Although He noticed that He was falling down, Chalybis did not truly care about this minor setback as it only delayed the inevitable by mere moments. It was however convenient to know that the bone thing was a solid creature - rather than a liquid being like the first horde of attackers - which meant it could be destroyed in a more conventional way without having to use His realm or minions to deal with it.

His gaze turned around within His skull until it was facing the chitinous orb, another silver lance forming within it as it did so. This time it did not shatter into countless shards, but remained as a whole, a quivering orb of silver suspended within His giant eye. It launched forwards, unerringly arching towards the creature that had dared to interfere with His progress and rapidly seeping into the inner parts of its being upon impact. In the mean time, Chalybis Himself simply stood up again in a gradual but unstoppable motion, elevating Himself above the battlefield once more. The only difference now, was that He had been offended...

Chalybis knew that the shards, limited as they were, would fail to pierce the tough bone-armour of the curled beasts. The single tendril, however, proved entirely acceptable; it split through the tough hide with a loud crack, sending the creature into screams of agony. The sound was not unlike a high=pitched gong being boomed.

As Chalybis stood, he saw that most of his Servants had not been so lucky - unfortunately, there were many losses, as smashed machinery filled the cavern and his remaining soldiers, while still many, had been diminished somewhat. The firearms, it seemed, were not able to pierce the hide of the creatures as Chalybis's vanquishing could.

As He watched the strange beast succumb to the mechanical corruption and join His side as a mindless slave, Chalybis realized that His side was effectively losing the battle, His mechanical soldiers being severely out-classed by these spawns of madness. That was not acceptable and He would not allow His victory to be taken from Him by these foul beasts. The situation had become troublesome, but He knew that His legions could never be defeated whilst He led them, something which the invaders would soon find out.

XXVIII: The Legions Of Chalybis Are Invincible Whilst He Remains And The Infinite Endurance Of His War Machine Shall Utterly Eradicate All Pathetic Organic Adversaries That Dare To Stand Before Him He decreed, halting His own advance and turning His gaze back over what remained of His army. As it swept over the wreckages of His destroyed soldiers, their mechanical bodies quivered under its power, unable to resist His command even after their lives had been ended. One by one, the shattered carcasses began to draw themselves back together as good as they could, leaking pistons and bent gears forcing each other into motion once more as their master commanded it.

Within moments, what remained of His army stood again, incomplete or utterly obliterated wrecks barely capable of movement scrambling to join the ranks of their more intact brethren. But this was not the end yet, for Chalybis knew that His servants were not capable of fighting off the armoured beasts in their current forms. Most of them were currently too small and too insignificant on their own to deal with such things, so He would have to remedy that issue immediately.

After a single pulse of His gaze, the reanimated Servants were drawn together around the golden Chosen, sliding or crawling from all over the cavern into a large pile that quivered with an almost-tangible power. As more and more mass was added to the whole, it started to reshape itself, tearing apart the remnants of His Servants and forming them into some kind of massive construct. Massive mechanical limbs sprouted from the pile as it took on a more spherical shape, the combined volume of His army now out-sizing even Chalybis Himself.

When the process of reassembly finished less than a minute later, a single mechanical creature was brought to life, a titanic machine which vaguely resembled a normal Servant but was undeniably massive. The hundreds of lenses from the fallen adorned every part of its shimmering surface, and nearly a thousand firearms were gathered in two fist-like clumps that sprouted from equally massive limbs above its back. This titan was the true power of His Servants - their ability to serve Him from beyond the grave by upgrading those that remained alive. Chalybis knew that its existence required most of His attention to sustain, but with such a being under His command, He would not be required to keep it around for long. This would be over soon...

The creature struck by the tendril had died; it did not become a minion, unfortunately.

The steel rose up in the shapes of dead Servants, some to be battered once more by the spinning death, but most to be sacrificed and amalgamated. Once assimilated by the Golden Servant - which still retained the colour of gilt - was born.

The spherical creatures hesitated, perhaps fearful of the titan brought upon them. There were further purple flashes from beyond.

XXIX: And Now The Time Has Come To End This Invasion Once And For All And To Return The Complete Control Of The Realm Of Telluratus To Chalybis Himself By Eradicating Those That Have Dared To Defy It With The Might Of His Invincible Machines Chalybis declared, continuing His advance towards the purple light once more, this time accompanied by the - quite literally - ground-shaking steps of the titan He had created. He had already expected that the corruption would have to be vanquished by force, but now He controlled more than enough of said force to obliterate that which defied Him.

As the two of them marched on - what little remained of the smaller Servants standing back to avoid getting themselves crushed by their giant peer - Chalybis' appearance began to change as well, the many weapons He had gathered over time protruding from His mechanical skin at various points, most notably the five earthborn rifles which had migrated to His fingertips and were now glowing with the divine power that coursed through His form. He ointed His fingers at the spherical creatures that surrounded Him, and in a single instant, every single weapon on  His own form and that of His titan went off. In an ear-shattering instant, a barrage of molten steel, solid lead, and diamond shards filled the area around them, one which would hopefully be sufficient to deal with the armoured beasts and their companions...

Waves upon waves of enemies - strange hissing things that squirmed and died as they were crushed - were killed beneath the feet of Chalybis and his Golden Servant. The stomped through horde after horde of the beasts, gore splattered across their lower frame, almost unstoppable. They were halfway through the cavern - after destroying hundreds in a hail of lead and diamond - when another series of purple flashes sent a surge of huge - most were half the size of the Golden Servant and a meter or so lower than Chalybis - beasts tackled them. The creatures were reptilion, having the same chitinous armour as the spherical creatures, but with long, jagged claws and gleaming muscle. Chalybis was thrown down after being hit by the wave of scales and bone..

This time, Chalybis did not resist the pull of gravity, merely allowing Himself to collapse onto the floor beneath Him. This was not without reason however, as the previously solid surface there tore itself open and reshaped itself to encompass His form. In an instant, He was fully engulfed by the steel below the cavern, His physical form completely hidden from view by the closing gap whilst His presence remained almost tangibly present through the Golden Servant and the eerie red light of His gaze which somehow managed to emanate from the ground itself.

As the Golden Servant continued its struggle against the new wave of strange creatures, Chalybis Himself lashed out at them from below, His already immense arms drawing upwards the metal around them to form giant claws of grasping steel which tried to pull the strange beasts under the surface of the cavern where He presumed them to become trapped until their existence ended. Even though this - combined with maintaining the form of His Titan - was rapidly becoming a massive drain on His powers, He cared not about this. He knew what was happening around Him, and it would not be long before all of these issues came to an end...

As the Golden Servant fought on, battered by the great beasts, Chalybis assaulted them from below; in this way, it was a short manner of time before the beasts were dragged beneath the steel ground, screaming and clawing as they did. Chalybis felt wave after wave of exhaustion fall upon him as he fought; while this was undoubtedly the smartest way to do battle, it was also intensely tiring. Soon, Chalybis sensed that the massive creatures had been killed.

Below the surface of the cavern, Chalybis was pleased with the progress He and His Golden Servant were making. Everything the corruption had dared to send against Him had been vanquished like the vermin it was, and now nothing remained to stand in His way. After taking in the situation around - and mostly above - Him for a moment, He continued onwards, calmly gliding through the steel terrain as His Titan shambled on towards the purple light. It was unclear exactly how much further this was, but He knew that as soon as He got there, this would come to an end...

As Chalybis felt the surge in power rip through his body (though unfortunately not the manifestation of psychic abilities) he heard a massive crashing from above. He heard the screaming of the Golden Servant, and the heat of incredibly hot molten metals take the steel with it. It was getting hotter, now..

With renewed and improved strength, Chalybis rose up from the cavern floor again, casting His blinding red gaze over the remains of the Golden Servant. Instantaneously, strange mechanical orbs sprang into existence around Him, each one resembling a large steel eyeball and emanating a cone of red light similar to His own from their core. They calmly floated around Him, searching for the origin of the heat which was disturbing Him.

The origin was from above.

Chalybis saw that the Golden Servant had been rough-housed a little bit - it was missing its left arm, torn straight from its socket, and much of the golden plating had become molten slag. It was rather inactive as the pools of molten metal ran past its feet, slowly filling the cavern. Chalybis saw the cause; long, bony, worm-like beasts with fanged mouths spitting blue-black acid at the artificial roof that Chalybis had created. For whatever reason, the slag was crashing down from there. Now, everything was being taken by the white-hot rivers, and Chalybis felt his very being start to disintegrate..

He saw the Mad God in the distance. A huge, floating monstrosity, purple-green in the light of the magma, it was a creature composed of billions of tiny, gnashing teeth. From within the thousands of flapping mouths, Chalybis could see the eyes of the thing; distant, maddeningly alien. It was like a great upside-down bowl, the hollowed center filled with a dazzling purple glow, the inside of the creature sagging with hundreds of giant eggs - the children of the thing.

Surrounding the Mad God are easily five dozen worm-spitters. Within them, Chalybis sees something moving, dancing, a mass of legs and eyes, but nothing more.

The Golden Servant whirred and fell, to be reclaimed by the land that spawned it.

As Chalybis became aware of the damage that the strange creatures were dealing to Telluratus, He also became extremely irritated with their insolence. It was unacceptable enough that such beings dared to even exist within His realm, but that they would have the nerve to damage it whilst He was present was beyond Him. This could and would not be tolerated in the least, so every single one of them would now have to be vanquished in the most horrible way He could arrange for them. Fortunately for Him, that was not a very difficult one to perform...

The dozens of mechanical eyes that surrounded Him rapidly lost their cones of bright red light, instantly replacing them by various other colours before fading past violet into the invisible spectrum where they eventually became searing rays of harmful radiation which they turned upon the despicable beasts that guarded the Mad God ahead. Although such an alien deity would most likely be less than concerned about the equivalent of stellar radiation, it had already been proven that its spawn were mere mortals, and they would burn as such.

Simultaneously, the gaze of Chalybis Himself also faded out, but it was not replaced by a cone of any other mortal spectrum. Instead it became the opposite, a powerful cone of suction which was so powerful that it even trapped the surrounding light itself within itself, giving it an impregnable pitch-black colour as it came into being. Upon its completion, it began to tear into the surface of the cavern itself, taking in the molten metal at an alarming speed as it swept over the ground towards the creatures which opposed Him. This was the realm of Chalybis, and within its borders He would be the only one to consume anything and live...

Chalybis feels immense satisfaction as the foul beasts around him are torn to thousands of tiny shreds and thrown within him. He takes their being, the worm-spitters, easily.. their flesh is pale and weak, easy enough to take, and they all fall before any more damage can be done to Telluratus. A slime-covered, writhing thing then leaps at the God of Machines, but falls beneath his stare - having no armour to speak of, being extremely light, it is quickly flung into the gaping abyss..

The purple light within the center of the urn-like Mad God is weaker now. Perhaps it cannot conjure up any more creatures. Chalybis knows this to be the last moment. He almost begins to assimilate the Mad God within him, that pathetic creature which cannot even defend itself any longer, however, before a strange feeling makes him stop.

He does not know about the nature of the being, and perhaps if he did, he'd be better prepared..

Do not drink or eat from the Mad, nor accept their gifts, or engage in vampirism upon their writhing flesh..

Chalybis feels something he hasn't felt before. Dread. Deeply uneasy. He feels as if their is something acidic within him, clawing itself out of his body. But nothing remains. He cannot even vomit, for he is not organic in nature, though he feels the clanking within him slow, stop - he almost dies for a second - and reverse. The abyss stops, but his eyes, instead of the usual red glow, show only black.

He sees the universe, and the numbers - oh, a rapture of numbers that he has not even dreamed of before.

(Please submit to me a second sheet regarding your Cthonic form and whatnot. I'll make all the changes and update once more when you send me the sheet. Cheers.)

When the rapture subsided, and Chalybis returned, some time later, the cavern was dark all about him. The burning-hot steel had long ran cold, and the cavern's size had grown much smaller as the levels above had collapsed. There was no sign of Chalybis's servants, each destroyed in the battle, but the strange gibbering creatures were also gone.

There was only Chalybis, in his recently acquired strangeness, and another..

Another.

The fleshy being was tall, with eyes that showed complete darkness, and dressed in strange, oriental-red robes. His head was shaved, his teeth crooked and spiked. When he saw Chalybis was recovering, he grinned horribly.

"Welcome to madness, son," he said.

Chalybis rapidly glanced around Himself, ascertaining that there was indeed nothing left within this cavern apart from the newly arrived infidel that stood before Him. Although the corruption appeared to have been vanquished, He could not recall having been the cause of this personally, something which concerned Him greatly. It meant that the offending deity could have survived and fled to another location where it could spawn its madness anew and force Chalybis to seek it out again. That was something He would have to investigate soon though; right now He had another issue to attend to, one which was standing with Him in this cavern.

The creature was quite obviously organic in nature, which was a valid reason for its extermination on its own, and it also bore a great resemblance to a certain Alkanite whom Chalybis was intending to kill too. Even worse, the infidel had the nerve to claim to be His father, something which was utterly ridiculous as Chalybis was more than aware of His own origins and considered this accusation highly offensive. This insolence would not go unpunished, but He would allow the being one last chance to entertain Him with a plea for its survival - which would be utterly in vain.

Tome of Insanity, Volume One:
I: The Corruption Has Finally Been Vanquished From This Realm Entirely Yet A New Type Of Creature Whose Existence Is An Offence To Chalybis Has Come Into Being Before Him Which Shall Now Attempt To Justify Its Presence Within The Holy Realm Of Telluratus If It Is Not Already Intending To Have Its Existence Terminated By The Infinite Might Of Its Ruler Chalybis

"Ah, yes," said the man, smiling softly. "The threats. I have heard your famous intimidation techniques, Chalybis, and yet I remain nonplussed. Your child, too, trying to bind me as he will. This sorcery is an element of the Feast, nothing more. To think he could contain me, contain the mathematics by.. it is laughable. You are one of us, now, Chalybis. I have chosen you."

He smiled, gestured to the impressively large, twisted, ornate portal.

"This. This is our final destination. One of the few scattergates to Alkan. This is why I chose you, machine."

The existence and activities of Lajortestus had not been of much concern to Chalybis previously, as He had not expected any of them to contribute to His destruction of the corruption in any meaningful way. Now too He cared little for what was going on many miles above Him, instead being focused on the infidel that was now insulting Him with both its presence and its actions. Still, it appeared to be holding something from Chalybis so this information would have to be forcibly extracted from it before He could safely dispose of it in an appropriate fashion.

II: Chalybis Demands To Know What The Origin And Nature Of This Portal Are Immediately And His Demands Shall Not Be Denied By Such A Pitiful Mortal He decreed, glancing over the portal momentarily before affixing His gaze upon the head of the annoying humanoid in a solid ray of impossibly bright black-green light. He knew what Alkan was - the origin of equally annoying yet pitiful humanoids, one of which had bothered Him within Niborkerese - and that He did not approve of its existence, so the very idea of a direct connection existing between His realm and that foul place was unacceptable, even less so than the presence of the humanoid He was about to vanquish.

He was bathed in the strange light; knowledge did not come to Chalybis, however. He saw an image of the universe, spiraling, trapped..

Not the Eternal Forest, but instead the true multiverse, as it might need to exist.

"Nah-uh," said the robed man. "No, no, no, no, no. Nope. You can't take from me. Not at all. Psychocloudism, they called it, but I know it as blocking. I came here because I was suited. If you want to know something, why don't you ask a question, Chalybis? We're friends, right? Father and son?"

This was a somewhat disturbing experience for Chalybis - He had never failed at 'extracting' information from such insignificant creatures before yet now He had not received what He had intended to claim - having just acquired the evidence of the existence of a greater universe outside the current one but finding that He cared little about what He had just learned. The strange creature appeared to be protected against His influence and thus had a slight advantage in this scenario, something which He could not tolerate for much longer.

III: Then Answer These Questions Before Chalybis Reconsiders His Decision To Permit The Mortal To Exist For Long Enough To Do So Personally And Smites It - What Are The Origin And Nature Of This Gate Within The Realm Of Telluratus And The Mortal That Desires To Possess It And Where Does The Portal Lead To - Why Does The Mortal Insist Upon Referring To Chalybis As If They Were Relatives Whilst His Eternal Existence Cannot Possibly Be Caused By Such A Pitiful Mortal - Explain Why Chalybis Has Been Chosen Or Does The Insolent Mortal Believe That Chalybis Would Assist It In Anything Instead Of Simply Vanquishing It And Consuming Its Soul

As He continued His amalgam of a tirade and a questioning, Chalybis began to flex His mighty form, checking His innards for any defects that might cause Him difficulties when dealing with whatever opposed Him - and things would be opposing Him soon enough, He was certain of that. He could already feel that He possessed more power than He had done before, and He was inclined to make use of it as soon as He received a chance to do so. And He already knew of the perfect target for that...

"Portal? Mortal! Ahah!" smiled the man, seemingly nonplussed by Chalybis's rather rough line of questioning. "I am not mortal, no. I was once, and might still be, the God of Fertility. I was taken by the Madness.. only to find my true place in this universe as recruiter to our grand cause and the destruction and assimilation of the Feast. You had me worried for a long while, there, man! I thought I'd lose out on that one. War has never been my storng suit, but we adapt.. we all adapt. Nevertheless, here you are."

He shrugged, the red robe flapping wildly.

"I know you've realized just what's going on within that huge frame of yours - within that skull of steel. You're one of us now. My son. I've given birth to a beautiful, syllogistic son of shining metal! It is a wondrous thing, to propagate your species. You're Mad. The portal itself.. the scattergate.. a random happening. That's all. A function of the malfunction - of the broken-down Gate Panjura built by the wizard-peoples in the City of Glimmering Gears."

It appeared that the annoying mortal - which was now wrongfully claiming to be of a divine nature itself - did not quite understand what it was interacting with, and Chalybis no longer felt inclined to allow it to exist within His realm any longer. This interference had lasted far too long already, and there was nothing the mortal could inform Him of that He could not learn by consuming its soul. And if it did prove to be a divine, that would only make the consumption of its soul much more rewarding. It had escaped Him as a floating corruption earlier, and He would not allow Himself to make such a mistake again...

IV: It Appears That The Mortal Has Neglected To Answer The Most Significant Of Questions Namely The One Concerning Its Right And Reason To Exist Here... Chalybis spoke, leaning down until His 'head' was within several metres of the red-robed figure, ...So He Will Now Assume That It Does Not Have The Inent To Continue This Pitiful Existence And Act Upon This In An Appropriate Fasion

The instant He finished His speech, Chalybis' pitch-black gaze collapsed upon itself, creating a new swirling vortex of consumption before it, and beginning to draw everything around it into His gaze. At such a distance, this cone of destruction completely enveloped the creature that had dared to stand before Him - as well as a large portion of the cavern around it due to the size of the effect. Chalybis knew that the creature had the ability to turn into its massive floating shape again, but as far as He was concerned it would never get the chance to do so before being consumed...

The man, dressed in red, screamed as he was devoured by Chalybis. There was no ceremony to the death. Chalybis did not feel the expected rush of power, however, though perhaps he was satisfied with murder alone.

Although the results of His actions were somewhat less than He had hoped for - it seemed that the opposition had indeed been a pathetic mortal all along, and consuming it had not even been sufficient to improve Chalybis' mood, let alone His power. It did do a most admirable job at removing the insolent pest though, and the silence that fell after the creature had been removed was most satisfying in itself. Now He was all that remained within the metal cavern, together with the portal that would supposedly lead to a world which He might approve of, the City of Glimmering Gears.

Of course, that was only the case if the intruder had been answering His demands truthfully, something which He highly doubted. It could lead anywhere for all He knew, and there were plenty of places where He would rather not appear. Still, it was imperative that He found out where it led to, for gateways tended to work in both directions, and He could not tolerate any further unexpected visitors breaking into His realm through this portal. Chalybis determined that there was currently nothing of consequence that had to be done within His own realm - the Servants could continue restorations without Him, and Lajortestus did not even cross His mind right now - He stepped into the glimmering light...

There was a cackling - a hundred different directions - no no no no no no n o
 no - sixteen doors, each leading to - to the engines of the world, the - there were Floods, and they threatened the - 23 - death and destruction magical forces beyond - a hundred purple lights - a crackling, now - a scattering -

A scattergate.

He was in Alkan.