Castle Blackspire. The Castle At The End Of The World. Residing on the reverse side of the flat Earth that was Fillory, it was the prison that held the Nameless God and all the monsters of the world after the ancient times had ended.
Originally I had planned to come here using the living ship but at this point, I figured it's just better to teleport over.
Now came the problem with the castle itself. The whole of Castle Blackspire was meant to hold in a super god and it was with Bloodstone, a special material that as Iris said in the show, 'fritzes divine power' that it achieved such a feat.
I could feel it now, standing so close to it, my divine power felt like it was short circuiting the moment it touched the surprisingly sturdy castle walls.
I could breach it easily, of course, but I'd have to destroy the castle. And It was such a beauty, I really wanted to put it in my collection. I plan on coming back in my true body and bottling up the whole world of Fillory itself like the Bottled City of Kandor.
Heheheheh.
I'm slowly turning into Braniac.
Unlike him though, I don't intend to fuck around with superman. I kill my opponents immediately, especially if they have won against me once.
I'm not going to give them a second chance.
I walked over to a side wall and used a bit of my subdermal mesh to lop off a chunk of bloodstone from the foundation.
Raising it with my telekinetic module , I used normal magic to bleed it into a jar.
Yes, there was a reason it was called bloodstone. An ichor like substance resided inside the stone that caused divine power to scatter and short circuit. It was why I used normal magic and technology to hold it. And it was with this that I would keep the Nameless God in check for the handful of hours I needed to get the whole plan underway.
With a thought, my nano-swarm buzzed to life and fizzled out of my clothes.
"Consume." I ordered and the swarm dipped into the jar, each coating and consuming themselves a piece of the ichor to create a nano-swarm that could hold the Nameless at bay.
"Everything ready?" I asked Yue.
"Un." She nodded, handing me the bag of holding.
I checked inside. Yup. Everything was ready.
"Let's go then." I opened a portal into the castle, covering ity nano-swarm to make sure Nameless didn't escape through the portal I just made as we entered arriving at a corridor overlooking the smouldering lava lakes and ashen wastelands outside.
The reverse side of Fillory was hell itself. It was practically boiling outside. Yet inside, it was only semi-stuffy. And rather humid.
The castle's interior was largely the same as Castle Whitespire up top, just more goth.
Lots of red, green and black. So much black. It was really living up to it's name.
Now then where is my favourite monster-
"You-What?" A voice came from the corridor behind us.
"How did you get in?"
I turned to face the woman who had come running towards us.
"Ah, you must be the knight guarding this place. Care to tell me where Nameless is?"
"You're looking for me?" A childish voice came from behind the woman. It was a teenager in royal garb.
I could feel the oppressive amount of reality wafting off of him. He alone had more power than all other gods I had face combined.
It was very slightly, very very horrifying. On an instinctual level, my divinity shivered at his power, his majesty.
"Are you a new friend?" He asked innocently.
"Yes." I teleported to him, putting an arm around his neck, "I'm a new friend. Your new best friend, in fact."
"Best friend?"
"Yes. It's like a friend but better!"
"That sounds nice. Come, were playing hide and seek."
"Pssh! Hide and seek. Fuck that. I'm going to show you an even better game. Outside."
"Outside this room?" He tilted his head curiously.
"No. Outside the castle."
That caught him. His eyes lit up as he asked.
"Can you really take me outside?"
"Yes-"
"NO!" The female knight screamed, before catching herself.
She put on a conciliatory tone as she continued.
"I mean w-why would you ever want to leave here? We're friends aren't we? We have fun here. You do-"
Nameless looked at her and scoffed.
Instantly, her head exploded and she fell to the floor.
"I don't want to play with you anymore. I have new friends now." He said softly, turning back to use with a bloodstained smile.
"Right?"
Wow. He just killed. Just like that. After they spent millennia together.
This thing really doesn't know love, does it?
Then again, fucked up as he may be, she was his jailor. I don't really blame him.
"Yup. Come, we need to do one more thing before we leave and play bigger, better games." I took his hand and teleported to the main hall of the castle, the place where the true Wellspring was located.
It sat at the edge of the hall, like a sculpture or art deco. A seven sided pyramidal mound of stone, jutted out from the ground, with intricately carved channels and divets, pipes and spouts shaped like the heads and bodies of dragons. Around it lay a fountain pool with countless small holes like a sieve, each leading into further channels below that I could sense. They split off through cracks in space leading to all other realities in this multiverse delivering magic. It was like a gigantic plumbing system. Quite literally.
We walked over to it, and Wanda took out the keys.
"I know those! She had them too." Nameless gestured at the knight, "Why do you have them? Are you going to trap me here too?!" He eyed us with suspicion.
"No, these are for the fountain." I pointed out as we inserted the keys into the pyramid.
On each face of the pyramid was carved a keyhole. One for each key.
"I see. I don't like them." He frowned, "Especially that one." He pointed at the Abyss Key.
Of course he doesn't.
His weakness is self reflection.
Why am I not surprised?
Lastly, I placed a siphon on top of the pyramid, one of my own desogn and activated them both.
The siphon lit up and as the keys turned the sound of bubbling water echoed across the room.
Glowing, liquid streams of magic burst forth from the seven portholes below the keyholes, neon blue and rich with power. Just the smell of it was sweeter than candy.
I swallowed my drool, resisting the urge to drain it.
No. I need it for the artificial god seed program. That was why the siphon was there. In the show, the Library had used their own siphon to get control of all magic so they could rule the world like gods.
Of course, I had no plans of ruling anything yet. I didn't want control so to speak. I'd still get it of course but it was far from a primary motive.
I watched the water flow down into the many channels before the sensors on the siphon caught the flow. Slowly, the seven streams of water rose up, as if pulled by an invisible force, sucked into the siphon I had created. Seven streams made it in, one stream made it out.
One seventh of all magic.
That was all I was going to return. Six sevenths of it would be mine. To be honest, I could and probably would set it up as a banking system or gas pipeline service where I dole out magic to those loyal to me and those who pay me a nominal fee. Just to consolidate power here.
But the time wasn't now. The other clones had given me a two day forewarning.
An ultimatum.
And we're already halfway through the first. World domination can wait.
"There. Now let's get out of here." I patted Nameless' back.
"No one's going anywhere."
I frowned as Everett Rowe and the library's enforcers teleported in.
What surprised me was the inclusion of two of the figures I had considered for my new world order.
Fogg and Mayakovsky.
And wasn't Offee supposed to deal with them?
How did they-No.
What happened to Offee?
I immediately tried to rip their memories out but their enchantments seemed to have been new, tailor made to counter me, us.
They came prepared.
But how? They shouldn't even know I exist! And sure the Word As Bond contracts were bust for the past 7 hours or so since magic went off but that shouldn't be enough time for them, unless-
Unless Fogg and Jane had prepared for it. Way before all this.
Backstabby pieces of shit!
Shit even then, they shouldn't know what happened. What we were doing.
How did they even get our location?
I know for a fact Cassandra's future sight curse doesn't work on gods otherwise I wouldn't have been so carefree.
Hmm... I'll find out. First, let's put them down and rip the memories out the old fashioned way then.
Fogg stepped forward, pulling out a button from his suit as he threw it at us.
I rolled my eyes and translocated it away with a thought. Or I tried. But the moment my divine power touched it, it exploded into a cloud of grey dust.
I recognized it immediately.
Ambrosia.
Ayahuaska of the gods. Sends them into a drug fueled catatonic shock.
No matter I'll just blow it away conventionally.
I raised a hand to cast when I found myself frozen.
"That monster will be staying here." A wave of magic washed over us.
I saw Mayakovsky pinch his fingers.
The Beast's paralysis spell!
Of course, after being frozen sonmany times, I had long since made a counter spell.
It'll take just a second for me to break this.
I and my wives were safe from it anyways, vis-a-vis our forcefields.
The only problem would be-
I looked at Nameless from the corner of my eyes. Even in the show, he was dealt with using the same trick.
And what do you know....
Nameless went berserk, slamming back into the wall behind him, shattering it.
His eyes went red, swaying as he stumbled back and disappeared over the edge.
Damnit!
"Go. Kill them now." The library's enforcers walked forward, guns in hand, pointing at our heads.
Even these idiots chose to make a god killing bullet huh?
I shook my head.
"You guys are all just idiots aren't you?" I broke the paralysis spell as they looked at me wide eyed.
"Kill him already." Everett ordered.
The enforcers moved to shoot when the guns disappeared from their hands.
"Nice little dogs you have here." The enforcers' bodies crumpled, twisting, breaking and reforming in a disgusting display of carnomancy, "But pugs aren't suitable hunting dogs."
I reached down and petted the pugs in tiny fitted grey suits, as they panted and licked their noses.
"Here, catch!" I chucked one of the former enforcers to Everett who let him fall to the floor, skidding acros the hall with bloodying it's nose.
"No love for your employees. That's no way to earn employee loyalty you know?" I wagged a disapproving finger at Everett, "Also, god killing bullets? Seriously?" I froze them all in place, "Greatest magicians in the world and you put deicidal magic on a one time use weapon? Are you have the stupid?"
Mayakovsky tried to cast the spell again to no avail.
"Mayakovsky?!" Everett looked at the portly russian.
"It's not working." Mayakovsky laughed in resignation.
Smart man. At least he knows he's not making it out alive.
"Of course it's not working dipshits. I have been through that spell so many times my grandkids will be born with the innate knowledge of countering it. Now what shall I do with you, I wonder?" I grinned evilly, "You know all this heat makes you crave some ice cream. Doesn't it, Mayakovsky?"
"Why are you was-"
Before he could finish my power was upon him.
Mayakovsky's body twisted with a sickening squelch. His blood dripping onto the floor like melted caramel, his skin popped and peeled like a roasted eggplant. I clamped my hand as an orange aura enveloped him, his flesh melting off the bone into a gelatinous ball before it flash froze. The temperature transition shattered his bones like shrapnel, embedding onto his now melted flesh. A McFlurry of flesh with bone sprinkles broiled blood melt.
With another flick of my wrist, his clothes came to life, checkered and crusted with blood, swaddling around the whole macabre dessert like a waffle cone as the rest all watched in mute horror.
A dessert fitting for SCP 682, which is exactly where I teleported it. The unkillable lizard deserves a treat every now and then. And as a misanthrope, I'm sure he'll be in good company.
Heheheh.
I wonder if they'll blame it on Dr. Bright again?
Will they even save him before the lizard eats him up?
I wonder what his SCP classification will be if they do manage to save him?
I'll have to find out someday.
I took casual steps forward as Fogg retreated as did the traveler that brought them here, I forget his name but I remember he was a mercenary dick.
But Everett stood his ground. He brought his hands together as sparks flew off his fingers, curving along his palms as they converged forming a glowing circle between his hands. A glowing ring of pure white with a tiny pitch dark black hole within.
The world seemed to bend around the singularity, space warping, the air sucked in like a hurricane.
My clothes fluttered and they all closed their eyes.
"Take this!" He shot the glowing white ring at me.
"Foo."
I smiled and blew at it gently.
The singularity instantly evaporated, dissipating into white dust as a super-heavy marble of pitch black clinks onto the floor, shatter the bloodstone tile.
"Valiant attempt. 5 out of 10." I laughed and apported the marble to my hand, "Bonus points for bravery. Here's you reward." I casually flicked the marble back at him.
The air crackled, sonic booms sounded out and in an instant Everett's body was bloody mist as the marble blew through him and the traveler that brought him here, then through the castle wall and then some, crashing into a lava pool outside. I could see huge burst of lava shooting up into the sky from the sheer force of the impact.
Finally I walked over to
"This is how I die. Turned into a pug." Fogg sighed and took a swig of his own flask of alcohol.
"I was thinking horse, because you bet on the wrong horse here, but if you want to be a pug, I'll respect your choice." I shrugged.
"Just get it over with." He said.
"Why are you in such a hurry to die? You haven't told me nearly enough about what happened here, yet. Don't worry, there's going to be plenty of time for you in the hay." I patted his cheek, freezing him in place.
"Wanda, Yue. Clean up the mess will you? I'll deal with these guys and catch up. I'm worried Offee is in trouble."
"We'll find him and report back." Yue dutifully nodded.
"Have fun torturing him." Wanda waved and disappeared with Yue.
"Now where were we? Ah right! Your anti-mind reading enchantments. Very sophisticated. Let's peel them back slowly, one layer at a time shall we?" I turned back to Henry, space warped around us, transforming the room into a torture chamber.
A magical scalpel appeared in my hand, pressed against his forehead, and I made my first incision into his soul as fear and despair spiked in his eyes.
Instantly, he undid his wards, catching the hint.
Give me what I want or suffer at my hands before I get it anyways.
Hehhehe, I like smart men.
"Good job." I praised him, ripping the memories out of his head as his eyes pleaded for clemency.
Too bad, after witnessing what he had done to my wife, to my Offee, I was fresh out of mercy to give.
With his memories in my grasp, I took the scalpel and jabbed it straight through his eyes, leaving it lodged in.
"That's for looking down on me. And trust me, there's more where that came from once I get back." I said, slicing his hands off while leather belts bound him to a table.
"And after what you did to my Offee? I WILL be back. And you will pay the price with your soul."
_____________________
The extra chapter for 200 powerstones as promised!
Just 10 or so more chapters to go in the arc.
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Till then, see ya and thanks for reading my dudes!