the satisfaction you believe you will gain, it only leads to more suffering, more on your part than others."
"Do you speak from experience?"
Melkor's face softened, and his voice grew soft. "I do."
"Is that what they have told you, that I do this because of power?"
"That is one of the reasons I was told, the other reasons you have are reasons I don't care about, all I have to do is destroy your very being, and I get what I want."
"Then what do you wish for oh mighty Morgoth Bauglir, you were the mightiest of your kin, just like I, yet you were defeated, banished to this cursed realm. And you don't even know the truth of me and my siblings, why I do what I do, why we were banished here in the beginning."
"I'll say it again, I don't care for your reasons, I have mine and you have yours, so be a good little icicle and die."
The Willowing God chuckled at Melkor's comment, as the god tried to control itself, its laugh grew louder into a maniac cackle."
"HAHAHA..." The cackling god began to calm itself.
"They really haven't told you a thing, have they?" The god's voice was rhetorical, for he already knew the answer just by looking at Melkor's expression.
Melkor's expression shone with confusion as the god he had come to destroy kept going on and on about the secrets his benefactors had withheld from him.
"And what secrets would those be?"
The god chuckled at Melkor's question. "I would tell you, truly I would; but I feel you need to find the truth yourself."
Melkor's hand began to shake, slamming his clenched fist into the table, shattering it, he shouted. "Enough of your games, you keep talking and twisting my thoughts, face me here and now, and let the world watch us break it asunder!"
The Great Other had no true face to convey emotion, but had it, Melkor would be able to see its growing smile.
"You still haven't realized it, have you? Does the place where in not seem or at least feel slightly familiar?"
Melkor looked around the room, trying to make sense of the Great other words. "I've never been in the keep, why should it feel familiar to me?"
"Not the keep, but the magic around us, the place I brought you to."
Melkor focused his senses on the magic around him, feeling the familiarity of the room he now realized he was in.
Melkor's eyes widened at what he now realized where he was. "A pocket in reality." Melkor spoke with certainty and surprise.
"This is like the one your siblings brought me to at Cailin."
"Finally started to catch on, good."
"But, this one is different." Melkor looked around the room, noticing magic radiating from where the walls of the hall once stood.
"Yes, very different, yet so similar. The one you are familiar with makes it where hours inside is but a second outside, but this one acts as an opposite to it. Time flows freely outside, with an hour outside, is mere seconds inside. you've already missed many moons with your family with your questions."
Melkors eyes widened. The Great Other's words resounded in Melkor's ears as he realized the trap he'd fallen into.
The gods fell silent, no longer dueling with words.
With a burst of speed faster than any mortal could even notice, Melkor burst from his chair hurtling towards the great other.
He raised and brought down his hammer, ready to end the god's reign then and there.
Before the great hammer could meet the god, the hammer was stopped by a great blade of ice and snow.
The Great Others' servant had stopped Melkor before his hammer could land.
"This is a fight between GODS! This is not a fight between a god and his enemy's pawn!"
Melkor slammed his hammer into the servant's side, shattering it into nothing but snowflakes.
Melkor rocketed toward his first target, grabbing him by the throat, and slamming him into the magical wall they resided in.
The Great Other struggled under Melkor's grip, trying to pry its formless body from the god's stronger than expected grip.
"So they gave you more power than I thought, how fortunate."
Melkor slammed him into the wall again silencing the mocking god.
"How many years," Melkor growled out
"Excuse me?"
Again, the Great Other was slammed into the wall. "HOW MANY YEARS HAS IT BEEN OUTSIDE!" Melkor roared
"Ha, only a couple, enough for my servants to travel far and wide."
Melkor's anger exploded, he pulled the Great Other away and rocketed into the wall opposite to them, shattering the dimension they had resided in.
Melkor flew across Westeros with the Other in hand.
The landscape had changed from what he had remembered in the mere hour he had been away.
The Earth that was once green and beautiful was now covered in a cold blanket of snow.
The rivers that flowed with streams that had shone like diamonds were now frozen a cold dark grey.
The mountains that broke the heavens and towered over any mighty keep were now twisted in ice and snow.
No life could be seen by Melkor, all he saw were the lifeless moving forms of the Other's servants.
"Bastard," Melkor muttered more to himself but the god he held heard it all the same.
Melkor finally reached a land so far south that there seemed to be more sand than snow.
Melkor threw the struggling god into the ground below him, causing a great implosion of rock sand, and earth.
The raging god had calmed himself somewhat, ready to end the Great Other then and there.
Melkor began his approach of the downed god, but stopped, hearing a great thunderclap resound next to him.
There next to him stood his wife, wide-eyed and teary.
She launched herself into her husband, bringing him into a hug that it felt as if she would break his spine. "My love, I had thought I had lost you again."
Melkor reciprocated the hug smiling, relief flooding his very being that his wife had not perished from his short absence.
"I have much to ask you Aina my love, but first I must deal with the one who had pulled us apart for so long."
Aina looked over to the enormous crater nodding to her husband.
The two walked forward, ready to strike down their long-suspected enemy. But as the two readied for a coordinated strike, the Great Others form imploded.
A great fire roared to life, the Great Others' form expanding, swallowing everything around it.
Melkor and Aina watched on with fear, feeling the overwhelming might before them. They thought they were facing the Valar reborn.
Melkor and Aina knew the power before them was not something they could not face alone.
The pair took a step forward, ready to face the enemy no matter the odds, but once again, Melkor found himself somewhere all too familiar.
A land of stone and earth surrounded the two, it was a passageway of mountain that lead to a single point.
"Not again." Melkor Groaned.
Aina turned to her husband, eyebrow raised. "Again?"
Melkor glanced over to his wife and waved it off. "Another time."
Aina nodded hesitantly. "Alright, but where are we?"
"A pocket dimension, like when we met the old gods."
Aina's eyes widened with realization.
"So it seems you found me." a voice rang out across the pocket dimension.
Melkor and Aina looked down the passage to find a lone figure, the source of the voice.
The two approached it, taking in its features.
It was a body of black ashen armor, and a head of fleshless bone as dark as coal.
Everything around it seemed dead and dark like no joy nor warmth could be felt standing near it.
"Are you an old god, sibling of the Great Other?"
The skull god nodded. "I am, and I have been watching for some time, watching over your servants, readying them for their return."
"My servants?"
The god nodded "Now is the time for them to return, but not before you are gifted more of our power, for you can not stand against my brother the way you two are."
Melkor and Aina looked into each other's eyes, ready to face whatever terror that would stand in their way.
The skinless god extended his hand to the husband and wife and began to channel his power into them.
As the power flowed into the, the mountains that surrounded them began to erupt into fire and hot stone.
Great fiery forms emerged from seven peaks, all manner of weapons of fire forming in their hands, some with the forms of demons, and others more humanoid than their brothers.
Great fiery wings extended from their back as they soared down to their master.
One creature stood out among the rest, he seemed bigger than his brethren, in the form of a great fire demon, and in his hand, he wielded a great axe of fire.
Melkor spoke with a knowing tone before the great demon before him. "Gothmog, it is good to see you and your brothers have returned."
"My lord, it brings me great joy seeing your return, give us a command and we shall obey."
"We face an enemy that I would say is equal to the great Valar we faced eons ago."
The mighty balrog bowed its head to its master. "Your will shall be done."
"You have been granted great boons Melkor mightiest of the Valar, do not forget why we gave you our power, fulfill our end of our deal, and you shall have all you want and more." the skeleton spoke, its body fading to dust with the dimension around them.
As Melkor watched the god fade, he felt a pang of anger as he faded, not truly knowing what lay behind the half-truths told to him by the old gods, and being treated like no more than a disposable pawn.
The dimension faded and Melkor found himself staring at a form of death and cold like never before. He felt like he was face to face again with Tulkas the great warrior that had chained him long ago.
Behind Melkor and Aina stood nine mighty Balrogs one hand a whip and another some mighty weapon of fire.
A great sound of death shattered the silence that had enveloped the world as Melkor's form shifted from physical to a shadow that swallowed mountains.
Aina's form shined like the moonlit sky, and her head was encompassed by a crescent moon.
The gods disappeared from view, igniting the landscape, turning everything they once stood on into nothing but crater and ash.
The balrogs followed their master, assisting in whatever way they could, locking their whips around the Great Other, stopping it for a mere moment to allow the two mighty gods to land a blow on it.
With every swing from any of the battling gods the world shook. The oceans rose and swallowed great mountains and deserts. They shattered land and broke great arms to different homes.
The gods changed the landscape of the world forever, never to be remembered as it once was.
The battle lasted three days and three nights; Until one day the Great Other was pierced through the chest by Melkor with his shadowy hand. Such a wound would never truly heal, for not just its physical form was marred but is soul would forever hold the scar that Melkor had inflicted that day.
The god let out a scream so deafening that the world would hear it for the next thousand years, never forgetting the enemy they would have to face one day again.
The great other freed itself from Melkor and his servants, fleeing to his northern domain, into the heart of winter, where not even Melkor wished to venture for he had fallen to a great many wounds, and wished to rest and prepare for the coming battle again, whenever that day would be.
Melkor, Aina, and the Balrogs returned to where Melkor had first found his wife after the encounter with the Other.
"My love, I think I need to lie down." "Melkor groaned out as they returned to a more physical form, with his arm draped over his wife's shoulder to support his weakening body.
"Come, my dear, let us rest." Aina led Melkor to a great keep, how it stood standing after such a devasting fight, Melkor could not know, but what he did know, was that he was tired, and needed some sleep.
The eleven battle-weary gods approached the gates of the keep, but soon found themselves face-to-face with a teary-eyed girl. "MAMA, PAPA."
Fae ran to her parents, enveloping them in a hug. The balrogs that stood ready to strike down the strange girl seemed surprised at what she had called their master.
"It's good to see you, my little fairy," Melkor murmured into the crown of his daughter's head.
Melkor looked at the growing crowd. Among them stood some familiar faces. Of them stood Brandon Stark Lord of Winterfell, and his son Bran, next to them were Symeon Star Eyes, Oskar Cassel, and many other lords of the North.
Durran Godsgrief and his wife stood amongst the group as well, along with the other former kings of Westeros.
But what made him smile was his oldest friends that he had made since he arrived in these lands. Beorn and Eoghan stood next to each other smiling at his return.
The happy family approached the crowd triumphant but harmed and in need of rest.
"It's good to see you all alive, I'm truly happy you made it out of these past battles alive," Melkor spoke.
Brandon Stark stepped forward, grasping Melkor's arm in his own. But with a question on his mind "Your Grace, It pleases me to see you returned and victorious over the enemy, but I must ask, where have you been for the past three years?" Brandon Asked.
"All your questions shall be answered soon my friends, but I am in need of some rest to heal, so if you would excuse me."
Melkor, Aina, and Fae began to make their way towards the entrance of the keep, but Melkor stopped before they could enter.
He turned towards the Balrogs and spoke to them in a language only one other besides the Balrogs could understand.
They disappeared across the land, burning the ice and snow in their wake.
The family turned back to the keep, content to find some kind of rest.
The trio eventually found their way to a great bedroom that Aina had used during Melkor's disappearance.
In the bed lay three figures. A towering regal figure of elven beauty with hair as dark as the night sky. The other was just a head shorter than the other, but just as beautiful, with hair as white as the moon.
They lay together holding a third figure between them lovingly, she encapsulated both figure's features and beauty perfectly and slept peacefully in her parent's embrace.
The parents seemed only slightly awake, staring into each other's eyes.
"My love," Melkor spoke.
"Hmm." Aina hummed.
"We need to find a safe place for us, someplace we can call our own."
"And what would that be?" Aina asked.
"A new Home."